Funny enough, even after playing the original, I felt that point was a difficulty spike too - and it encouraged me to write a guide that helps people figure out their strategy.

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=35…

Might be worth a look to cover some basics. In spite of Japanese trends, the game isn’t actually that grind-heavy, and the series has a lot of fans that play on max difficulty, Nightmare, for pure challenge.