I just reached a point where battles seemed to be taking ages. I was on easy, and it was manageable because you could stock up on a fuckton of healing items, but it felt like I'd missed something. I'm sure I'd done some upgrading and stuff, maybe not as much as I should have, but even so it just seemed ridiculous for it to be designed that way. I got the E ending, but goodness me it was an absolute slog by the end.
But yeah, what consignia says is true, it really annoys me that for some reason people who had actually finished it all came out with "You have to play through the game 5 times!" and then that just get's repeated by people who don't know because that's just what they've heard.