Continuing Tears Crown!
Oh boy I was wrong about the game being easy. I still wouldn't call it brutal but some of these boss fights had me sweating.
There was one triple-team battle against 3 bearded wizards who would boost each other's attacks and throw party-wide strikes of varying elements every turn while plopping down ads. At low health they would start meditating for even more damage and they WOULD oneshot even your highest MDF buffed character. It was kind of crazy.
Another boss was against FlameTits McBitch who would shoot down your fliers and dodge your melee units then riposte on your turn. She went down after a game over. Cool thing is you can switch party members mid-battle when someone is about to die or is out of MP.
I still don't grind by the way.

Also, the Summon System is tied to something called Summon Plates. They grow stronger after X amount of battles and In a random encounter game it makes the constant jumpscare screen transitions a lot less annoying because you're rewarded with more than just EXP or money.
Each level threshold grants that summon an extra ability which can be powered up through manastones. Think FFX's sphere grid but the stones are really fucking rare for some reason and there are 40 different summons.

In night conversations, you see your chosen character's neutral faced portrait turn to a beaming smile when you lock in your decision. It's very cute.

Sidequests are handled in a neat way. You don't get them from the tavern or NPCs. Instead you hold court meetings with appointed minister officials and debate whether a topic is worth following through on. You answer questions and if the vote passes only then do you take on the quest. It's pretty funny.

Finally, even the NPCs are cute!