The question of difficulty came to mind while playing Metaphor. It was pretty challenging early on when resources were very limited and I was also learning the gameplay systems, but I’m starting to feel powerful now mid-game (while still being challenged a bit). That’s where I like to end up, typically. It has a nice ludonarrative feel for the games that typically have you killing god.
What do you like?
Difficulty towards the end game should be about using the mechanics in complex ways as opposed to building stats.
Persona 5 Royal was easy towards the end stat-wise but as you came up against enemies that didn’t have weaknesses, you had to rely on technicals. That sort of shift in tactics is welcome.
The top of the fanatic’s tower in FF6 comes to mind as well. You have only magic. There’s multiple non-stat based solutions to it including reraise or endless rasps.