Michelle

I hate that Etrian Odyssey titles are grouped as one entry... Like, they're 3 full games, that was just a bundle to save money with... Also, hardest of the titles iirc, is EO1 as while it keeps the QoL that the others got on Remasters, it still lacks game-to-game QoL and thus is the most difficult to start with. It was my second game beaten in the series, having beaten EO5 already. Due to simple grinding methods EO2 and EO3 are fairly easy by comparison. But that's by comparison. Also, depending on your definitions of easy and hard, EOU and EO2U might be easier or harder as monster's stopped being a single layer after the switch to 3DS with EO4/5/Nexus all following suit. But yeah, EO is a series that isn't scared to just keep crotch-kicking you until you find the solution or give up. Especially the first 3. The next 3 as well as 3DS Remakes of EO do switch to spanking you instead. So only slightly different style of difficult and pain. Though you could've paid money to make them not spank you... But that's no longer an option unless you have the data downloaded.

There's some counter to Engage, I don't know about mob spawning on Maddening/Lunatic, but those exist on the other difficulties and make it possible to level to cap (if there is one, sorry only beat it the one time since there's only one timeline and while it's quaint, it's probably what I'd call "mid" for an FE game. I'm not saying 3 houses is harder, however I KNOW the grind time is limited so any loss of a main party member is a blow and a half that, so long as you don't recruit everyone, can be fairly vicious and difficult to deal with in 3H. However, neither one is half as hard as Lunatic Conquest. Like, I beat Birthright on Hard... I literally had to lower from Hard to Normal on Conquest on the wall that has Takumi on the wall. So, I think 50%is? Oh and because Xander's class is worse than Ryoma's, um... Not as good Royalty, though I'd say Camilla also kinda beats out the other flying Royal... For some reason can't recall her name. But yeah... Point is, neither of them are terribly difficult if you know what you're doing when you compare them to the other entries.