I am giving my recommendation here, but it is tentative. I think I only played on "easy" but I was still defeated a couple times.

In general I would not say that the combat is viable or demanding enough to be engaging. I was able to get a +12 shield quiet easily and I never had significant concern on damage taken until endgame when I had a room where 6 monsters swarmed at once. I survived and defeated that room quite easily.

The requirements for friendship was fun and I could recommend that on the basics. But at this point, I do not believe I am interested enough to go through and befriend the monster girls I missed before deciding to call it a run. I'm not disappointed with my time here, but I was wanting to move on to my next game near the end.