To clarify, by balanced I mean that the difficulty is just hard enough for me to not be able to beat the game, yet subsequent play throughs are still extremely fun. I will eventually beat this game, but it will take some time.

I consistently get to the end game battle, no matter what luck I have in random events. I could have won my last few end battles if I had just played things slightly differently.

Nothing is perfect, some things are just more perfect than others ;-)