Is It Intentional For You To Be Much Lower Level Than Bosses?

[Almea]

I've done every sidequest so far, but have found myself underleveled the whole time. Up to the Fatolich bounty now, and I see it's level 35 while I'm level 27. I haven't been skipping enemies or anything either. Died a few times but I'm pretty sure I can still do it fine if I switch up now that I know weaknesses. But it does leave me wondering.

[borizb]

In SMT V (the original version), being at least the level of the boss is a safe method to make sure you'll be fine. In SMT III and most Persona games, you don't give a damn about enemy levels. And Metaphor is a "you don't give a damn" game.

I also die more often than i like to admit, much more often than in SMT Nocturne or SMT V (i play all on normal). The enemy crits and hits your weakness much more often in my playthrough than in previous Atlus games. But hey, rewind the match, pray to the RNG gods and hope for less crits/weakness hits from the enemy. Without the rewind feature, i would have stopped playing already, and this, imo, is cheap game design, having to rely on RNG to a certain degree to be successful. It makes me feel like my tactics and grind are negligible.

[Lemiru]

Not exactly sure if it is intentional but at the very least it is taken into consideration as the damage formula has different values for level modifier against bosses that does not penalize you for being a lower level

[Giganx]

I'd say so. The bosses always seem to be significantly higher level than the enemies leading up to it, but at the same time being under-leveled doesn't really seem to change the boss fights much.

I'm guessing they just wanted to make sure you couldn't grind the bosses into irrelevance. No matter how much you power level your team you won't be able to derp your way through the significant fights.