I thought that this game was pretty well balanced despite other people's comments. I only had to grind for recipe items - meals and potions are crucial for passing some of the more diffcult levels until you level up your characters. Overall, it took me five days to beat all the levels, and it was a pretty fun game. I have some comments.
1. Some weapons and armor are only useful for the early levels in the game. Adding some abilities might make them viable choices for later in the game (e.g. armor that adds colored mana at the beginning of each battle, weapons that increase the stats of same-colored spells).
2. Some meals are entirely useless (e.g. meals that decrease attack or magic power), and they should be removed, unless they provide some benefit that is unlisted on the card - I did not try any of these meals.
3. Sometimes, when returning to the game, all of my spells, weapons, and armor are no longer equipped. I am not sure why, but it seems like a bug.
 "Kingdom Rush Frontiers"){kind=icon}
 "Dangerous Adventure 2"){kind=icon}
 "Wonderputt"){kind=icon}
 "Other Worlds"){kind=icon}
 "Global Strike"){kind=icon}