A slow tedious grind

I have been playing Etrian Odyssey on the train to work the past week. Its a painfully hard old school dungeon crawler. The gameplay can best be described as a slow, repetitious never ending grind where you slowly watch your characters grow. This might not sound all that fun and it shouldnt be but for some reason Im enjoying it.

Maybe it just scratches my RPG itch, that part of me that needs something to level up. Or maybe its the unfairly high difficulty that appeals to me, the game keeps you on your toes by making even the most common enemies strong enough to kill you. Or maybe its the focus on gameplay without a grand story to get in the way like in most modern day RPGs. Whatever it is its working because this is the game I keep choosing to spend my commute playing.