That’s cool about initiative/sneaking up - I definitely prefer that type of noncombat/combat transition over something like the original Dragon Warrior games (or pokemon) where enemies just pop up. It makes sense constraint-wise to not have sprites everywhere; but the tactics of being able to get initiative are huge.

And the food/condiment system was such a fun surprise. I love that type of quirky mechanism. And just all of the flavor text in the game too for status buffs/debuffs; just so much whimsy. My nephew is almost old enough to have the patience to play this and I’m excited to get them into it; it basically feels like you’re in the imaginary play of a child- so I feel like it’ll really resonate