I'm all for difficulty and managing snowball.
But I feel that, as thigs currently stand, it often feels too much like the player is *too* much at the mercy of RNG of what skill options are rolled and what enemies spawn in. It feels like way too often I just have no good choices to be had. Annd then I'm just clicking through, really just *bored*, watching the stats dwindle until I'm finally KO'd and sent back to camp...with literally no progression to show for it, just the same skills at the dojo and items at the item shop that I don't have enough Bright Coins to buy.
It feels like players would benefit greatly from something like the starting options from the whale in Slay the Spire. or maybe just a single selection of a set of starter items, so they can get a rolling start, and *then* need to think intelligently to manage the snowball.
Of course, I may just be bad! But then all I can say is that if enough people are bad and bounce off the game, then....they'll find something else to play/fap to. The devs have to be the ones to determine what the balance lies, ultimately, and what they're comfortable with. If you're fine as is, more power to you.
Also some of this feeling may be alleviated with...just a simple "quick restart" option, or even just "Return to Main Menu," instead of needing to restart the entire game program.
EDIT: I thought a bit more on it and I think I honed closer in on what's bothering me,
If I hit a wall in Slay the Spire, I at least get some fun out of the fact that due to the way the map and fight distributions are constructed, I'm guaranteed a decent number of opportunities to just...try stuff. Beat some "easy pool" fights, hit some events, hit a shop or campfire, and I already have a signifigantly different deck and gameplan going than I've probably experienced in a while, if ever, before I'm even 2/3 of the way to the first floor boss. Of course I want to win the run, but even if I don't, I've already experienced the game in a significantly new way.
Here, I just...don't. I get 1 of 2 choices of skils per heroine at the start, and then it's relatively much more non-stop fighting before I can even get to the first map point. And even then, there's just not a substantive difference in runs unless I luck into a treasure as an option. It feels like it begins to blend together and discourages replay.
So, what I'm ultimately suggesting is to somehow get chances at events on the way to the map points. Some surprise, some happenstance. What if there was a chance for a "loot goblin"-type enemy to spawn in that could reward you with an item or stat boost if you could kill it? What if there was a chance to come across a strange altar that had a few options of what you could do with it, with pros and cons on each choice? Etc.