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Things like the music, I didn't put much thought into how they sound or feel, because I'm so used to how the defaults are (which is what it originally was set to).  A lot of things in my project are still going off the default template values or settings, I've been slowly adjusting those as I either get to them, or as a result of feedback like yours.

The road actually does have a lower spawn rate of monsters (The road itself is a 6% chance per step, while the field is a 10% base chance, which lowers the more enemies you fight while on that map, to a minimum of 6%).  Spawn rates I've adjusted up/down since I've started the project, and I may end up lowering them slightly again.  Although one thing which I definitely am going to do (once I figure out how to), is to have a delay between random battles (right now you can literally take 1 step and have back to back battles, I've had as many as 3 back to back to back from testing).  I think putting in this small delay will give the intended effect of a slightly lower spawn rate.

The Long Sword is purchasable at the weapon shop. :)  (The Leather Shield is purchasable at the armor shop, but it's easier to find it)  The shops are labeled with icons denoting their purpose (Rainbow Town has a weapon, armor, and item shop).

I've thought about making movement the 4 cardinal directions only, instead of allowing for diagonal movement.  I'm sure it's possible for me to make it so movement is only on tiles directly, as well (though I'm not sure how to script this yet).  These are both possibilities to make movement simpler/more streamlined.

I solved the battle delay issue, the built in "delay" script wouldn't work with my random battle script so I simply put in a "delay frames" script into the random battle script.  This should reduce random encounters a little bit overall.  This will go up tonight in my next update, which I'm hoping to have a prototype of Chapter 5 done (along with further music fixes).

One other tidbit about the "roads", they also have a lower chance of having 2 enemies spawn at once (33% vs 40%), and there's a higher chance of weaker enemies (the first road for example has a higher slime spawn rate than the fields on both sides, 70% vs 60%).  These have been a part of the project for awhile, as I thought the same way you did, roads should be less battles and easier ones.

I really appreciate the detailed feedback, it's helping me to improve areas I haven't put much focus on yet.  And as you said, as the developer I know everything and it's VERY hard to have the perspective of a new player (although when I play tested 2 of my caves last night, I forgot where everything was so it was like playing as a new player, was great for testing).