I've seen some interesting things as I continue through the game.
- I got into a random battle. I'm pretty sure it was random, because I was walking through a region of the overworld that I'd been to before (I was just searching around for extra stuff, and there wasn't any). The enemies were of the same level as other battles in that part of the game.
- An enemy dropped an item during battle. It was a Power Ring, which increases your Attack stat by 5 points.
- Slade is actually quite good once you can buy the Dagger for him. He has high agility, so he can approach enemies from far away and then escape if his HP get low. I also love the Tortoise because his movement seems unaffected by terrain, and his defense is ridiculous. I started to like Chester once he got better attack range.
- Sarah is easier to level up once she learns the Blast spell, which attacks enemies. It's cheap, too, so it makes her useful even after her MP gets too low to keep healing people. I also keep her stocked with herbs so she can heal after consuming all her MP.
- The cave battle was interesting, due to the darkness giving a "fog of war" kind of affect. I also noticed that May's arrows had shorter range in the dark.