I've just played the overture and track 1 to Lifelike and I'm thoroughly impressed! It's got a good art direction, endearing character writing, fun, buttery smooth animations, and an interesting premise! I think this is shaping up to be a really good game ya'll! 

i find the lack of traditional rpg elements (such as item management and experience points) to be an interesting creative decision, it puts more emphasis on helping the people of the town rather than an linear numerical progression. It highlights the thankless job of herding animates that Leo occupies. The ludonarrative is strong in this game.... That and it also means that there's no need for grinding as the encounters are all probably scaled to your current skillset at the time.

That being said, I do wish I could cancel decisions in battle. Once you've selected whether to attack or defend for a character you can't go back which gave me a little trouble in some fights when I wanted to make last minute changes to my strategy for that turn.  I really enjoyed the battle system other than that though!

My complements to the chef!