that's incredible, congrats on the perfect score. i'm glad that you ultimately found it rewarding despite the sizeable rng element lol. if i had more time to balance i'd probably look for a way to soften that a bit, ideally just having the right plan should give you a very high chance to succeed. but yeah part of the magic of games like this is that they comes with rough edges (lots of them sometimes) and that raw, organic texture is something i value a lot. thanks for sticking with it to the end, dude
btw activating a "transfer player" event resets the random encounter timer, so there isn't actually a benefit to getting into a fight before you go down the stairs. this does mean however that if you pass by an incidental stairway en route to your intended destination, you can step in and out to take the heat off. i don't remember if i do that in this game but i've definitely exploited it in some others