Hi, thanks for the feedback.
The "A" mash mini game scales with your character's current arousal. It is very winnable at lower arousals. But I understand the difficulty. In the next build an item is being added to make it easier to win.
As for early battles. Assign one of your characters as a scout, so you can see the level of enemies before battle. Then you can choose to use energy to escape if they were level 2. Use forests to your advantage, and look around Whisper Wood for another character to recruit.