Being a kind of manager sounds cool, but giving the game no pause between fights turned my playthroughs into auto-played disasters. By the point any of my party members visited a single location successfully, the game was a series of battle after battle after battle with no possibility of even pausing to pull up the menu between fights (let alone visit another store). It was impossible to manage. Having seperate towns and caves/dungeons make a lot more sense to me, but I'm not the designer.
I felt frustrated that there was no bar to show the morale at all times like there is for health and energy. It was just as important to the player, being it's how players even improve energy levels.