Wow thanks so much!
My intention was to make combat unavoidable and intentionally "hard", so you have to die, be lost and get overwhelmed at the start, and then slowly as you repeat the encounter you can survive longer and longer with growing power/hp, and be lost less and less as you know where to the dead ends are, but always "on your toes" looking for the princess.
I think I did reached to this general feeling, even if I didn't manage to hit it home with everyone so well :D