Thanks for the feedback!
So far it does seem like just moving forward at our current pace seems to be the general opinion.
The battle sprites are the most fun part of creating the game for me as well, so I'm glad people are enjoying them. When we return to polish the story and map completion we'll probably take another look at the manor events and better incorporating it's inclusion to the game via plot hooks. The manor would server as side story content and events such as talking to the other party members and some general downtime between the different areas such as characters relaxing together, or stumbling upon something left from the manor raid from the beginning.