>>723683051
Encounter rates are very high in it, yeah. The GBA port has lower encounter rates overall, though some areas are still intentionally very packed. Try to find a demon with Estoma if you can to lower encounter rates. The game hands out EXP on a bit of a curve depending on your level and the enemies level, so this is one of those rare RPGs where preventing encounters won't kneecap exp...although you'll still wanna recruit and fuse new demons, of course. Where you stopped was pretty early on so I really encourage you to pick the game back up and give it another shot, if you're up to it.