Ha ha, yeah, I've gotten feedback about the sprites before. Haven't seen an enormous amount of side view battlers that I felt fit with this game. Nowadays there's more available, but it just wouldn't feel right to change them now. Same with the encounters, if I could make this game over from the start I'd probably go with something other than random encounters.
Curious what you mean about the menu and inventory screens though. Is there something that could be done to benefit them? Or is it just that je ne sais quoi?