I can definitely see why it's a tough decision. I personally sometimes like grinding in games, while at other times it can be very annoying for sure. Especially if you have like Breath of Fire 1 & 2 level of random encounters haha

But I definitely agree with Ashes here too. It's also really nice to have more unique battles that requires the player to really think in order to get through them. So I think having something somewhere in the middle may be the right call.

Jeez, aren't we helpful? :P But yeah, overall, I say more challenging, less frequent!

I also agree with the more challenging but less frequent battles for various reasons. One, I feel like it will set the pace pretty well for the game, it would make sense, and two, I'm sure you could use it to your advantage by setting up the encounters, adding some flair to them, etc.

A big plus is that you'd be able to more or less set the balancing for the game to your liking and it'd be easy to tune. Given you're not relying on a factor like players grinding and stuff.

Thanks all for the feedback!
I think the decision is pretty clear!
Much appreciated.