Wow, thank you everyone for your kind feedback! I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. Part of it is because I've been quite busy these past few days and haven't gotten an awful lot done, and am a bit embarrassed to make an update for something kind of small.
But I really appreciate everyone's encouragement, and I hope to create a game worthwhile of your support, and I hope you'll continue giving me feedback so that I can.
So I've primarily been making a physical prototype to get a feel for how this will look and play out. The rough illustration is a representation of what the screen will look like in the 'final' product. I made a card for each of Koyo's possible actions, and if I were to play the prototype, I'd flip the card over on the screen -there are multiple options for each, to indicate it'd be a pop up screen with options to choose from. The grid, which won't be visible to the player (subject to change) shows the position of the beast and Koyo in the field.
The three choices are:
Move: Move up, down, left, or right on the grid, closer or further from the beast Koyo is studying. Certain things can only be learned if she's close enough to the subject, but each one has it's own range, and may become aware of Koyo, and the monster's actions may change (this is sometimes a good thing, I'll elaborate later)
Study: Behavior or Physiology - Koyo can either watch how it behaves or take notes on the physiology, when she's close enough to get enough information to take notes on. This is how she will gain different pieces of crucial information on each animal she comes across.
Provoke: When bookish meets bold, in order to understand the beast more, Koyo might want to 'encourage' it to behave differently. By throwing a rock near it or by making a loud noise, Koyo may be putting herself at risk of being found, she'll put the animal on alert, and it'll start using a different bank of actions that Koyo can gather information on. (Sometimes moving too close or too much can also serve this purpose, but Koyo might be in a more compromised position if the animal is alerted to her presence by her standing a little too close!)
So here's the rough outline on how the turn-based field study (hope you don't mind me brazenly stealing that term, Krall, because it's perfect!) would be like.