O fuck, thanks for letting me know about the thieves. I had intended for that to be an inescapable fight, but it seems I forgot to actually make it that way, heh. Uploading a fix as we speak.
A healthy amount of grinding in the forest area is encouraged, as is building a steady team and fusing your monsters to ensure the widest possible move coverage. And yeah, that text box is intentional -- the joke's supposed to be that he's giving an overly long shpiel
Glad you liked the demo! It's interesting; not many people have told me they got to the castle, and fewer still have reported defeating the king. Maybe my demo's a bit weighty for a demo. Well, that's fine by me -- bigger is better, after all.