Actually the encounters were not always a big deal, and were even often cool because we could gain exp thanks to them and level up to defeat other enemies even faster which was very satisfying.
I repeat myself but this is a very good game that just needs a little bit of tweaking, and actually this is quite normal because it's hard to get a lot of reviews before sharing your work for a game jam. I figured out the run mechanic but actually i didn't use it very much because i liked the battle system after all, so to me you are definitely able to keep players interested !
You can be proud of what you did ;)