I quite liked the idea. The thick borders around the floating tiles made it hard to see how many spaces were between them at times. and I'm not sure exactly how the enemies moved. I just always moved so that I wouldn't be attackable and eventually I was able to attack them.
I liked it but I think if it had allowed you to see above and below you a bit farther it would have been a lot less frustrating. Widescreen isn't the best for everything.
i don't think the camera is too close to your character. you have to run into a monster before you know that they are coming, and then memorize where they will appear.
I like the concept a lot. I'm not always sure what order attacks go off in. It would make sense to me that you would land on a creature and then do the splash damage, but you can't kill a lieutenant that way. That suggests all your attacks happen at the same time. However, if you attack a creature that can flee your attacks, then it seems like you kill a creature with splash damage first so that the other creature can run into the space which doesn't make any sense to me at all.
I think a series of puzzles where you have to do your attacks in the right order in a set number of moves would be an interesting variation.
I don't like the fact that the shops are random. I think you should just let us choose what we want. It would be more strategic.
And it would be nice to have a save between the main game and the gauntlet.
But a great new idea for a game. I'm really excited to see it expanded upon.
The gems are on the portrait on the bottom left - maybe the arrow is too small to notice?