I know the encounters are supposedly set, but do they change their order if you leave and enter a dungeon or overworld? How are they effected by say-the hall of giants in the earth cave? Is there a guide out there for this sort of thing?
I noticed that in fights, if I delayed my actions for running away(with all 4 characters) many times at least 2 of my characters would go first, whereas selecting run away as fast as possible would result in at least 2 enemies attacking. Sometimes, I delay the first and last warrior's action-and this usually works.
I know that something influences these things. I tested it myself in the marsh cave by running straight to the wizards floor-collecting treasure on the way. There is a room to the immediate east of the wizards. If I skip that treasure and go for them, I got 3-4 wizards in the fight for the crown. But, after a reset-I ran back to this area-skipped the boss-got that treasure, then only fought 2 wizards....and barely took damage in the fight....Then I repeated both steps, and got the same results.
I am playing on the NES mini-and the Kyozoku trick works(though the first battle after a reset is against sahagins-the 2nd is the kyozokus). This trick involves saving-then turn the power off and on, go into the ocean without an encounter, first encounter is always 1-5 Kyozokus.