having to avoid the enemies because otherwise we're all dead.
Dear God, I love everything in your post except this.

I don't want to sneak/invis my way up. So far the pace of battle has been fast enough that it feels like traversing dungeons is like going through dungeons in FFXII - fast, smooth and if you're prepared, it's a cakewalk. You kill stuff, you get exp/gil/drops and you progress to the top at a decent rate.