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Update 2
Sage words from Mark, here. To make transcribing things even more fun, most NPCs have two lines of dialogue, one for when you first talk to them, and one for every time after that.
Kweh.
Heading west, we find a complete wuss...
And this... interesting individual. This game has a lot of sidequests - fetch quests, really. Basically people who want you to bring them X amount of Y Item(s) with the promise of some kind of reward.Also medals!
Some sidequests require regular consumables, and some require special quest items. Sometimes, quest items are rewarded to you for doing other fetch quests, and so on and so forth.
It can be a bit confusing remembering who wants what, but fortunately, the 'quest' option from the menu shows you all the quests you're currently on, and you can mouseover people to see what they want, and if you have it.
You can also interact with the animals. They don't talk, but they do make an amusing reaction.
Moving swiftly on. I'll probably never use this as an attack item, because they, like most things, are used in forging to improve items.
(Also I tend to forget attack items exist)
Of course there's a 
... joke? Comment? Whatever.
Anyway, that's all there is on this screen for now! Heading north.
"Don't worry, their sacrifices were not in vain. I bet they will taste delicious and make fine clothes."
There goes any chance of PETA endorsing this game.
More sidequests and inconsequential dialogue! I can't help but wonder if Gust here is a reference to Final Fantasy protagonists - he wouldn't look out of place as one, design wise, and there are at least a couple named after weather.
A well-hidden chest up here, too, that contains... crap, basically. However, there's at least one medal relating to chests, I believe.
Another sneaky little thing - you can step behind this sign, in order to sneak around the back of the shop.
"Just grab it and run!"
Huzzah! Here's our first bit of equipment we didn't start with - a new sword for Matt. Stat-wise, it's not incredible, but it does mean that he recovers a little health after basic attacks. (And possibly a few other techniques.)
It's not AMAZING, but it's certainly not bad, either.
We also got some more items for forging. Always handy!
And with that, we have the last of these chests. These chests might seem a little bit unfair, buuut...
When you step into the shops, you can actually see them, so you do know something is back there - you just have to figure out you can slip behind the sign.
Anyway, this is the equipment shop! There's a variety of stuff, none of which we can afford.
Aaand this is the loot shop. Just about anything that gets dropped by enemies in game can be bought here, to help out with sidequests and forging. It's generally better to get things through monster drops, when you can, though.
Now, on to a bit more talking! Heading east...
Nope!
Heading east again, we reach this place.
This cat wants us to retrieve some cat food for it. Makes sense!
We've apparently wandered into a children's show, if that's what they're calling the cats, though.
Now that it's come up, it's probably worth mentioning how healing works. Just walking around for a bit restores HP and MP, and does so pretty fast. You can generally spam spells with impunity, as a result, because you can just heal up easily outside of battles.
There are some battles where more enemies will suddenly join in after the first lot are dead, however, so don't go TOO nuts.
"I'll settle for an energy drink, or the closest thing to that."
More sidequests! And more 4th wall abuse to go with it.
I'm not sure if monster blood is a hangover remedy, though...
The town inn isn't super useful, not at first anyway. You regenerate health and MP by walking around, after all.
Later, when you have a lot of health and MP, and it can take a while to regenerate it all properly, though, a quick warp back to town to heal up can save a bit of time, especially with it being free.
And our final shop, the item shop! Consumables are mostly food-based - fruits and such recover health, sweet things restore MP, soft drinks buff accuracy, beer buffs attack, and milk boosts defense.
Coffee revives the dead, garlic heals status elements, burgers and pizza are effectively an elixir and megalixir, respectively. I have to admit, I do quite like the fact that pizza is basically the ultimate healing item. 
Anyway! That's enough of that nonsense, I'll show off the rest of the conversations and sidequests from town in the next update. Let's go kill more things!
One thing you may have noticed - since going back to town, that bush we killed has respawned. Not ALL enemies respawn - enemies that directly block progress, such as bosses (and certain regular enemies), do not respawn, whereas ones that are just kind of hanging around will return whenever you go back to town.
Let's see if this bush is any friendlier than the other!
Nope.
Still, with that bit of sage advice, let's show off a couple of attacks!
Matt's Tremor attack does, I believe, 50% earth damage, and 50% damage based on whatever element his weapon is.
Honestly, the elemental system in this game isn't brilliantly explained, so I'm not quite sure if that's right. Either way, this hits a bit harder than his basic attack against foes weak to earth!
Natalie's Lucky Star spell is the most basic black magic, dealing highly variable nonelemental damage. It's not exactly inspiring damage, but it's very cheap.
Lance's doubleshot is pretty good at this point in the game! It hits twice for reasonable damage - each hit can cause its own individual crit, too, as shown here.
Of course, it's not just us who get to attack!
Bushes get to make their own attacks, too, of course. This little shriek debuffs defense, and sounds hilarious.
https://soundcloud.com/jesusfreesa/ebf3-bush-scream <- Case in point. Do URL tags not work on the test poster?
I tried using Tindeck, but had no luck getting it to work, so for now, I'll be using Soundcloud if I particularly want to show off a sound for whatever reason.
Anyway, we quickly murder these bushes, and make our way to the next screen.
Oh god damnit, I forgot how many NPCs this game has.
"They do look rather pathetic, but they seem to be blocking some paths. So maybe our extermination efforts will be rewarded."
That's... kind of amusingly pathetic.
"Get outta here kid, you'll die. It's safer back in town."
The chests in this area are less than inspiring.
Huh. I forgot that the game explained that.
"I'm not your son, and it's called a scouter. I stole it from a guy with a rough attitude and a tail. It seems to gauge an opponent's power level."
Silly as this is, it's... marginally less ridiculous if you've played the first EBF game.
I mentioned it already, but this is good advice. Scan is super handy.
So, let's take a look at it in action.
(This is the enemy set spawned from the snail on the right - I forgot to get an earlier screenshot, but there was a snail up top, too.)
Nothing especially new here, I just love some of the expressions in this game.
Yeah. The early game isn't especially hard, especially on Normal. Things do pick up later.
So, through the newly-opened tree!
For more uninspiring treasure. Meh.
The other snail enemy isn't much more of a threat. (Also, our heroes have some pretty great idle combat animations. I still remember my old 'brick' Gameboy, though mine was bright yellow rather than gray.)
Anyway, with that, we've levelled up! Levelling up improves our stats. Here's how we currently stand:
I really need to remember to take the blood sword off Matt, I keep forgetting it decreases damage. AP is used for learning skills:
Yeah. This game has a fairly huge amount of content! Lots of skills, most of which have multiple levels, prerequisites... there are also a few more skills that we can't even see yet to learn.
This LP might take a while.
Whether nature is great or not, this treasure isn't. It's more stuff for forging.
Anyway, I'll leave things off here - next time, we resume our quest to finish talking to everyone in town (just one more screen!), and hopefully fight something that can actually put up some resistance.
Also I'll explain YET MORE STUFF because there're still some mechanics I've not gone over. Eesh.