I love shockbolt but the way sprites and tiles overlap with each other (while pretty) is quite problematic and often confusing. For a while, I assumed that Elvala was off-limits to my character because the way the forest tiles around the city overlapped made it look inaccessible. Shockbolt also obscures enemy healthbars if they're standing behind an environment tile. I've often repositioned myself just so their health bar remains in sight, because I'm too lazy to examine them every turn. I'd probably be fine with ASCII normally, but the ridiculous number of enemies make it difficult to easily identify and recognize each symbol.
I've run across a happy accident however, when I switched from ASCII to Shockbolt. Observe:
Shockbolt tiles got "squished" so that they only occupy one tile. See specifically the drem on the lower left.
Now, is there any way I can force this behavior? It would make Shockbolt near perfect for me.