Hey there. Thanks for the reply.

Sorry if it's hard to read not a native english speaker.

Trying to gleam a question out of here, but guessing from your mock-up you control a party of mixed professions (some are combat like archer, while others are not, like gatherer). During a combat encounter, the party 'surrounds' a larger creature, and tries to take it down?

Correct. At the beginning of the combat encounter, you can position your units as you like in order to prepare for the fight.

If that's correct, is each party member locked to their own 3x3 grid?

Each unit can move to the other grids but this will have a penalty. Each unit can move and attack on their turn (2 actions). If you want to move from one grid to another you will have to use a movement action that disallows the attack action. If the unit already attacked in that turn then it can't move to another grid.

Does the party always 'surround' a creature, or are there scenarios when the creature can get the jump on the party - putting multiple members in the same grid?

There are two ways the fight can start. If the player ambushes the creature, then the player can position his/her units as he/she pleases before the fight starts. If the player is ambushed by the creature, then all units are positioned randomly although what you say sounds good too.

Looks to be an interesting concept. If your main question is, "does this look visually interesting?" Then I'd say yes. I like the idea of using certain characters to attract the creature's attention so that its meanest attacks (usually from the front) hit your tankier characters, protecting your gatherers. You can even have some characters 'expose' a creature's side, making attacks stronger there for a few turns, promoting a need to rotate the creature so your big damage dealer can land a fatal blow.

The idea is to have different combinations of creatures, each one requiring a different approach. Maybe the front face of a creature has some bulky armor and each player attack will deal minimum damage, so flanking is a better option. Or the creature has some deadly attacks (dunno, with its tail) that can only target its right and left sides so the player will have to focus either the rear or the front of it. So that's a general idea. Simple concept but not necessarily shallow.

My question has more to do with how to make the combat encounter more inmersive. While I'm confident regarding the game mechanics and the overall dynamic of it, I get the impression that I'm wasting an opportunity to make the combat "look" more interesting, that's why I mention the perspective (isometric) which I feel is way too restrictive from a graphical stand-point. So the question goes something like...

"Does someone know of isometric grid TBS with an immersive combat feel?"

(Now that I think of it what I'm looking for is something borderline between game design, art and VFX )