Grimoire's somewhat antiquated technology may indeed put some people off. In particular I'm not too sure that everyone has grasped the fact that the screen resolution is restricted to 1024x768 and that it won't adapt well to the native aspect ratio of widescreen monitors. So when running on a modern monitor it is best just to accept that there will black areas on either side as with many old games. In any case 20 years ago 1024x768 was a godly resolution and today it should hopefully be acceptable, although I haven't tested that out on my 2440p setup.
The rustic interface covering half of the screen is an old-school thing. Back when technology was shit. Now it isn't shit but we're keeping it anyway because its cool, arty and nostalgic.