Thanks @Fraxinus and WOW what an awful user experience. Would not have bought the game if I had known that. These battles take a long time to get through and as a user I don't like to be forced to play for a certain (any) amount of time. Yikes.
I just bought Age of Calamity for my sons and they cannot seem to save their progress (at all). The Google Gods seem to suggest that I should be able to find a"Save" feature off of the System Menu ("-" button) but when we hit that button we only see two menu options: Tutorials and Options, but...