I figured my notes from reviewing the games might come in handy, so here's what I wrote about your game as I was playing:

Excellent work! Makes very good use of sound effects and music to expand the experience of the game, very nice and big too! 

The unlocking of abilities that make the enemies go from obstacles to helpers was a great touch, it really did give the levels that metroidvania style “transformation”. 

I would perhaps want a slightly longer invincibility period after getting hit, i got bounced around pretty good by the monkeys and the “fish” a couple of times. But all in all it was a very pleasant experience.

I tried out your game and it is actually quite fun to play! Good work! Following the development journey on Discord I was thinking that you were trying to bite off more than you can chew with starting to build metroidvania game for jam project while working alone. But it ended up looking good great and there is already quite lot content based on what I have seen and I didn't manage to beat the game.

Interestingly, I'm stuck with the exact same point than HinmanLantern. Only place I think I haven't visited is up and left from the area shown in the attached image. There are platforms upwards that I cannot reach and the minimap would seem to indicate that there could be one room there. The problem is that I think I'm supposed to climb up from here using the monkey which was climbing on this tree but after feeding them with candies the monkey suddenly dissapeared! I think I'm now stuck and cannot proceed with the game. 

I liked a lot how the map was divided to areas with a theme. Especially the music changing on different areas was super nice addition and added a lot to the feeling of exploring different areas! All the enemies very interesting on their own and different enough so the game didn't get boring at any point. Also I liked the minimap and it actually helped navigating the game world which was relatively large.

The game actually feels like metroidvania! Returning to the places which had previously been dead ends was satisfying. Especially jumping on top of the enemies opened a lot areas and changed the feeling of movement in the game. For the candies I didn't have as much use but I probably missed something or then they should be used in some area that I haven't been able to access. 

Though I liked the new ability to jump on enemies, I also liked the danger of the enemies when I did not have the boots. I could even say that my favorite single moment of the game was being hit by an enemy. The effect of time slowing down and coins flying everywhere was super great! I missed the risk of that after getting the boots. Have you thought that maybe with the boots you could jump only on top of the enemies (like in Mario) but hitting them from other directions could get you killed as before?

Some weird/unclear stuff that I noticed (in addition to the monkey dissapearing) were:

• Giraffe heads sometimes disconnected from their bodies when standing on top of the head.
• When playing close to horizontal room border the game can be very disorienting because the room changes on every jump. It might be that I should jump on a platform but I cannot see it because it is in another "room".
• The doors / pathways to other rooms were not always clear it. Sometimes it looked like that I walked trough a wall to get to another room
• It was not always clear when I could jump on top of an block and when it was just background image. At first I thought that the black platforms (also on attached image) were only passable platform type but in one area there was also some blue rectangles that worked the same. Also it was possible to stand on the giraffe. Based on this I was expecting to be able to stand on top the trees for example but then that was not possible.

If you would like to have screen captures for some of these to understand what I mean I can send them to you.

Fun game! Actually feels like metroidvania. Good job, esprecially with only so few total hours used!

If you have a chance to try either of the games I participated creating (DNA & Travelling Neighbors), please consider leaving at least some feedback for it. Positive or constructive are both welcome and greatly appreciated.