There were instructions for arrow keys, I skimmed over the instructions :D

The main confusing element was that the player played an animation while WASD was pressed, making me think that the map was supposed to move around the player, but there was weird stuff going on.

In general I find players tend not to read long paragraphs of text, so it's something I try to keep in mind while designing, and you probably should, too :)
Still, well done!