I remember seeing progress of this in the Discord and thinking 'wow this looks really cool...but they do know they've got to make a game to go with it though, right?'
And at the current state, it kind of reflects that.
That said, the page? absolutely stunning, so cool, the attention to detail, all the little odds and ends, the movement of the manual with the page flipping, and everything encompassing that old school vibe even down to the carpeting. Not to mention the parody cartridge names and other bits, and the commercial footage with clips from other jam participants was a real neat touch.
Graphic design game on point. I hope to make something this cool if I ever commercially publish a game on this site.
The gameplay itself, not much to speak on right now, it's functional, parts are there, but feels like just a set piece so far, walk around smack stuff grab a key and repeat.
The code thing is a neat gimmick and as a nod to the old copy protection habits of old, is interesting
Some issues I found were enemies walking through doors and hitting you when they weren't visible on screen yet, remedied by me slashing like a lunatic at every entrance I went through, but probably not ideal, ha.
The Y sorting (I believe that's the right term) could be tweaked a bit to allow the pillar in the foreground of the door to render in front of the player when in the entrance area (as in the screenshot), which'd really help sell the pseudo 3D nature of the graphics.
I'm an absolute sucker for isometric games though, it's actually my favorite style of pixel art (and I know how finicky it can be to work with so props for that!) Looks real cool~

Hope to see you continue this and what you do in the future.
There's clearly a lot of love for the era on display here, and I'd like to see it become something truly special.  

This game has a beautiful page! It truly is one of the best Itch page I have ever seen! Something I feel like could have been added is some more Audio just make the game/environment feel more alive. (But I also dont know if this is a me issue as I did hear the TV static but was unable to hear any other game audio). Overall Amazing game!

This is utterly amazing - I was already in love with your game from the screenshots that I saw on this jam page, but I was absolutely floored by how you managed to present your game! I'm super looking forward to seeing this one get updated further, what an absolute joy to experience that sense of wonder

Hey HugBug or you go by the username of @gohugbug. Listen, your game is simply amazing. I saw your page design right away and I was very shocked and amazed at your masterpiece of a page. The fact that you have a lot of experience in making your pages look that creative and impressive just shows your dedication as a whole. Just pure incredible! Anyway let me get back on track here, I saw your intro before I actually played Diary of Z and I was simply very amazed and I admired looking at the intro in repeat before I even played the actual game. During my playthrough of Diary of Z, I admired how you have the book as a way to immerse the player that they're reading a book and playing the game at the same time. I loved the level design, enemies in the level and the music too. Although, I think the level is too short because after I defeated all the enemies and gotten all the keys, I completed the level with ease. But other than that, I rated your entire game a 5 stars on here, from gameplay wise to your page design, the graphics, audio and just that immersive NES feeling overall. Great job on making this amazing of a game right here!

The page is already making me give 5 stars without playing the game lmao.

Felt a bit sad that I have to kill the guys there. Can I choose not to ? Will there be an alternate ending ?

Just wow. Your itch page looks absolutely amazing!

Having to load the cartridge and being able to flip through the manual had a really nostalgic feel to it. Especially the part where you actually have to read the manual to figure everything out.

The game itself was really fun! I almost wanted a few more rooms.

Was this inspired by Solstice by any chance?

Incredible itch page design!! Wow you really captured the "wake up and play NES in front of the tv" feeling with the CRT shader and the background environment.

Game was super cool too! It definitely felt like the old isometric NES games. Very nice atmospheric music. Love the graphics and sword sound fx.

I got stuck here, and started running around trying to hit statues and stuff hoping it would open. Did I reach the end?

The music and atmosphere kept me captivated tho, happy to go around hitting walls and statues on a quest to find the secret button while vibing with the music. An unexplained hidden switch would definitely be NES feel haha. I was even looking at the "overworld" map on the background art to see if there was a secret clue!