I think the visuals are the strongest point in this game. I’d wished for more stuff to do to experience those visuals though.
I feel like you might’ve similar issues as I did with my game. I find it’s a lot easier to just do some kind of system based gamplay like a tower defense and get a lot of playtime out of it. On the other hand, I’d say this game is more of an “experience” or an adventure, and I find it personally difficult to come up with stuff for the player to do. It seems like you have to do a lot more to create actual meaning in the game and have content for the player to explore. You did pretty well with a whole story bit and interaction between distinct characters imo, that was great. Maybe you could have gone a step further and added something simple like gates and keys? You know, block the player and make the struggle a little before getting to the exit? Either way, all of that obviously takes time which I’m unsure if you had.
Also. the walking style reminded me of Jade Cocoon lol (but I’m sure older games used it too that I haven’t played)