I found the audio to be really great and spooky. I had an awful time trying to figure out where I was going and the contrast was really hard to make anything out. I also couldn't tell why I couldnt go a direction before the X on that direction appeared. I think you are on the right track with atmosphere.
Viewing post in Where Moonlight Can't Reach jam comments
Thank you for the feedback!
We tried making it visually clear when a direction is supposed to be blocked by having sprites that show dense foliage. However, since they are placed like the non-blocking sprites the effect doesn't work and it looks like you could still easily move towards that direction.