the concept for this game is really neat! combining the orbs in battle really feels like alchemy, and I love the designs of the enemies' shadows. having the music transition fluidly between the overworld and battle is a nice touch, and the art is great as well!
unfortunately I think I am not smart enough for this game. I didn't retain any of the info from the battle tutorial, so it took a while for me to realize: 1) that I could only use sticks at the beginning and no other element combo (I was trying to combine water and air to make mercury on the blob because the paper said water + air = mercury, I didn't realize that meant something else), 2) that I had to go to the obelisk to get new attacks, and 3) that I had to capture enemies by using the same type on them (I know 'resonance' got brought up multiple times but I didn't think about how that translated to battle mechanics until I was beating up fish with branches over and over to no avail). I looked at your GDD and the systems in this game seem really complex and interesting, but I wasn't able to pick up on much by just playing (the lore books were helpful, but again I didn't get that they were trying to tell me what to do until I literally couldn't progress any other way).
super impressive game once I eventually understood it though!