Thank you taking the time to leave a such a comprehensive review, this was incredibly insightful and helpful!
I really appreciate that you liked the way the world was built - this game indeed owes its existence to D&D. I grew up playing the old 2nd and 3rd edition CRPGs, and in some ways this game is a love letter to those games. It even spills over in the design - which is actually simpler than those old games! I think having a Readme file included will help with being able to fully grasp all of the mechanics, on top of the one I put in game. There is a lot here and I did my best to stagger out introducing the mechanics, but there is still room for more improvement.
For feat respecing, you are 100% correct - this is a feature I plan to implement in a future build as it is one that has been requested by several other players. I have found myself also wanting to do this during play. I've also got plans to be able to replay older stages for gold in case you get stuck on a level.
Thanks for the feedback on attacking and combat. So I will admit that right now it feels pretty one-dimensional due to the few stages and low power level starting out. This one is still somewhat of a work in progress and there will be more balancing and tweaking done to how the game plays. Spells are currently a bit underpowered and I plan to address that.
Combat will also become more strategic as you advance through stages and enemies have more ways to engage with the player - this will definitely be true when the next build is published. Combat animations are the only thing that won't change as all of the armor and weapon animations are tied to it, but I will definitely continue to tweak how you actually engage with enemies in combat. I have several plans to build enemy AI that doesn't reward just luring them out - that does indeed get boring and I don't want that to be the only strategy that works.
I will say in regards to being stuck in place when you attack that there are several ways to increase your attack speed later on. There is a Feat that does this, and starting with the next build of the game you can forge magical gear that will boost it further.
Don't apologize for what was said at all - reviews like these are the ones I value and appreciate the most. I want people to point out things they didn't like - if they didn't, then I would never know what things need to be addressed!
Again, thank you so much for taking the time to play the game and address so many different points!