I have now read the design notes. It is interesting to me how different what I thought was going on in the game was from what you had intended to be going on. I certainly didn't feel like the pieces failed to fit together but I also didn't know your name was Sylvie or that the game was metaphorically about a specific real person until after playing it. For me, the layers of interacting things was the highlight-- I, in fact, quite like multi-purpose content in videogames, although the idea that Animal Well was doing anything new with that annoys me since it's been a feature of countless video games since at least the Atari 2600. The poor quality of game journalism is hardly your fault, though. The multi-purpose nature of the elemental powers is cool, but much more compelling to me was the multipurpose nature of the characters and rooms. I was particularly suprised to find out that what I had assumed were cosmetic changes-- like the eye things-- had mechanical effects (I didn't use the hint or help system at all, so I didn't know about the flower or glasses effects, but I found the one and three eye ones, and Aria tells you about the double jump as well although I hadn't noticed the costume change and had immediately reversed becoming a devil), and that getting to the True Lords without their elements was an intended feature of the gameplay, rather than accidental sequence breaking (although it sounds like you were supposed to have two abilities to get to them and doing it with just one wasn't actually intended. Woops :/ Downside of exploration-based gameplay with skill requirements, I suppose).
In any case, I thought it was cool, I didn't mind coming up with the details of how everything fit together on my own and I came up with a pretty detailed (but completely unintended it would seem) setting and explanation for what's going on. I didn't think Wind made any less sense than the others, honestly Fire is the one that seems kinda out there because Love and Wind are both trying to do impossible things (If I love them enough, surely they must love me back/If I try hard enough, surely the world will be fixed) but while relationships and society are both things that are ultimately outside our control and so no amount of Sylvie-blood can effectuate that last little piece the Lords are looking for, Fire just wants to make stuff and that's not really, like, dependent on external forces or anything. It made associating the talisman of Body with the Lord of Wind an interesting choice because the implication seems to be that internalized artistic demands are destructive even separate from physical limitations because of their obsessive, time-consuming nature. Maybe Fire's line is "If I put enough into my art, surely it will be perfect".
Lastly I would say that parables are not trivial or trite, but difficult works to create that express moral truths in a multifaceted way. I think you are concerned about making something that is expressing a simple message, but there's nothing wrong with a simple message-- the simplicity of a statement need not belie a shallowness to its truth. Furthermore, the game's highly abstract nature provides plenty of space for people to try and put the things together themselves. That said, if the game was intended as a parable about taking care of ones self, I don't think it was terribly successful in that regard-- the literary form seems much closer to stream-of-consciousness writing like e.g. *The Bridge* than e.g. Luke 15. That's an extremely difficult form, though, and it sounds like you were hoping for it *not* to be that, anyhow.
Idk. I guess I just think you're selling yourselves short on this piece.
P.S. In the design document you seem to be concerned about the game being too difficult. I don't think any of the challenges took me more than 30 mins individually, and I'd say the game was challenging enough to be fun, but a bit on the easy side. I know you suggested True Ending no outfits, but that's basically what I already did and not getting to wear a flower is sad. I didn't look at the helps, but if the boss difficulty slider goes the other way it might be nice to put that somewhere else or signpost it or something so people don't miss it thinking that section is just to make the game easier. Although if it just changes the bosses' hp that sounds more annoying than fun as a change-- the regular false lord fights took me the longest of any boss because it took me until the second one to realize I could moonwalk with the sword if I pressed right and left at the same time (which kills the boss in seconds, so I actually thought it might be a glitch, but it looks like it was intentional though intended more for the Fire jump than the sword). Speed ups or something might be fun, though.
