-Don't particularly care for the wait between pressing a menu button and it actually doing the thing, though I understand it's intentional to set a tone or what have you.
-If you recharge your mana then walk back to where you spawn on game start, it will set the mana to 1 bar again, which is pretty funny.
-Doesn't look like there is coyote jump time, or if it's there it's very subtle. Not that your game has to have it(but I'm used to it since so many platformers use it). Controls for controller seem fine so far(got to first checkpoint).
-Interesting that checkpoints and save points are different.
-Random invisible floor/wall
-I can't understand how to make this jump, maybe it needs a powerup? I don't get extra height from changing character mid trampoline jump.
-The only annoyance so far is that if you slide against a wall, you don't bounce on the snail. So it's a little annoying to move to close and then accidentally stick to the wall. Also, it would be nice if you could reset the trial and its timer in the pause menu while inside the trial, instead of exiting and reentering.
-Got to the 'end of demo' area, the boss preceding it was ok, but I hardly got to see what he did since I only had 3 hp, and he stopped after hitting him once with a blue fire ball.
New direction for the game seems alright, more of a world with challenges sprinkled around. Having each trial be fairly short(and told the par up front) helps make me want to give it a shot. Also, making mana rechargeable, and lowered cost of transformation, really helps me not feel like I am 'wasting it' as I move around. Art and music is charming, so that's good. Had a fun time, keep up the good work.