really love the way you used and modified the assets here! the environment and characters feel like they fit really well together but the taken-out-of-context-edness and the conflict between the realistic animations vs the lack of visual detail & facial movement are striking elements that sell the magical realism vibe. i also appreciate the restraint in terms of what we actually see happen in the game for ~the first half, which makes the scene changes later on (dimming the lights, the flashback sequence, moving to the fountain) all the more effective. rly like the metaphor of the fairy fountain that is also not really something with a real-life equivalent.
i enjoyed reading your thoughts about pastiche, it illuminated some thoughts i had about games like oikospiel and titanic ii that i couldn't really put into words before.
another thought i had while writing this: watching these specific characters moving about in a very atypical of video games slowness reminded me of playing majora's mask and seeing the npcs go about their routine waiting for them to get to the objective you need them at (especially when using the inverted song of time). it's both a bit of excruciating impatience and of fascination. a great feeling to recreate :)