Heya!
This game was a one week development period game jam entry, so sadly we didn't have the time to go over and refine the mechanics and dialogue like we wanted to.
The combat is definitely a weak point, and we're reviewing that to see what we could do better. As it stood it was functional enough to provide what we needed for submission and completion of the time-scope limited project. Internally we think the Combat needs a total remake, but that just isn't inside the scope of what the game jam allowed.
Sorry to hear you didn't relate to the characters, a lot of the 'redemption' was found on the successful completion of those fights, as the loss condition did give you the 'bad end' conversations for a fight. We are reviewing dialogue and will take your feedback into consideration.
I will say that the optional fight you would have missed did fall into this category of "nice person who is sad because they thought you were better", so that content vibe is something we tried to capture, but again, we did what we could with the limited time we had for the dialogue to get the game functional and playable within the scope of the game jam, and given more time we would have definitely done a dialogue pass to narrow in on a more consistent vibe.
As it stands, we're proud of what we achieved in the limited time we had for this project.
We're definitely reviewing the game to see what we can do better, so thanks for leaving feedback.