Thanks for the detailed review. You hit the nail on the head as far as one of my biggest issues with this game and the story I was trying to tell - it takes forever to get to the "game." I wanted to show Chiyoko's life pre-magical girl, just for one day, but it kind of drags since there are few choices and pretty much nothing to do. I've considered some ways to fix it, including trimming it down, or adding more interactivity to school / hanging out / etc, or adding a fight or dungeon during the nightmare sequence. There definitely wasn't time to fix it during this game-jam, but I'm still considering it.
The 8-bit style graphics use the NES color palette but I actually did partially base them off of the MSDOS games I played many years ago. The black backdrop with the ornamental UI frames were inspired by MSDOS KOEI games, though my pixel art doesn't really come close to those.