First of all, thank you so much for the in depth review! I'm glad you enjoyed the game enough to take the time to write it all ^^
I'll do my best to answer some things!
- Rose's tattoo
It does directly turn into the claws! I'll have more opportunities to talk more about it later, probably through party events which will let the characters interact between each other about all sort of things. It'll be a great way to touch on minor lore elements ^^
- Less dialogue near the end
For sure! I want at least one more cutscene after you save Biscotti, and once again party events will also help with this once more are implemented. There are only a few in the game currently and almost all are non optional, like when Rose first talks about her tattoo.
- The fei crystals floating about in the underwater dungeon are a bit distracting
Mmh... A variant without the symbol could help, but there are also a few puzzles where some of the petals are somewhat hidden. I could even have cases where the puzzle itself is hidden later, but seeing symbols on the petals with symbols would prevent that. I'll see what I can do, but I might end up leaving them as is!
- Secret detector
Something like this is planned! It might have to do with Tril ^^
- Constellations and cannons
Will do! I know how to help with that ^^
- Witch cards
I agree that these aren't as good as they could be. I do have ideas on how to improve them and make switching to a different character a better option, but this will have to wait a bit before it's actually implemented ^^
- Alternate left/right mouse
This can actually be done! There is an option for it in the settings ^^
- 'Rank Lock' isn't immediately descriptive
That's fair... I do have the '?' button giving you more info about it, but I'll update it if I can find a satisfying alternative ^^
- More granularity would also help; locking rank appearance per witch etc
Once again only explained through the '?' button on the spellcard menu, this is what the '+' and '-' are for! You can choose your favorite rank (purely graphical change). This among a few other mechanics will also be properly explained later.
I actually fixed some of the issues you mentioned, like Heartcarrots and dragging Tril, in the newest update from 2 days ago!
More generally there is definitely room for improvement balance wise, I made sure to increase the amount of received magi in the latest updates but I'll probably make more changes later, including chest contents, the rate at which alchemy recipes are found (and which ones), shop selections, encounter rates and a lot more. Though this might have to wait until the game is in a bit less of a WIP state so I can make more definitive decisions.
Shape fights will mostly rely on Shape variety and new Shapes as you said, though I do have a few ideas about these too for later.
And, ironically enough, I also feel like there isn't enough BE content currently. I'm working on this (chibi sprites BE and more) but of course this will take a bit of time, especially given I'm juggling with quite a few tasks since the release. But it'll happen! ^^
Thank you again! I've taken notes and will make sure to address as much of this as I can asap ^^