Hiya ! So in order :
1: This is very true and gives me some insight on how to better implement the stats mechanics with the transformations.
2: The Fungal mess that takes over the player is a result of him staying too long amongst mushrooms, or teasing them too much. Some are there to help, for instance the pod actually feeds on corrupting substances, as it was a summon of Rohan. This is "spoiler" territory but honestly more teaser, Rohan was the court wizard of the Toad King and used of his magic to assist him into creating mind slaves with his fungus. Cocoon like pods are breeding the Guards with gluey spores every cycle to keep them in check. These fluids leaks from the pipes as reject and cross the player's cell. Technically the Player should indeed become a guard for a few turns until the cycle is over and the effect wears off. It'll also be part of a side quest sequence integral to companionship called "Thought corruption" that will have the player solve escape rooms in his own mind.
3: You can actually do that as a Rat already for the Guardian interaction. Boar has been laid out there for later development, but I will admit it is for the time being redundant and not priority. I consider instead a partial transformation to grand a character a spiral cock with the ability to plug others much like the Guardian Amaïr.
4: Due to the fact I have to reimagine the entire dungeon for every new transformation, adapt assets, scenes and such, it's unfortunately not a possibilty. Combinations of transformations would multiply too much my workload and I'd feel it would be a bit too random to be really worth the efforts.
5:There's a huge town and many NPCs outside of this dungeon waiting for him, I just decided to start working with a dungeon because it was much more manageable and would faster act as a pertinent demo. The town would act as a hub world and you would need to find dungeons hidden across suspicious locations. Why would you get back there ? Many reasons : Temptations, Rescue missions, Greed for power, Thirst of knowledge, etc. The player is planned to escape this dungeon, once I get the pieces into place I will open pathways to further explore.
Thank you for your interest xx I will work hard to soon present new content. Look forward for the next update this month xx