My first impression was "wow, this really looks a lot like Birth By Magic". Considering how good that game was that is absolutely not a bad thing. Taking what worked in that game and evolving it was an excellent decision here.
I thought the choice of music was a bit odd at first, but as I played and got a better feel for the setting and tone of the game it started to fit better. I really like the premise, a kind of retro-ish Demonpunk setting. The art is top-notch and the graphical style is very nice, I think I like it even more than Birth By Magic.
I'm not a fan of the map layout, I'd definitely prefer a hub and spokes to a maze with stores scattered everywhere. That being said I understand that it's pretty much par for the course in the subgenre you're going for so I don't really consider it a problem.
I didn't get lost in the time I played but a map might be in order for the full game.
Even the demo is huge. I don't expect to get very far to be honest; I'm kinda eh on metroidvania in general and I'm not very good at this game so I'll probably just keep dying. But it is a crazy long game full of content.
The only thing I really found offputting was how harsh dying in a boss fight is. Losing all your money when you die and having to get it back didn't seem too bad in the overworld, but you're most likely (or at least I'm most likely) to die during a boss fight. And when you go back it's win or lose the money for good...
I found the combat quite difficult and pretty much resorted to spamming the light attack because I could never get the power attack timed right. That being said I struggled a lot with Birth By Magic as well so this is more just me.
Between the scope and the polish of this game I'm still kind of scratching my head at how you managed this. I don't know if it's my personal favourite- again, I'm just not a fan of this subgenre in general- but I would definitely call it one of the best games in the jam.