Thanks for the great feedback!
Yeah, if you're able to collect them both, you certainly can have sword and shield at the same time.
I had lots of ideas for the game... but due to the memory limitations of the competition I wasn't able to add them all. Like adding a town with a shop for the gems, the ability to go both up and down in the caves, various enemy types and bosses to hunt down etc...
Perhaps if there is enough interest, I'll keep the project going!