Thanks for playing. Some issues can be fixed and should be fixed in the future when I don't have to worry about a minimum/maximum time limit. Other issues, I'll have to decide if I want to add plugins or not since adding plugins kind of defeats the purpose of the game.
The shop dialogue is long for the first time, but there is actually a reason for the dialogue. After that initial dialogue, it is much shorter unless you encounter the reason for the long dialogue. Adding categories to the shop menu would require plugins or some pretty crazy script calls. I was trying to do this without plugins and I was trying to minimize the amount of crazier script calls. That said, I might reduce the categories to all, consumables, and gear.
Himesaur did my art. I think I mentioned her in the credits as the one that did the art for the game (including the "final boss"). It is actually available as free DLC for MV/MZ + additional assets I put on the rpgmaker forums.
It is breaking the fourth wall, but it also isn't. One of the endings partially explains it, but basically one of the world gods made them a world to play with and they are just treating the entire adventure as a video game and are just messing around. They are hinting that the world isn't real on purpose for a few reasons, including because they are trying to get the player to do something, but without outright saying it. You are supposed to just feel like something is off about the game up to the ending and then realize what is going on (the endings more or less give it away) if you haven't figured it out by then.
The ultimate moves are actually supposed to be secrets and are only mentioned so that the players know they exist as well as provide a clue to the player on how to ready at least one ultimate (some players can figure out all four methods with the clues provided without stumbling on them, but the ultimates are really way too OP). One ultimate in particular has multiple cutscenes and events tied to it. The Ultimates are more or less instant kills on non-bosses and some ultimates can one shot bosses. There is also a bit of story element to why they don't want the player using the ultimate. Same as the fourth wall issue. They don't actually want to use their Ultimates. Nara's Ultimates are really hard on her where one of them can kill her if she makes a mistake and the other requires a lot of concentration. Nara doesn't like unnecessary work. She's the only one in the party who legitimately doesn't want to be playing the game. The world gods don't want Tulu to use her Ultimate because it is too powerful. Her own party doesn't want her to use her Ultimate because it is indiscriminate (in an earlier version of the game, Tulu's ultimate had a chance to permanently kill your party members. That is where the 1/8th chance to survive comes from for her Ultimate.). Nol considers her ultimate a waste of resources. Voyd doesn't really care, which is why his Ultimate is the easiest to figure out. Also, them saying that there is no notification is actually sort of a lie for the same story reasons.
I'll mess with slingshot settings later to make it faster. It is hard to stop the animation without plugins, but I'll try to see if I can at least fine tune the slingshot's animations a bit.
Battles are definitely easier in this version. That was more because of the issue where if you rushed my game, you could beat it in maybe 15 minutes and if you took your time, it could take over an hour. So I rebalanced some things for the jam to try to keep it so players would end up between 20-50 minutes.
Yeah, the encounter rate is very high. You are actually supposed to get tired of fighting, and look to see if you have any items that can get rid of encounters and realize there are a bunch of skills for stuff (since there is no real way to increase encounters without plugins). I do intend to lower the encounter rate and have visible enemies though.
Nara is actually already OP and even more so if you can figure out how to combo her with Nol. There is a reason why switching takes a turn and why Nol has her skills and Nara has hers (Nara's skills are Nol's skills because her weapons are all made by Nol using Nol's potions). Nara can potentially do the highest damage of the entire party and can be very hard to kill if you set her up as a tank. You do need to really mess with her though to make her viable. She isn't viable unless you start doing combos with the other characters.
Don't buy the salve. You are supposed to look at it and go: worthless. It is there more as a comparison item to show off how much better Nol's potions are. There was supposed to be a joke sub-ending revolving around getting 99 salves, but I didn't add that to the jam version of the game.
You can't directly run away from that fight in the current version, but if you lose, you initiate a run event. I do intend to allow you to directly run in a later version though since originally, the running thing was supposed to be a way to return home. (The reason why you can't escape normally is the 'if it is too hard'. Your characters should be pretty OP by the time they fight it to the point where Nara can kill it easily with combos, Nol/Voyd could probably solo it. Tulu can just kill it piece by piece or use her boss killers (she should have at least one of them by the time you fight Hydra Liks. It is more of a 'if you manage to lose' thing)