Ok, there's quite a few point to answer! :D
I'll leapfrog the cool stuff section with a big smile and a heartfelt thanks.
-Dialogues with NPCs: I'm glad you've appreciated the dialogues, I was worried I'd put in too much chatter for an action-ish game! It's true that some characters have just few lines, but that was only because I thought that their location wasn't suitable for a longer conversation.
I'll see if I should add few more dialogues.
-The four corner slots are for temporary or consumable items, like the gate key or the medikit. This explains why you didn't see the corresponding items in the inventory, even if you likely found them.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
-There is no reason to kill the ghost, actually. Since the ghost is set free by the death of the old lady, and I didn't mean to encourage the player to kill her (even if I gave him the free will to do that), the pentagram was intended just as an extreme measure to prevent the ghost from haunting the village forever. If all this sounds a little convoluted it's because (maybe) it is.
Conversely, you do get something in exchange for killing the shadow priest; although I'm not sure which character you're referring to. If you mean the former Lockwood priest, killing him makes the fire giant considerably weaker (even if the feedback is perhaps unclear: I'll work on this, thanks!).
[SPOILERS ENDED]
-That's interesting. I never thought of the night timer as an actual barrier, probably because I'm not a fan of timed games: its original purpose was only to prevent the player from wasting time and roaming in circles. This is why I set the timer on a generous period of 30 minutes, which is way more than enough to complete the game.
I could probably change that.
Without making the game frantic, of course: just a little more dynamic... Thank you again!
Here come the bugs. :D
-I'm not sure I'm able to implement a better pathfinding system, yet (I'm studying every day, but there's a lot of stuff to learn!). What I can do, is slightly redesign the scenarios in order to make them "smoother" in terms of pathfinding. I've already adjusted the forest (I'm assuming you've played the last version, 1.1.2 - right?), although I can certainly do better. The wastelands are mostly open, so I didn't expect the giant to get stuck; I'll check it out, too.
-Yeah, I hate the cat blocking the way (as I hated the dog in Fallout :D). I'm currently implementing a new system to make selective collisions, so that should be fixed soon!
[MINOR SPOILER AHEAD]
-Darn man, you are right! The barrier could be a serious issue in the final part. My bad, I didn't think of that! I'm gonna fix it as soon as possible.
[MINOR SPOILER ENDED]
In conclusion, I'm truly grateful for your time.
Expect a version 1.1.3 soon, (also) improved thanks to your constructive criticism! :)