Thanks for taking the time to play our game and for leaving this detailed feedback.
The game is supposed to follow the roguelike structure that you go through the forest multiple times and each time pick up more clues (up to 2 per run). From watching some of my friends playing it I can tell that this was not obvious to people and your comment further cements that so that would definitely something to be improved.
I also agree that the combat feedback could be better.
There is actually a knockback but it stops as soon as the knocked back entity (player or enemy) hits something. And as the enemies walk in a cluster they basically immediately tough each other which stops the knockback but I didn't had the time to tweak that in the end :(