I'm glad you enjoyed my entry! I really did try to stick to traditional metroidvania elements like the map, save spots, and teleport rooms to make backtracking easier. In regards to your feedback:
- I started halfway through the jam so I went with simple movement mechanics. I knew I could end up spending so much time trying to get movement to my liking, so as soon as I got something that felt ok, I was done with it lol
- I liked the alchemy system as well, but as you can tell balancing it was a lot harder than I thought. Up until the day I submitted, the xp given for making an item was less, the xp thresholds for level-ups were higher, and the drop rates were so much different. After I made the last minute changes, all three ingredients' drop rates are the same. Originally there was like a 10% chance to get a gold nugget on a monster drop. As for running out of mana, it was by design to nudge the player into using alchemy, but its been a pain point to many players. Someone suggested that if I was going to keep to that design, then I should still have the player naturally replenish their mana over time albeit slowly.
- I'm pretty ashamed about the mouse cursor. It was like the easiest thing I could have polished, but I was just too burnt out to think about. I'm colorblind as well and felt like it was kind of hard to see. If I could make a quick change now, it would be to change the color to like a creamy color that compliments the wall background and the environment tiles.
Overall, there is a lot that could have been better, but I accomplished the goals I had for this jam so I'm pretty happy with it. Also, I've received some great feedback from everyone and I've definitely been making mental notes. Thanks again for your feedback and playing my game!