Boy that's tough.
Playing this with a controller was a dream, that's some tight platforming for sure. Run speed is quick and short hops are easy to perform. I didn't notice right away but it seems like when you switch the direction of your swing, it stays that direction until you switch back? I had to get used to that.
I really dig the art style and the animation, especially on the boss golem. That charge attack with the shoulders hunched in is great. I get the point of the game in this case is kind of to not beat it (?) for the loop theme, but I think having better telegraphed attacks would be good. There are a couple ground slam attacks that do super different things but look the same. Same with the chain pulls. I got him down to 25% left by just following and wailing on him. I wonder what happens if you beat him?
Anyway, cool game. The control is great, very nice sprite work. I liked the dialogue from the prisoner too. Congrats on this one.