Hey Aesica! Thanks for the feedback and sorry to hear you ran into those bugs.
I had in fact received some input on major bug #1 on your behalf; un/fortunately, it only occurs when the Red dungeon is completed exactly second, which I missed during testing. Apologies for that, I would have understood if it ended your run but was glad to hear you were able to hack through it.
I hadn't heard about the fairy fountain bug previously - any chance you can recall whatever the first item you upgraded was? I should also mention, the VS Crafting system expects any items you're trying to use as materials to be in inventory rather than equipped; I've noticed that has tripped up some players as well (not sure if it's what you experienced or if you mean it literally wouldn't launch the crafting menu after the first time).
For better or worse, Defend was horribly OP in this game and probably just about mandatory to conserving HP/MP/AP and stashing Brave Points, which was the "meta".
One thing I love about designing battle systems: you never know how the player is going to interact with them.
One thing I hate about designing battle systems: you never know how the player is going to interact with them.
I'll definitely take your experience into consideration for future endeavors. I intended there to be a lot of "correct" solutions to combat - and for the most part hit my goal - but the fact that there are still "un-fun"/slog play patterns is something I'd like to address.