Given the name, I wasn't expecting a deeply philosophical story. I was surprised and impressed.
The combat is the point of the experience, and I was impressed with it too. It's one of the few times I've seen guarding be treated as a strategic tool, and I love how you have to learn the enemies' patterns to properly respond to them. That said, it's not really possible to know what to expect from the enemies on the first pass. Hitting the hardest mode out of the gate or even expecting a flawless run the first time playing on normal isn't reasonable to expect, but if you do go the distance to learn the patterns, I can see flawless hard mode runs being possible. The tutorials for the various mechanics were implemented well - something I could take cues from for my own games!
The music, of course, sounds great. Sometimes I forgot that I wasn't listening to an old NES game's soundtrack. Very nice stuff.
The boss rush format felt appropriate too. I didn't have to worry about figuring out where to go next to get to the next plot point. It kept the experience streamlined.
I liked this entry overall. It's definitely one of the outstanding games in the jam. Nice job, Sawyer!