Day 9 Update:
I ended up being busy at work, so I got less done this past week than I would have liked. I created the sprites for the RPG-based combat (the background and player and bug sprites) and also created a dialogue system for NPCs. So far there's only 2 (the quest-giver and an npc that functions as a barrier until you've spoken to the quest-giver). Below is a gif of the basic dialogue with the quest-giver (you can ask Where? and Why? but I only demo'd the basic option). I'm not 100% happy with using A, B, and C as the options, I'll have to think about it more though. I'll probably move it towards Z, X, C, or another 3 characters that are in a row in a QWERTY keyboard.
I'd really like to add some more assets (like a house and the light mentioned), but I'm focusing on getting the combat finished so the game is playable all the way through. I should be able to finish it by Saturday!