Thank you very much! I appreciate the honest feedback.
I agree that the tutorial is a bit on the long side. I overexplain things a bit. This stems mostly from my experience that people can just drop a game in 2 minutes if they don't understand it immediately, and I want to avoid that, but it's probably a little too much here.
The backstory is an unfortunate one. In its current state, yeah, it feels a little weird. I really wanted to create more story bits in there, making a more of a DnD-ish experience. I unfortunately ran into some time issues at the end, and had to cut that part.
I also wanted a bit more out of the map, and right now, I definitely agree that it doesn't add very much at all. I probably should have just done the battle-shop-battle-shop thing like you mentioned, and spent the time on the narrative instead. Perhaps I'll have time to work out these things later, after the jam.
Once again, thank you for your honest feedback, and for playing the game! I appreciate it a lot! :)