Hey! thank you for playing! Though most mechanics aren't fully fleshed I just gave an idea what I'd like and what will be in this game. Those small details you mentioned that's abrupt were just the lack of animation being played (Or if you are talking about the sprites blinks that goes from one frame to the next). It's a bit hard to ask better quality with the small time frame for this competition =/ I kinda cheated on the sprites and copy, pasted, and changing the color of those sprites as those images took a large amount of time to make if I were to polish this demo.
The story dialogue as well as the NPC dialogue is on the nose and I will change it. I just wanted to get the idea across for the story. I think the story dialogue is fine though. I will change it here and there but it might be too text heavy so I will reduce it and add more animation to make it enjoyable to play. I couldn't think of anything for the NPC to say so I gave them generic things to say.
The combat is a working progress. There's only two fights and they consumed a lot of my time so it's just an idea atm. It will be fleshed out a lot more, but you can imagine how it's going to be once it's polished.
I think you are correct in making this game more engaging! If it was more engaging, the story would be better told. It's just the time I had haha. Thank you for your feedback!