The slow movement was partially design, partially issues with the collisions (had to turn down the player movement speed even further than I liked, otherwise it would be flying all over the map when colliding with an object). Definitely learned my lesson about bad collision shape design...
If I should revisit this project, I will definitely increase the speed and probably provide a user setting for walking/running speed, so it can be customized to the user's liking.
Another factor is that if you play in browser, the game slows down a bit compared to playing it directly on the machine (at least on my machine).
If you perceive the game as super cute and with good story telling, than I met my main design goals.
Thank you very much for your feedback!