Don’t really know how to explain the location of the game freeze better. Maybe try walking on the top border of the map before the final boss map. Somewhere on the left side of the teleporter to the boss map you should encounter the game freeze.
Yeah, those are the descriptive messages I meant. Personally, I’m more of a show don’t tell kinda guy. So, for example, I would prefer showing a character sprite raising their arms rather than having a message describing that to me. Though I got to admit that the message is far easier to implement and given the short amount of time for a game jam this is probably the more effective solution.
In regards to the mapping maybe just try making the areas a bit wider so that the player doesn’t run into something every second step. Also, I usually prefer avoiding open borders where the character can reach the end of the screen without being teleported to another map. This feels especially weird on the top border of the screen where the heads of the sprites get cut off. But that are just my preferences :)