Wow... thanks for your contributions! I already made the textbox more transparent than Renpy does by default but I agree that it is still covers too much of the screen. Will definitely implement that change in the next update.
Regarding the black bar in the main menu: I will do a complete overhaul/customization of the main menu anyways, going live with the next major patch.
Again, thanks for your feedback and your code (I also really like the itch.io logo you included). Will definitely give you a shoutout on my ingame supporters page in the upcoming version.