I always appreciate comments, even negative ones, as long as they're well thought through, and this one is no exception, so please don't apologize!
The animated sprites were because the artist I was working with wanted to try out Live 2D, so it's not actually harder to code and was a fun experiment, especially since this game was done for a gamejam and those are good times to try new things.
Amusingly, I feel like the "best" ending in this game is one of the easier ones to get across my games, but I totally understand if people have trouble with it. That's why I typically add difficulty settings to my games, but again, this was a gamejam game so I didn't bother.
This game is supposed to be darker and end less well than my other games, and it's totally fair if that's not for you :)
Thank you as always for your thoughts and for trying the game!