Just played a round. I think there's an interesting core here, but I can see why you said what you posted on the discord. I made it to the end, and have some feedback.
- The UI feels unclear. I'm not sure I'm reading the totals correctly for hearts/coins/etc. Presenting these as numbers, or unstacked symbols, would probably be clearer. Perhaps it's easier on replays, but for a first time I wasn't really sure what I was looking at.
- I only realized I could open a start menu to buy items because of your comment above.
- Needing to press "A" for each move does kind of reinforce the commenter above's feelings of "I just press A until I die". If we're only ever going to interact with our final space, consider making it an auto move that only prompts you for additional input with directional changes?
- Every "Explore the local area" tile I landed on resulted in me finding nothing of interest until my final area, and then each one was a result of "Undead attack". Made it difficult to be excited or curious about what I was landing on; felt arbitrary.
- I like the idea of the map, but maybe your "player" sprite could be something other than a cursor? It might help with investment/engagement.
- Final scoring was unclear. I saw 3 cards and a +20%. What are these symbols? +20% what? Do my scores improve further plays? Did I unlock something?
- I don't think I ever encountered a reason or way to use mana? What is it for?
- Events were limited by the lack of information: for example, I landed on a space that gave me a choice to buy something. I couldn't tell how much gold I had, so I tried option 1. I couldn't afford it, and my turn ended. Would have felt better if I could try the other option or see my totals better.
I hope this doesn't come off too negative/harsh. I really like the concept, it reminds of a rogue-lite take on board games like "Tales of the Arabian Nights"; I've even tried my own hand at making GameBoy "board games" like this, too, so I'm very excited to see where this goes.