Thanks for playing and for the detailed review. Taking your experience seriously for the future of the game. Also let me answer to your points :
- There's indeed no main menu or save possibility in this version as there's no persistent items (apart from highest floor reached). Money can be used after beating the bosses every 5 floors. It offers the possibility to open a sort of shop menu, and it stops time
- Time limit is indeed an old concept but I'm very fond of the idea of constant stress and close calls until you can rest at checkpoints. I'll be able to tamper it with difficulty levels. Maybe I can include a no time limit mode when I'll work on that
- Dodging is picking a side (left or right), and the enemy attacks randomly left or right. So it's 50/50. I think it's useful when the enemy cumulates its charges (x2/x4/x6). When it reaches charge lvl 3, it will unleash the attack no matter what. When balanced, it should give the player the ability (in some cases) to either go for the kill (by using Spirit Charge), defend to take reduced damages, or gamble on a 50/50 dodge. I could do telegraphed enemy attacks though
- I find weird you did not level once (unless there's a bug). It should be 10 enemies of your player level to gain +1 lvl. I want the player to manage his floor level to find a cruise spot to farm xp, but let him fight lower/higher enemies if he wants to.
- I started in RPG Maker because at the time it was (and still is) the engine I knew the most. I'm not making things easy but I'm not sure I could manage the transition right now