Thanks for playing, I think that's a bug. If restarting the game doesn't fix it then you can always resign to restart the level. I've never seen something like that either so thanks for showing me.
I think I already somewhat address some of your feedback in the later levels, but the first 5 specially are pretty much a tutorial. Every level introduces at least a new enemy to try and keep things varied and I consider this an important aspect of the game, only I haven't been able to strike a good balance between keeping players on their toes and not making them feel like they were just killed by something out of left field. I think the pariah is indeed the first enemy that can really kill the player in a single hit if left unattended, but there are more like that later.
I think adding new assets for characters and such is a good idea. Notably, I've been meaning to add different expressions for portraits for a while since I have so much dialog, but assets are incredibly time consuming, making game is my art training arc so to speak. This isn't the first time this DD that someone has told me the perk screen is confusing either.
I like the idea of going back to the rest area since there's always one before the boss anyways. The shop mechanic is honestly unfinished, it's only in the stats screen because I'm not sure where else to put it.
Thanks for playing again, the combat feedback is something I need to think about. Speed will probably remain broken because it's an ATB game. Perhaps traps that can hit characters multiple times per use would be a good counter.