Well, apart for the fact I suck at this kind of games... dialogues do their jobs and sets a nice atmosphere. I've read the plot's already finalized so I'd really like to know where the heck are you leading me! Keep it up ;D! Not that I expect to make any progress in the foreseeable future: I got stuck at the combination lock, tried putting a random sequence of numbers on my first attempt and... well, perhaps I'm just dumb (which is not at all unlikey, duh) but I could not find a way to delete the characters I put on that first attempt so even if I were to find the right sequence (something which is HIGHLY unlikely... told ya, I'm dumb ahahah!) I could not input it at present =(.
I appreciate the attempt at taking a different approach to battling, that however is the sole negative remark I have to add. The time limit mixed with the need to make sort of a keys combo means near-certain death for someone like me ^_^;.... I need to take my time and think out things, explore the menus and get a hang of the system BEFORE I make a choice. Plus the explanation of the battle system occurred in-game, making me feel I had to quickly get out of it as one of those nasty critters (which turned out to be THREE nasty critters!) was getting ominously close O_O! I'd recommend you automatically put the game in pause when explaining things to the player.
On the graphics side, all I can say is that as one who can barely hold a pencil (or a mouse or whatever drawing tool you may think of) in my hand I can't but appreciate the effort you put in those portraits. It's more than I could ever make, honestly. And I personally like having that kind of touch in this kind of games.
And now for some rather personal (and likely insignificant) note: I personally don't like starting "in medias res" as my ancestors used to say. I'd love to see the game starting off as a single character and then building up my party - which of course can perfectly end up being made up of those three funny guys, still... yeah getting to know them BEFORE the real thing starts would be just lovely - again that's just my own take at this kind of stuff.