Thoroughly glad you enjoyed it! Tidbits of lore, I think, do a lot for the end-user/player to fill in the blanks of experience. I know whenever I've played a game that has some tiny aspect of something weird/unique/different, I immediately begin to formulate more about what that universe has to offer. Honestly, having even a tiny bit of lore presented can cause a lot of imagination to occur.
Glad you found it fair! I think so as well, but I do want to add hints if you die at a boss one or more times to improve the player experience.
Also, that the level after you get the shield was one of the few levels I worked on directly, haha. I should've put more direct hinting, including the keys/buttons necessary. However, with the aforementioned hint system, I would like to have it so that if you die 1-3x in a map, it presents hints in an increasingly obvious fashion.
Thank you very much for playing!