Wah, thank you for such a detailed comment! I'm terribly sorry about the first chase being difficult- playtesting it seemed to be alright for me, but I might just be biased as the creator ;; but! As for your comment about the ending factor: this is exactly what I was going for. I wanted things to be bittersweet (or more-so bitter than anything else.) and to not have everything ending happily. I wanted to go for a more eerie and somewhat somber feeling- like a perpetual cycle that happens to random individuals without explanation. Wrong place, wrong time-type situations- things like that.
In regards to the sprites: that's really my bad;; I'm not very good with spritework, and when I realized I needed sprites for other individuals, I went a rather lazy route instead of making some new ones. Maybe in a future update, I'll make some changes, but I do apologize for the strange appearance. I started with the archeologist's sprite first, then his daughter, but sometime in development, I ended up using Vanessa as the main/secondary protagonist. I already had the fathers' sprite ready, so I thought it'd be a waste not to use it. (Although, I suppose I could've repurposed the father's sprite for the boss' instead, but that's still my fault;; sorry!)
I love games that have interactable items/flavor text- it feels like it fills the void, so-to-say. Even if it's somewhat boring or not exactly plot-relevant: I just like having the ability to peer into one's surroundings, even slightly.
Thank you again so much for playing, and thank you again for all your kind words! :>