I liked the concept and the gameplay a lot!
At first the controls seemed weird, because in most games E is 'Use', but here was for 'Cancel'. Anyway, I adapted quickly to the keys and got to the point I had a stash of little potions and started using bigger ones just to free space.
There are times in the game when it suddenly slows down a lot, when the enemies have a higher defense than the player's attack. Maybe a bomb item that hits the enemy would help in those situations to not be there just waiting for the fight to end.
I think this is the best interpretation of the theme I've seen so far. Awesome job!