Thanks! Glad to hear you enjoy the game. :)
The alliterative names of some of the characters are by no means due to a lack of effort - it's a reference to another game.
As for things being on the nose.. there's nothing wrong with that, imo. For Okami it makes all but complete sense to have that name (can't prove it without spoilers, so you'll have to trust me on this one :P) and Kuro has chosen her last name herself when she founded her clan.
Just because something seems simple doesn't mean no thought has been put into it. Or in other terms: Things don't always have to be overly elaborate to be fine.
Buki-Buki is indeed a wordplay on Ren's last name, which obviously only works if you go with the default name. It meaning "weapon-weapon" is very much intentional, too.
Again, it might not seem like it, but I did put a lot of time and effort into the creation of the world - in some places it's noticeable, in others it isn't. Sometimes things being seemingly silly is even on purpose because my humor can be weird like that.
I am not Japanese, no. As Svensker correctly commented under this post, I'm from Germany.
Thank you! I appreciate your appreciation of the working phone. :P
It's something that had often annoyed me in other games myself, so I tried (and still try) to make it work as well as possible.
No worries, I didn't take any of this in a wrong way (I think). Likewise, my reply is mainly explanatory in nature - no hard feelings whatsoever.
Thanks for your comment and I hope you'll keep enjoying CH! :)