You actually completed the game so congratulations. ;)
Did you choose the character commiting suicide? The character commiting suicide is the end of the game, you select your remaining character then the game restarts with a new party and the "THE END" message.
When you reach the last level you're always alone. The events are skipped if you lost characters in combat. For example you get the first one only if you still have 7 characters, the second one only if you still have 6 characters, etc...
You pick items in the corners (never from combat), with simply a light sound to tell you you did, like with other things in the game there should be better feedback. I agree playing without the scout is unsatisfying save scumming in practice.
Thanks for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed the game!