Thank you for the thorough feedback, Drifty!
I share your pain with the tile outside the second city--it was a time issue and remaking the map at that point wasn't possible on my end due to some fumbles on my part, so I left as-is. I made this game over two weeks and quite a few things were changed/cut for time.
I'm unclear on where you are stuck, but sounds like the palace. There is a room on the right side of the hall you must go to before the guard opens the door (perhaps the doors weren't clearly marked--again, agree there should have been arrows or something in this case)
I will say overall I'm very old school. I worry about too much hand-holding and would rather the player explore more on where to go. However, it seems in this case it was more a visual issue rather than a direction issue.
I'll take all your compliments and critique to heart. Thank you again! It means a lot!