I absolutely loved the concept for this game. The theming, aesthetics, and art design were all top-notch.
That being said, I think some of the game mechanics and/or design could use a bit of work. I loved the old "Sierra Game" style that Crown of Zephyr went for, especially when it came to the puzzles and exploration. But I feel like a lot of what hampered my experience was the combat system and the abundance of random encounters (although the lack of compelling combat no doubt effected my view of them)
The combat system has you use the crank a lot, having a sort of "crank off" between you and the enemy that seems to reward cranking faster and faster (something that probably isn't great for the playdate). This also makes it hard to tell if you are under-leveled or just need to crank harder/faster. I think a more technique-heavy use of this idea could absolutely save this for me, and make it feel more like the mini-game battles in games like the Mario & Luigi series or Mother 3. I don't mean to compare this game to those, since they are trying to do way different things, but just to show how a more mini-game centric battle system can work.
I'm not a game designer so take these suggestions with a grain of salt. But perhaps some sort of balancing act, where you have to crank to keep a dial in the center, or having to crank to match the pattern of the enemy, could help to resolve some of the issues I had with the game's combat
While yes, this game was a little buggy at parts, mainly when using or dropping an item the game doesn't expect you to use/drop. However there was nothing too huge that ruined the experience or stopped my progress.
I absolutely believe that if the combat system is tweaked/redesigned, and some little bug fixes here and there this could absolutely become a huge hit for the Playdate. But at it's current state, I was left feeling a little bit unsatisfied
TLDR: It's an amazing concept, with great art, and exciting exploration, but so-so encounter structure, and disappointing combat that brought the experience down. Overall a 3.5/10 for me