itch.io

I think I see the issue here. I would not seriously try to play "a warrior as a ninja", but the other character choicer were not there, so this implied to me on my first playthrough, that this was a generic character that I can evolve based on the stat allocations.

I would suggest to show all available characters in locked form and give a brief design description for the player to identify how each character is meant to be played. Something basic as "Warrior", "Ranger", "Mage" would already be enough to give an easy understanding what playstyle they would be in for.

I would assume that the other issues will become irrelevant once that is pointed out.

I liked the game overall and if the development progresses at this quality level, this game will surely deserve at least a 4-star rating (or Steam thumbs-up).
Regarding constructive critic:

My personal playstyle is very agility/luck based. So far I played 2/1/2/4/4 and 2/2/1/4/4 so far. Currently it feels like the game is not supposed to be played like that?

I have trouble identifying when to progress into the next zone and the punishment for doing so too early, or having a build around luck where random loss is part of the build, is very harsh. With just a dozen or so allowed fights (unless slightly modified by equipment), every loss in a playthrough hurts very much, especially when the level-up curve is so extreme (which I generally approve of!).

I would accept this as part of my playstyle if I had not felt like hitting a progression cap. Persistent equipment is migrating the problems, but I seemed to have capped the buyable equipment quite far and to unlock other slots I would need to replay the game in other style I enjoy less. Maybe do not cap the equipment slots behind that criteria?

For the equipment, some random-stat dynamic equipment may help lessen that issue (Diablo-Style)?

As of now, I would probably rate it 3-Stars (subjectively due to my playstyle), but as it is "just an alpha", it does not deserve this as a public rating.