oh i just LOVE this concept!!
when i first skimmed through the description i thought "oh so this is gonna be like, an escape room where both players need to give each other clues right?" but one player being a witch and the other being the capture she's gonna use for her ritual?? that's so cool! it made the game and story feel really unique, and it's just a really great concept in general :D
the presentation here is really good! the default assets are well utilized and everything feels like it has a purpose, instead of being randomly picked sprites from the tileset (which is hard to do with default rtp imo). i noticed some rooms feeling too big or some parts looking odd, but in general everything's super well designed, nice to the eye, and not too busy or too empty.
i also gotta say, i ADORE the writing. the descriptions are so elegant and the word choice is phenomenal. so many little parts of the text stuck out in my mind from wording alone (the alliteration when picking each animal book made me want to figuratively tip my hat off to you haha). but the highlight here is the story, because like?? for a puzzle/escape room game, it's completely unfair i got so caught up in it??? the little pieces of information i got in the witch's home were ridiculously intriguing. when you interact with the mirror, the discarded letters, the fantasy book description GOD that one was so good- the writing completely took me by surprise, but it probably shouldn't have considering your other stories' quality :>
the puzzles with the first part of the recipe were clever and just the right amount of difficult! really made me feel smart, which is a feat considering i'm usually bad at these kind of games haha. but sadly, i think the second step was a bit too big brained. got stuck at the part where you have to find the important letter on the rabbit card. i think it's kind of a big jump in complexity and it could've been a little simpler to figure out? that's really subjective tho, maybe nobody else had a problem with it.
in terms of issues, i think the fights were somewhat confusing since i couldn't notice what difference using each spell had. and the bunny part was a bit frustrating with all the water that takes you to random directions, and being thrown into a cage from time to time without explanation. and this honestly isn't really a flaw, but i wish tag could've had a bit more story or personality, akin to how the witch's past is alluded to. but tbh i feel kinda bad complaning because i haven't finished the game and for all i know everything i'm saying gets fixed in the next parts lol. might retry the game in the future to see it through to the end (and if it's not a bother, it'd be really appreciated to have a walkthrough available. only if you want to make one, obviously!).
this was really fun and, now that i've finally played all your games, i can confidently say you're an outstanding developer with an equally outstanding skill for writing and storytelling! can't wait to see what you've got in store for the future! :D