OK I FINISHED IT.
First i'll answer your things!
-I was hoping I wouldn't need to fix that dashing hit box problem. but sounds like I need to.
I'm really sorry for that, because i know how tricky it can be to have varying hitboxes. My suggestion would be to have a different hitbox only for detecting blue walls, and leave the normal one for white walls (as they'd just give you back your dashes anyways)
-I'm very unsure about how i'm going to add indicators for jumps you have left that don't look horrible, any suggestions?
I would probably avoid them completely (they'd take away from the atmosphere): i'd just make an small subtle effect when you *get back* your dashes rather than when you use them. So you would know if you touched that wall or not, in those cases where the hitbox maaaay have touched them!
-Why another zoom level? right now the zoom out lets you see as far as you can jump horizontally and vertically.
I'd say just to be comfortable in those edge cases, as they can happen. https://i.imgur.com/SZboCKK.png (supposed to go down in that part, however the stakes of the fall make it really uncomfortable)
-did you find ANY shortcuts? because if you didn't, then i can see how things would have gotten way to frustrating at the end. Doing the caves over and over would not be very fun.
Found a few! Biggest one was from the lonly heart to the part i struggled with. Then there was also one from the "forward jump" part i talked about, by jumping under a big platform to the left instead of entering the caves on the right. There might be more, but i can't remember. Saw a few cheeky ones in those last parts, but they were too risky for me.
-have you explored much? (ie. found the mysterious hatted kew statues? or the Noe A. Tablets?)
Found them indeed! Most, at least. Most on shortcuts, I skipped the king in the last screenshot because i didn't know it would still let me continue.
-how long did you play?
The really tired me at 4Am played for about 2 hours, and now i came back and after a few podcasts i finished it in 50 minutes, starting from the lonly heart.
That last part is killer indeed, that i can say. Discovering the Lonly heart shotcut made everything quite easier. I had gone down there up to the king when i was just exploring, but i didn't realize that it connected downwards. Maybe with zoom out i would have seen it, can't remember!
https://i.imgur.com/RxKrvu4.png
This is my proof. Also, you should probably center the texts from the interactables. Like, the ones that appear on the world, not the textbox ones. Nitpick!
Spoilers, in any case.
Is there something supposed to happen at the end? I walked up to the big golden statue and i just went through it, and then to the border, and then it closed. It was kinda cool, but the statue makes me feel i missed an interaction.
Also, fun thing; I was listening to a video podcast and when the game closed this popped up in my face https://i.imgur.com/suE5mMf.png and for a second i really thought you had put a scary face at the end, hahahahahah
Hope it all helps!! I really enjoyed finishing this game, man. Hard as nails games like this always leave you with that sensation at the end. Ahh, nice. I need a beer.