Been following this for a bit on FA and thought the first build was pretty great. It looks like everyone else has already touched on most of these topics, but I'll reiterate over them anyways.
- Player movement was predictable and wonderfully smooth. Seriously, no complaints here.
- The combat definitely has a good base, but enemy movements and attack patterns make the game a little too easy, especially with the knock back. Beyond the boss, every enemy could be defeated by mashing the attack button. Giving enemies a way to respond to player attacks would help create more engaging combat.
- There's currently no incentive to fight the non-boss enemies, and also easy to get around them. After the first encounter or two of a given species, I found myself skipping battles frequently since walking past enemies took less time than fighting. Given how early on things are, I'm sure this will get addressed later on though.
Onto more suggestion like feedback...
- One tap escape from grapples makes them seem a little pointless. I think it would be better if you took normal damage until an attack incapacitates the player. Or perhaps require several button presses to escape, and maybe let the player get devoured if they don't escape in time, making escaping even harder or completely preventing it.
I wasn't going to mention bugs since I played on a non-target OS (MacOS via Crossover) which can cause bugs not actually present in the game, but I'll drop them just in case.
- In sandbox, if you respawn after the harpy files off, the harpy sprite remains hidden until defeated. The harpy can still attack and grapple the player when its sprite is hidden.
- Sometimes after breaking free from a grapple, you can stand where the enemy is and become unreachable by the enemy. The enemy will rapidly switch which direction it's looking, but will not move away.
Great job so far, can't wait to see where this goes!