Thanks for the feedback! I agree the portraits can look better, and you can expect them and other various assets to be polished up before release.
I had a feeling the timer might be controversial with some fans of the genre, but I'm confident it's a twist that'll make the game more interesting. It fits well with the time reversion mechanics and encourages speedrun-like tactics, like planning routes and finding shortcuts. But I agree that it shouldn't impede exploration, as long as the player knows what they're doing. The time limit of 20 minutes is certainly not set in stone, I won't know for sure until the entire world is made. It's very likely there will be difficulty settings with varying time limits as well.