I actually did try to communicate scale through the tilesets, its why some things look bigger, but i might've not have done a good job at it. I also did try to make the fairy enemies big at one point but they took up a lot of space and just looked weird. either way, yeah i do think i could've done better at it, it was just kinda hard when i tried to communicate that while also having time for the bigger stuff. (like the final boss)
also, i actually like the idea of wasting healing items, i actually wish i did that now lol