Alrightie, that's a very cute little game x3
I love the artstyle and the char designs, they're all adorable, and I really really love all the life you sprinkled into this little world, everything here is as charming as it can be, from the little intro animatic to all of the dialogues x3c
That's also a very fun implementation of the theme! It sounds basic on the surface, but I would never have expected an entry that could also serve as a little educational game! Separating all three stages of the food chain like that was super creative and I love it <3
Gameplay is very basic tho, there's not much to talk about it. Combat is honestly pretty lackluster I'm afraid, this would've been actually way better if it was just a little cozy adventure without your sword nor enemies, I think they do more harm than good here. You can't move while attacking and none of the moving enemies get hitstun nor my char gets iframes, so combat boils down to "mash the mouse until the monster dies while tanking hits because I literally can't avoid them", wich isn't particularly fun. (I would've just avoided all enemies altogheter instead of engaging with them, but there are a few mosquitoes and poopie beetles on positions where this isn't really possible).
Also, still kind of related to combat, I'll be a little nitpicky now, this is 100% just personal preference on my end, but I really see no reason as to why the attack button had to be a mouse click, and I personally also don't like using spacebar and shift for common actions like jumping and dashing, so I really would've appreciated an Arrows + ZXC option. But again, I'm just being nitpicky lol.
Buying the upgrades is.... Interesting, to say the least... Not a huge fan of it tho, that made me backtrack back and fourth needlesly more than it should've, And I'm like, 80% sure you don't even need any of those upgrades to progress, the only things actually stopping you are the keystone balls, so this makes this essentially a "lock and key" game, wich is not what a Metroidvania is supposed to be. Ideally the only gates you should have are obstacles that requires the actual power ups and tricks you learn on your journey, not doors locked behind keys that you just press "E" once you have them.
Well I think that's all I had to say. Really adorable experience still ^v^
(I can't give ratings btw, I'm just here for the funsies, and hopefully to give usefull feedback)