Alot, hehe! We're both big fans of cave story and that was definitely the main inspiration for this game.
The game has lots of charm and I think you'd have fun with it. Much like Cave Story (and metroidvanias in general) there might be parts where you might feel stuck and unsure of what to do... but we also created a handy walkthrough to help out in case you do!
https://resnijars.itch.io/stardust-demon/devlog/914099/official-walkthrough-spoi...