I have found I quickly devolved into searching every tile (step, press a) as this was the only way to find things (e.g. the flashlight in act 1).
I am now stuck in the cave after struggling to find a key and then use it to get through a door - I thought the struggle was over but it just keeps going. Without any visual hints the maze is quite a pain to get through.
Yes, the cave maze brings pains... But pain gives way to pleasure eventually...
Once you've entered the storage room with the key, there's a visible object you will need there. Did you collect it?
You shouldn't need to check every tile to find objects except for when searching WITH the flashlight for a lost items in the trees at one point in the game. The rest of the time objects will either be visible themselves or within other visible objects (i.e. a crate).
