Thanks a lot for playing through my game and for your thought-provoking review! To answer your points:
Thanks for the tip on the movement buffer. You're right, it'll make the controls tighter. I'll be sure to switch to a borderless fullscreen mode, too. I honestly find the current mode clunky too but didn't take the time to study the alternatives.
Your remark about being discouraged to use any piece but the strongest one each turn is noted, I think I can improve that by giving different movement range to the pieces.
The chicken piece is there purely as the jam constraint, but I honestly like it as it is, unpredictable and potentially restraining the player or enemy movement. I don't want to make the enemy decisions more predictable because chess with telegraphed enemy movement sounds a bit dull in my opinion.
I tried to keep dialogue to a minimum while keeping it as natural as I could (for instance, no more than 10 lines before each boss, except for the good ending sequence where I allowed myself 15), but I still made it skippable in case the player doesn't particularly care for it (which is totally fine).
Since I worked alone (code & graphics), I couldn't add as much features in the combat and upgrades system as I wanted too, so that level of tactical depth is what you get for a week's worth of my time. I do have plans to improve it further, though.
Thanks again for your comment that gave me a lot of pointers for future improvements! 🙂