Cool aesthetic and the Pokemon-inspired gameplay is compelling!
A pet peeve of mine is that the original GameBoy aesthetic doesn't feel fully committed to. It seems like there are too many different color values per sprite than the original GameBoy would allow, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does cause the game's style to fall short of fully evoking the feel of the hardware it's referencing. I think it might benefit from either reducing number of color values, or embracing a GBC or GBA style.
Otherwise, I think the gameplay works solidly well, though I do feel that the QTEs become disruptive of the game flow after a certain point. I've also noticed some sprites in the world aren't on the correct layer, with my player character being able to walk under a fountain that was supposed to be level with them.
I think the collect and battle rpg approach is almost always fun, so tapping into that gameplay for this jam was a good move! Incorporating the theme directly into the gameplay was a clever choice as well!