I love the passion put in this game, I ended up getting stuck for 2 hours because I didn't know I had to use the pickaxe to clear the rocks. I was stuck into thinking that the pickaxe was supposed to be used to collect resources from any rock you see as I had seen in other rpg maker games but when that didn't work I just assumed it's a broken or unfinished or leftover feature just like the axe. I completely disregarded it, forgot about it, the gameplay video here is what showed me what to do with it. Before I found the pickaxe, I ended up making a lot of progress through the secret teleports you left in the game that I just happened to find, so the way I made progress was kind of weird but I can't make progress without going to the dessert so I was stuck for 2 hours or more.
Part of me loves this game. All the fights and fighting mechanics were great as well, they are complex and you get greatly rewarded by learning how every move works and using them properly and at the right time. You are rewarded for playing smart. It takes a good amount of time to beat the enemies which is great but I started to hate it because I have to do these long, extremely nuanced and complicated fights over 50 times because of random encounters. I think sometimes fights just have to be slop, I can enjoy this fighting gameplay but I can't be doing this 50 times when all I want to do is explore. Keep it short.
The other part of me is bothered by how random encounters happen so often. It's way too often sometimes right after I finish a fight, I walk 5 squares and I get into another fight. I am not a fan of this. Having so many random encounters discouraged me to explore, I wanted to avoid spending more time than I needed to in the same room to not go through as many fights. There were so many fights I eventually started to cheat, I tried to not cheat when it came to boss battles, but considering I put so much time in the game I just didn't want to do that anymore and started instant killing the bosses as well. I didn't get the true ending because I think it would be a disservice to the game for me to continue to play a work of passion when my heart was no longer in it.
I wouldn't ask for the game to do something about the pickaxe. That was my fault. I think I would had probably figured it out if I didn't get discouraged from exploring by having the random encounters happening so often. They were also distracting. That is the only thing I would change, decrease random encounters and add some slop enemies that are easy or don't require a complex fighting strategy and can be defeated quickly. Don't nerf the enemies, add new ones, the currents one I like but they need to be here less often.
This game is a 4/5 for me and I hope to give it another chance at a later date or to play another game you make. I really like this game and I really like how it made me reflect on how I would react to my own work.