This was a good game! I get which kind of game you wanted to make, and it is very good in what you are looking for.
When I just started the game, from the melancholic music, UI design and the colossal background, I saw clear inspiration from Hollow Knight (maybe not! please answer)
So the difficulty is a bit unforgiving. I was at the castle and fell 2 times consecutively into the start of the game, thats where I stopped playing :(
Will try to go to the top next time. Good job with the level designn! Would love to have controller support of some sort added into this, I'm so bad with the keyboard lol.