I am very glad you didn't took my "little essay" not too harsh. I enjoyed the game a lot, which is why I wanted to help improve it in the ways that I can. Reading through your reply really makes me stoked for an updated version!
I thought the little ending Skit was quite Novel... In Germany we call it "Gesamtkunstwerk" :D It came together quite nice although I can feel the scope creep. My last Game Jam (Which was also my first one) we had so much going on... I was positively overwhelmed. We couldn't finish it in time although we managed to get it playable. This time we made a more concise and finished experience first and tried to add stuff afterwards, which worked much better! But since I had more time doing focused artwork I took too much of a burden on me once again. I designed the Starting area first (the general layout was already designed) and we both fell in love with the visuals and tried to create an entire map that looks like this and is varied.
I couldn't. So in a way I saw your game reflect that but from another point. Your artwork is better fitting and more focused than mine (I am pretty new to art anyways) but where we had trouble with the big varied map not looking like a mess of colors, you had trouble clamping the mechanics into a concise experience. Something to be learned from your game for me and you there haha.