It was a bit odd starting at such a high level. I've played a few games where the intro has you high level for a short bit and then you switch to your basic level 1 characters so you can level up and learn the abilities as you go. For a jam game I suppose that it makes sense to be high level to show off more of the planned features.
I really liked the number of options. Being able to stretch the viewport to fit the window was nice, as the default had a lot of empty black space around it. The option to reduce encounters by half or turn the off was also really nice and let me do a bit more exploring after I was done with the high encounter rate. On thing I'd like to see in the options is input remapping, or at least being able to see the defaults. I started by using keyboard and mouse, but had no idea what keys to use beyond movement and space. I ended up using a controller as there were fewer buttons to test out.
Personally, I prefer to control my entire party, or at least be able to guide the uncontrolled characters. The AI kept spamming powerful, and MP hungry, spells. This limited exploration time unless using a bunch of MP recovery items, which I don't like to do. Since we are starting so high level, I didn't know how common various items are and am less likely to be using a bunch at the start.
I played through the first boss fight (retrieving the stolen goods). I saw a chest past them, so after winning I tried to move forward, and saw the encounter dialog followed by the battle again. I tried again after completing the quest and resting and still got the dialog and combat.
I enjoy classic JRPGs, especially SNES and early PS1 era. RPGs are long and it takes a while to really get a good feel for how well they will be. From the little I've played so far, this one did not stand out to me, but wasn't bad. I'd need to play more to really get a feel for it, but the lack of party control and spamming of high MP use spells is really annoying for my play style.