Thank you for your feedback and glad you enjoyed the game. The story is actually not connected to any other games. It's kind of a parody on a standard JRPG and characters and the names are just generic RPG archetypes: Hero, a main character RPG hero; Lancer, a character who butts heads with the main character and is often also an antihero and/or rival; Mage, a character skilled in magic; Priest, a religious priest who probably uses holy magic. I had to write this quickly and with most of the characters unseen, this was the fastest way to create and characterize them.
Thanks for mentioning potential confusion about having to stand on certain tiles and use the inventory. It reminded me when I was making the tutorial, I wished I could have a part show the player how to use items. Like, being told to move Hero to the top of the bed and press Shift to select the paper. Then, when the paper is selected, the player is told "Very good. You have completed the tutorial!" But I knew that would be too complicated to complete bug free by the end of the jam. Not sure if this solves what you were talking about, but something I want to try adding.