Thank you for playing and the great feedback.
This version of the game is story mode. We plan to release an endless mode later, which will skip most, or all, of the story. The story is a bit of the classic good vs evil/rebels fighting the evil empire, though with a bit of lightheartedness from some of the younger members of the party. We have a general story planned out, but are still tweaking the details to better fit the game format. We have plenty of story to tell, but also want to keep the game flowing.
We would love to create a full, epic JPRG, but that requires a lot of time. We picked this linear style to try to get something released sooner, and use as a springboard for the next project. This style also translates well into mobile, which is how many people play games these days. We are debating adding some forks where you can choose which path to take, but will probably save that for later to focus on the core gameplay first.
Items have levels. The level is shown at the bottom left of the popup tooltips. I can see how adding something that is always visible would help, but then debate adding indicators for everything else, which would not fit. We will think on this and if we can add some indicators of the item details. The item levels match the game level, which is currently planned to go up to 20, so it would need to show the number, rather than just being a color indicator. We also plan to add a sort feature, which will allow quick sorting by level, or several other options, and could help with the quick feel for how powerful an item is. We also plan to add a reason to unload older stuff, so you won't have as much weaker stuff to worry about.
You can currently disable the tutorial from the Settings screen. We plan to add a tutorial skip option in game. We just added the skip for basic dialog right before the jam submission. The tutorial uses a more complex system, so needs extra code for the skip to work with it.
With your characters being Slimes, you can't equip most gear. At the start you can't equip any extra gear. Later, there will be an option to upgrade your belt with a harness for a helmet, and a special pouch for accessories. The equipping will be done in the Inventory, where we have 2 more slots that are currently hidden.
The save system is disabled currently. There are some bugs with loading to the correct spot in the event system that need to be worked out. We figured that the current demo is short enough to not really need it, so have put it lower on the todo list.
Thanks again!