Thanks for playing and the feedback.
The tutorial is a work in progress. In the near future we plan to add a during play option to skip it, but for now the only way to skip is in the Settings.
The party are Slimes. They eat the weapons, and other items, to power up their spit attack. As the story progresses it will comment on each Slime Clan having different abilities, and your party's clan has the ability to power up from the things they eat.
We do enjoy more open games, and would love to make one, but they also take a lot more time. We picked this style of game, with linear and automated movement, to allow us to work through a smaller and simpler style as our first story game, before we take on something more grand.
Later the party will get some equipment slots, but as Slimes, they will not be full suits of armor. Leveling up currently boosts stats automatically. Later we plan for the things you eat to affect the stat growth.