Thanks so much! I'm really glad to hear people are enjoying the game. 😄
Keeping the graphics to a small window in the corner was a pretty important part of the game's setup for me. I did use a couple of tricks to make the Deer God feel 'out of place' compared to the other graphics, but I tried to limit this to things like it using a colour palette and transitional effects that were beyond the capabilities of PCs of the era compared to the graphics used elsewhere.
I must admit, though, I'm kind of surprised that people having trouble with the safe code is such a consistent report; enough so that I was actually terrified I'd accidentally uploaded the game with a major bug that broke the solution or something lmao. The first person who playtested it seemed to figure out the puzzle pretty easy, and since he was someone I'd considered a pretty good baseline for 'regular joe who doesn't play a huge amount of adventure games' I was actually worried I'd made it *too easy* at first... oops!
I'm also kind of surprised to hear that you haven't seen the "test SFX" option in a Ren'Py game before. I can sort of get it with the very basic first-time developers, but adding it into the menu is actually remarkably simple so I'd be surprised if more of the 'high-level'/experienced Ren'Py devs aren't doing it already; I'm pretty sure it's as easy as un-commenting a line of code in the default options.rpy file and then changing the default file pathway to whichever sound effect you want to use? Either way, glad to hear it was a positive for you.
Your point about the ritual's purpose being told upfront is actually not too far off my own thoughts during development tbh, and if I'd had a bit more time to tweak the game's writing/story it's probably something I would've amended, although I will point out that the narration's text during the 'secret' ending in no way reflects the author's own viewpoint regarding the attractiveness of skullheaded beings. ;v (as someone who's been a fan of the Mahou Tsukai No Yome manga since before it even got an official translation I feel like I probably gave myself away on that front with the Elias namedrop lmao)
Lastly, to answer the puzzle queries you had: **SPOILERS**
- The axe & shovel are essentially there as red herrings and can be safely ignored (the axe did originally have uses, albeit ones that would've put you further onto the 'bad' ending routes, but those were ultimately cut (hah!) due to time constraints)
- The totem placements are a bit trickier, and possibly even a little unfair in the game's current state (it was originally planned that the player would also have to find & place the third totem the same way as the others but there wasn't enough time to properly implement that so it comes pre-placed instead), but the idea is that the book telling you to place the totem 'before' you is meant to hint that it goes in the centre while the final totem goes to the right through the process of elimination
- The forest maze thing is... actually a pretty awkward oversight on my part, and one I'm shocked to hear no-one else has raised yet. There's no real trick to it other than that I accidentally placed the two things to avoid at the South & East exits instead of the North & East exits as intended; my bad!