itch.io

 - "I like that summons stick with the party and level-up."

Thank you. Summons leveling up and having their own unique roles in battle is one of the combat features I'm most excited about developing. I will be expanding on that greatly in the coming patches.

 - "There are a lot of items, and I do like that I can craft them in the field, but it's a little underwhelming when some of the items that I have access to (at least early on) basically all do the same thing - bat wings and rat meat have the same effect, and other items only offer tiny changes in outcome. I know the game is working with small numbers, but having options for +3 HP/MP vs +4 HP/MP vs +5 HP/MP feels like bloat, not opportunity. Most of the items so far also feel pretty standard; HP/MP regen, stat boosts."

Yes, the early items are very close in terms of the HP and MP that they're capable of healing. This is partly a function of the fact that the numbers are so small. In my experience, its not actually bloat. They are intended to have different niches: 3 HP/MP items are meant to be gathered more quickly and require less time navigating crafting scenes to make, as well as resources. They are meant to be the time-efficient item to use, with 4 HP items being medium time, and 5 HP items being the most expensive to gather and craft in terms of time and resources. This does end up being relevant as, at certain thresholds, being efficient means using the lower tier items, as higher-tier items will over-heal and thus wasting time and resources to craft. I will add more unique craft-able items over the course of the game. Also, 5 HP items are potions, which can only combine with foods when making soups to make high HP/MP healing foods, and food can only combine with potions to make middling HP/MP consumables that heal status conditions or give bonuses like barrier. It's part of what makes Life of the Party so versatile and tactical.

 - "Similarly, there's a decent spread of magic spells, but I'm entirely sure if there's any benefit yet to using one over another. Some enemies are maybe weaker to certain elements?"

There are elemental weaknesses: most of the enemies early game have an elemental weakness. A scan system is in development: I was actually playtesting it before I saw your posts. I can't guarantee an ETA on it, but it will show enemy stats, the attacks they can use and their effects, and the elements they are strong and weak against. A Scan system is one of my highest priorities.

 - "It would be nice to have a division in the inventory for ingredients, battle items, and misc items. That way I'm not scrolling through a whole list of fish and monster parts looking for spellbooks to use or what healing items I have left."

I was thinking that myself: I could probably implement that before the next patch.

 - "Does the agility stat have any effect at this point in the game? For all of my battles, my characters went first, and then the monsters."

Yes: while the alpha slime and alpha bat have 1 agility, most of the other alpha monsters in the game have more than 1 agility and will out-speed you if you only have 1. Luck has no effect in the game though, I have no intention of programming anything related to luck and removing it from all interfaces over tie.

 - "Where do I find more gold? I'd like to buy some new abilities, recipes, and supplies."

Gold can be acquired primarily through M.I.L.F. contracts, though you can also get some gold for completing A Peel For Help (250) and defeating Mimi's Dryad in the Abandoned Castle in East Phurston (1000): gold bonuses for learning summons and leveling up summons will be coming in the next patch. The ratio will be 15 gold for each HP of the summon learned and 25 gold for each level of the summon above level 1. As of now, the most efficient gold farming is M.I.L.F. contracts, though.

 - "Enemy scaling could use some work. Random encounters so easy as to be an annoyance, while bosses suddenly spike in HP and damage capabilities, requiring a dozen turns and multiple items. Something in-between would be nice, as a challenge and signpost of increasing difficulty."

This is partly by design. The intended gameplay loop is that basic enemies are meant to be AoE farmed with the Hunter's Map for crafting materials that are used to fight Alpha monsters to get gear upgrades. Also, using consumable items is the intended way to heal in combat: primarily through the use of Life of the Party to make consumable items apply to your whole party and not just the user. I can look into adding some more intermediate enemies, but the enemy scaling is by design: they both have different roles in the games combat system.

 - "Quests could also use some work. Right now most of them are plain and repetitive: running back and forth between two people, fighting the same basic monster half a dozen times, using the same spell over and over again in the same room."

This is also by design. Early quests are intended to be a hidden tutorial: just to introduce the player to the game's core mechanics: fishing, cooking, alchemy, M.I.L.F. contracts, using the Hunter's Map, dungeon crawling, etc. Quests outside of Phurston will be much more difficult with boss fights against Alpha monsters or monsters on par with Alpha monsters in terms of difficulty. 

 - "I think there's too much writing, in multiple senses. Since this is a visual game, you don't need to write any non-dialogue text, especially during conversations. Either convert it to dialogue, show it with the little speech bubbles, or cut it.  And to the extent that dialogue shows the personality of a person, I think you could cut a lot of that too and still get the vibes across. You establish the characters as certain tropes/archetypes early on, there's no need to overdo it. And honestly, since the MC is pretty basic self-insert, I think you'd be fine to make him essentially a silent protagonist. Less talking, quicker cutscenes, and the sooner the player can get to the crafting and battling." 

There is less dialogue going forward, it's mostly to establish the personalities, world build, mix in some humor, etc. I understand going from the end of Sorceress Cavern to the end of The Real Game Begins can drag on a bit, but the game becomes much more a war game with the core gameplay loop of gathering and crafting to fight Alpha monsters with afterwards. The player character is not meant to be a silent protagonist though: he will be updated with more fleshed-out with dialogue and a role in the story.

I hope that answers all your questions. If you have any more, let me know and I will get to them as soon as I can.