Thank you for such a detailed comment!
Glad you enjoyed the world, when I first planned out the items I actually wanted you to have to stick with what you pickup even if you don't like it, though later I realized it might be nice if you could at least put on your old hat if you didn't like the new one but I ran out of time.
You are right about the meter, it is sort of a health bar that is always going down but will go down far quicker during a storm/extreme fog (when the sirens go off) and ideally the player would stay by the fire during these periods, I didn't want to explain it properly in game but I absolutely could of made it clearer with some more hints of sorts.
Super happy you liked the transitions, and thank you for the info! I believe the original Mario game had a sort of similar impact on our culture with games where going to the right is going further in the level. Very cool to hear it's the same in film! I did for sure struggle with camera placements and angles so this is nice to learn, not sure if I'll have an effect like this in any future projects but I hope I can apply this someday!
Glad you enjoyed!