Thanks for playing and leaving feedback.
Saving is currently disabled. We have made many changes to the backend that broke the previous save system. We want to finish a bit more refactoring of the core logic before we dive into updating the save system.
There is currently not a way to use items or heal between battles, but it is on our list for the next update. We are working on figuring out the best way to update inventory screen UI to add using items. The plan to start will be to only allow using healing items from the inventory.
We plan to completely change the game's combat. The original game design was focused on being simple and quick, so we limited the number of buttons and clicks to do things. With our new focus on being more RPG-like we want to expand the combat so that you can do more, even if it means more clicks and menus. We are leaning towards full access to the Slime's personal bag, rather than just what is in their belt. They will have more abilities, though they will still be tied to consuming items. We have a lot of other potential ideas, but this is the core direction we are thinking in.
Our next update will be reworking the early game to make it easier. We plan to add a new town before the camp fight, and to make the camp and knight fights a bit easier. For the original version the combat was the core gameplay, so it was combat heavy, and we tried to use the harder knight fight to force people to learn the affinities before going further. We really failed on making the system clear enough so that fight has been a barrier for a lot of people to seeing the rest of the story. The combat overhaul is still a ways out as we need to redo a lot for it, so in the interim we will simply make the combat easier, to allow people to get further in the game and see more of the story. We currently have 5 towns in place, in addition to your starting town.
Did you check out the Tavern? Our latest update was the start of adding the ability to do more in towns. The tavern is the first piece of that, with a bit of extra story and personality. We have other locations planned. For now this is just a menu with panels showing the location's options, but we are working on a toggleable option to see your party move to each location as you choose it. You won't have free movement with this system, but can explore the town from the menu. This is also why we have the minimize button in place already.
Thanks again for playing. Glad you liked it enough to try twice!