Hello Synaut. The game has a fantastic aesthetic that I don't often see; that alone makes it very striking, and it has many great visual and sound design choices that fit perfectly.
The introduction is good. Just when I felt it was dragging on a bit, the game started. I placed all the tiles, but I couldn't find any way to progress. I started a second playthrough, but during that animation sequence, I died and the screen just went blank. On my third attempt, I placed the tiles hoping something would happen, but nothing did. I realized the only alternative was to click "New Game" (which feels weird to start a "new game" when you haven't even really played yet, plus it warns you that you'll lose your progress).
When I finally clicked "New Game," the tutorial started, and that helped a lot—I was able to understand the mechanics pretty well.
In the part where you choose the stone, I think players need to know what they are choosing. Even using the "investigate" action gives no information about it. I thought the idea was to keep it a mystery, but the game explains what the stone does as soon as the match starts. As a player, I don't see any benefit in making blind choices like that.
Later, I struggled to understand what to do when it told me to "close session" (or something similar). I think it would be better if it closed automatically or if it were indicated more clearly.
It would be nice to be able to remove a tile you just placed in an empty space.
During the second choice, I thought having the "identify" ability would let me see what I was picking, but no. It felt worse than the first time because it's still a blind choice. The same thing happens with the instruments you pick up.
Regarding the tools, I had to experiment to figure out how they worked, which leads to consequences like accidentally losing a tile, for example.
Then some orange circles appear, and there isn't any clear information on how they will affect you. The same goes for the bombs.
It's also hard to understand at first what the blue and purple colors on your indicator mean. Only after drawing do you get a rough idea of what they represent.
In the end, I lost because I couldn't understand how the abilities used to "attack" me actually worked.
In summary, the game is good. I understand that old-school games often don't explain things and expect you to learn by trial and error—if that's your intention, keep it as is. But if it's not the intention, I think the game could really use some more explanations, because it ended up being frustrating not understanding why I lost.