Thanks so much for the praise, but especially for the meaningful feedback!
Link visibility is an easy fix. So is kicking to chat. I mean, I *could* add a chat button, or even trigger chat by clicking on the npc. But I won't, because people kicking each other to say hello is too funny to pass up. I was thinking of adding a guard npc to the entrance. That'll make a good learning moment to teach that mechanic.
As for the minimap, I'm incredibly on the fence for all the usual reasons and a few more stemming from my own design goals. I'll definitely add a radar to help track nearby mobs, but a minimap? It'll take some more thought. Possibly make it a toggleable thing...? For now, I'll add some more signs and unique map features to help track location. Maybe something like the rocks from dark souls too.
As for the ending and lack of story choices... well, I kinda ran out of time for the jam. The beginning and ending were casualties of this fact. I'd always intended on it taking multiple runs to complete the full dungeon, and choices on early floors affecting things on later floors and even later runs. The chat system was built with this goal in mind actually. Expect more secrets, more choices, and a few proper endings in later updates.
I'll do a proper writeup of my modded SugarCube2 when I get close to releasing it. My short term projects are more or less a test run for that. This one included. (Hence the key bindings!)