Thank you so much for the thorough feedback and for taking the time to play my game. It really means a lot.
This was my first serious, actually-finished game, so I agree there is plenty of room for improvement. You're right that it doesn't have that much in common with The Messenger in the end. I was using it as inspiration for movement, sword combat, and animations, but I suppose those elements can be found in any action platformer so mentioning it wasn't necessary. I agree the game would be dramatically improved with a few music tracks and maybe even a simple parallax background instead of the plain cave tiles but I was really trying to keep things simple to prevent scope creep, since finishing was the main goal. With that in mind I'm still amazed that people who found my game actually enjoyed it and have nice things to say about it!
I was ready to add the D-pad support, but unfortunately I can't find those source files anymore :(
The final grade is based solely on your escape time in the last level so you don't need to worry about the full playthrough. You can grind the final level on its own by selecting the 'Speedrun' option from the main menu :) Let me know your PB!