Out of all the game ideas I've played so far, I have to say that this is, without a doubt, one of the most creative ones and one that perfectly captures the spirit of this jam. The theme was integrated seamlessly into both the gameplay and the narrative, which is fantastic.
The art style is beautiful. I really enjoyed it because it feels like a blend of 3D and 2D elements, creating a unique and refreshing visual identity for the game, at least from my perspective.
I also liked the dialogue system, especially the way you present the character portraits. You basically created a small camera focused on their faces, right? I noticed this because while I was reading the dialogue, I realized the background was actually the same environment where I was standing. At one point, Boss's portrait even showed a bit of the fallen hero in the background, haha.
Although the game is theoretically supposed to become harder for us and easier for the hero, I didn't really feel a dramatic difficulty curve. Unfortunately, I think part of that feeling came from a recurring bug where the hero would endlessly wander back and forth between two points without doing anything besides walking. In fact, this prevented me from progressing several times during the tutorial, since the player character wouldn't attack me and would just get stuck in an infinite running loop.
And man... that twist where the tutorial prevents us from attacking the player was simply brilliant! I genuinely loved the creativity behind that idea. Seriously, great job!
The game was both fun and intriguing. Poor Boss... and to think that all of his memories are nothing more than part of a simple game.
Congratulations on the project, and I wish you the best of luck in the jam!