This game is awesome, one of the best in the jam! It looks like an RPG, but it's secretly a point-and-click adventure game! :O
Out of all the games I've played for this game, this one has the hardest-hitting narrative twists. Even when you know something's off or vaguely what the consequences for a certain decision will be, the way it's executed still makes it feel like a gut punch, and there were a couple things that caught me completely off-guard while still making sense. The progression was great too!
The battles are all about figuring out the right tool for a specific job rather than executing strategically intensive fights or gaining power over the enemies. This ties in well with the narrative, making you really feel your low power level. I'm impressed that the "final boss" of sorts is able to bring this type of gameplay to a satisfying conclusion instead of feeling like an awkward slightly harder puzzle or something.
Since you explicitly asked for constructive criticism, I'll point out a couple things I noticed that I think could be improved:
- Even after the children leave the town, the window in the Inn room still mentions them playing outside.
- The tablet is incorrect unless I'm misunderstanding something about how these puzzles work. I think I know what it's supposed to say, but the first two characters on the left half of the tablet don't line up with what they're supposed to be on the right half. If this intended as an additional twist, I'd leave it out since most people playing won't have much experience solving these puzzles.
- The resource-management aspect doesn't really work because you can walk almost anywhere you want and you don't need to use consumables much during any fights. But you also can't just drop it entirely since the decision about whether to donate is important. I don't think this game needs to be "about" resource management, but I do think that asking the player to regularly use one or two healing items during the otherwise "solved" fights would be a good idea. I'd also remove the status healing items from the shop unless I'm unaware of a specific use case for them. The stun item probably doesn't need to be there either unless it's intended as an alternate puzzle solution. This would more or less guarantee that the player will buy the healing items they need to get through fights while still giving breathing room to donate extra seeds.