Really nice and quite replayable! I played it 3 times while testing different builds, and even though I never got past stage 8, I had a good time with it ! I really liked the spritework and the music too, especially the way the combat theme was so long and varied!
One little criticism is that I did not think the shield slot added so much to the game. Maybe I misunderstood its function, but it felt like it did nothing. The healing also felt a bit weak when considering the enemy attack afterwards, so maybe an option would be to combine healing and defending into the same action? (When I was on enemy 7 with lv.7 healing & defense, my healing output was merely +5 hp, which felt kinda unhelpful)