Ohh, what I meant by the shops, were the shops in the village rather than the overworld. Like you would get money from the enemies during your escape and use it at the village. BUT there was supposed to be another town at the port. I didn't consider the idea of going back to the village once you start your journey but yeah that is something I should have included.
And thank you so much for liking the way it was set up. I wanted to play with gameplay and storytelling a bit in the beginning, where initially things are quite difficult and you would die quickly if you aren't careful, but things would end up getting slightly easier once you get Kasey to help relieve the tension a bit. The encounter is actually like an optional super boss that you can beat if you plan carefully with Kasey but it is intentionally set to be hard to accomplish.
I definitely wouldn't have been able to make the visuals as interesting if it wasn't for the fantastic rtp modifications and assets by the community. Which is a bit sad considering the closure of the forums.