Great write up!
I really appreciate the time you took to share your experience. For the most part, the sandbox segment is to split up the main story parts, which is something I personally prefer so I'm not stuck reading the whole time. I made the sandbox segments have locations that unlock passively through the main story, but currently it acts more like a foundation for the next update. As for the immersion breaking, I do agree that it can sometimes feel clunky switching from sandbox to main story, but that speaks more on my writing and planning ability than anything else and will likely get reworked. I tried to streamline the main story as much as possible, which is also why the sandbox segments might feel off, I just wanted to avoid the bumbling around the map and clicking everything to find the next story part. I'll look into making a good in-between of the two options.
Regarding the minigame, I made it simple on purpose for "one-handed" gaming, but that doesn't excuse it for being mundane. Even I think it's rather boring, so I'll figure something out to make it more interesting.
While I was developing the current version, I was worried about bloating the game with tons of renders where a body part shifts like two inches, so I kept it to a minimum in favor of animations. However, after updating to the current version, the size of the game didn't increase all that much, I've already planned on increasing the number of renders/animations in future updates.
I've fixed all your minor complaints; they will be applied in the next update. I also do lower the master and music volume, but if I forget to do so that's on me. The wording about the volume didn't come across as I intended.
Thanks for your review, it helps make the game better!