Thank you for your feedback! Although there is one part of your review that's confusing me a little.
Where exactly did you get stuck? You mentioned both the teardrop puzzle and not encountering the first battle, and this room and the first fight are just two maps away from one another. That only leaves one room where you might have gotten stuck and it's one that's mostly designed to be transitional. None of my testers encountered a problem here.
I'm just looking for some clarification if that's alright.