Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it!
The musical style choice is definitely a bit experimental. I selected it partially because I wanted to break out of my comfort zone and try producing a new musical style, but there is also indeed a heavy Nujabes influence there in general (the Samurai Champloo comparisons are hard to ignore!) There isn't any one particular character who serves that "defiant" role, but the narrative as a whole follows a theme of rebellion and deconstructing social norms that does slowly build through the events of the plot (with the ending of this prologue serving as a kind of catalyst for that).
There are a few roaming enemies that were designed to be intentionally unavoidable, mainly the ones related to tutorials, as well as a few others that ensure the player collects all the DNA Samples here, since you won't be able to return to this area in the final game. The other enemies typically have a random movement pattern which means they can usually be avoided, but since they are randomized I can imagine there are many situations where it isn't actually possible to maneuver around them. I could investigate a more consistent movement pattern for these enemies if you feel that would improve the game. As for human enemies dropping DNA, I guess that's just some of the weird "don't question it" type of RPG tropes.
When it comes to Beat, those go up every time you use a non-finisher skill, and they are spent altogether when you use a finisher. You also lose one Beat when you're hit by an enemy, incentivizing skillful deflection and Aggro. It doesn't sound like the game was too hard for you with this in mind, but I actually wonder if I may need to make the game a bit more difficult in order to ensure the player gets the hang of the Beat mechanic.
Regarding Kiro's design, could you elaborate on what feels disrespectful? I'm always open to making changes to the game if there is any perceived offense.
Right now, this game is unannounced, so I haven't actually put a ton of thought into how I want to go about making a demo for it. These characters in the prologue aren't the primary protagonists, so if I do make a demo I might opt for something further into the game that better represents the progression system and characters. I'll put some thought into that for sure.
Thank you for playing!