A cute concept reminiscent of the influences you described, but lacking a lot of clarity/feedback that made the experience a bit awkward.
-Favorite part was the home play area for the creature you had collected/combined together, as it helped the feeling of ownership/companionship with your discoveries. And though a small thing, when trying to collect the creatures to take home, them avoiding your mouse made that feel a bit more engaging than it would have otherwise.
-Not having any kind of indicator that a combination 'failed' made it just feel broken. Though I'd read in your comments below/page that it should be working, so attempted it many times as I expected I'd finally find a 'valid combination', and did. But it really needed a clear indicator for it failing or succeeding.
Understandable with a game jam time frame, but it would have felt better visually for you to have just hidden the shop instead of labeling it not available, as that could otherwise mean you just needed to unlock it. Though you mentioned in your game description that wasn't the case which helps a bit.
Viewing post in Coalescence (Vimjam) jam comments
I agree with your feedback here. Not having a clear and visible indication that a combination failed, or a list of which combinations worked was an oversite on my part. Originally I planned on the Dex menu be a visual tree graph of combinations and outcomes, I did not plan on adding an animation when a combination was found though. I think if I would scrapped certain aspects sooner rather than later I could have made the end experience a little more fulfilling. Thank you for your well thought out impressions.