Ok, thanks for the clarification. Yes, equipment was extremely limited because I was thinking about trying to keep the game under an hour. Since the story was so short, I didn't include a ton of extra content. I'd say that's one of the things I'd love to update if I had the chance to work on the game more. Until I can afford MZ (which is currently priced at something ridiculous like $70), It'll have to stay as it is. If I ever upgrade it, I'll probably do a lot more, including replacing the 5th dungeon with a real dungeon, updating enemy atk and m.atk to be a little lower (I keep being told about being one shotted), adding consequences if you use Leah to "solve" the second dungeon(this was in the original plans, but was cut to save on runtime since the game had already grown so large), and adding full epilogue scenes and probably adding some small end game content, including some stuff with Vox, the Star Breaker. Oh, and I'd fix the stupid endless loop if you decide to recruit Vox! Still kicking myself over that one...
I'm actually surprised that you were so low leveled at the end of the first dungeon. In my own playthrough, I was level 4 when I faced Leah. I was level 6 by the time I made it out. I mention this mainly because I knew the correct sequence for all the puzzles and where the secret chest was, I honestly expected most players to get much more powerful than me on account of taking longer while trying to solve the puzzles. I'd advise grinding until at least level 5 before the second dungeon as Leah at level 5 makes quick work of the strongest enemies. Not sure which enemies were one shotting you with the first hit, though. Do you have a link to your video, or did the stream not convert automatically into a vid? A tip while grinding: The Stars will heal your party once they're lit, so you could use that as a recovery point whenever you want to grind for money or exp.
I certainly wouldn't advise selling your Star Souls for a little equipment. Since they're a finite resource in the game (for story reasons, as they're produced by the Stars over long periods of time), I'd hold onto them for boss fights.
I advise the following order of purchases: New claws for Fitz for your first purchase (he's almost useless in combat without an upgrade to his attack until later when his skills start rolling in and you begin facing bosses). Then trade your first Star Fragment for the Star Staff for the extra magic power and give it to Leah. With all that Magic Attack, she obliterates anything she hits. After this point, buy armor with money, and Star Sword with your next two Fragments.