minor spoilers
I don't know whether or not I've "screwed myself out" of getting the second party member - I can see him outside the Tower but I don't know how to give him a means of communication. In lieu of that, I'm struggling with just a level 4 Ramona to take on the Raccoon Flute guy with or without the flute. I don't know if I have to complete a specific mission (or any mission) to recruit him but I do feel that grinding my way to a comfortable level at which to face him is a bit of a steep trek. Without any other party members or reliable abilities (except for Bribe, I suppose?) I'm reluctant to explore any place with enemies tough enough to speed up the grinding. I did enjoy discovering the small sewer dungeon outside the apartment and finding that the green slimes were easy enough pickings to mow down. I barely minded the treasure-jacking punchline, the real prize was easy loot. The purple slimes that replaced them were less generous. I also abused going to bed for the night for the free heal until I realized that that was adding to the rent. I'm halfway tempted to fish my way to housing security, an impulse mostly tempered by the suspicion that there's a system in place that depletes the fishing if you do enough of it in one day. Or maybe the big fish were just hiding for that third trip.
In attempting to find other places advance the "recruit someone else so I stop dying alone in the woods" sideplot I encountered a few small issues.
In the clinic, the second door on the right locks the game after the narration.
There's a seam in the tree tiles on the left edge of the docks.
You can run freely in the downtown sewer-dungeon, despite the rule about only running in "safe" places, although the effect on the encounter rate is... dramatic.
I think that other people have mentioned them but the random calls cycle pretty often. They're a nice touch and add to the stressed-out gig worker vibe, but maybe when the pace of the game is more defined it might make sense to make some of them one-time only scattered throughout the plot (and replace the rest with terrible spam callers. is Ramona aware her car insurance is expiring? it's not a bug if its annoying on purpose)
Lastly, I like the "DO YOUR BEST/DO YOUR WORST" splash on entering battle, but it's often half-legible due to the overworld background not contrasting against the black. The first few times I saw it I didn't get a chance to read it. If it plays for every battle in the entire game it's not that big of a problem, but it diminishes the impact of the first couple of appearances if it's half cut off.
I enjoyed Slimes a lot and I'm enjoying revisiting the setting premises that were mostly only alluded to or flashbacked about there. This seems like a much more sprawling project with a very different vibe - an intentional throwback to much meaner early console RPGs with some additional negative feedback loops strewn about as a reminder that capitalism. The screenshots (more than my own stymied progress) seem to indicate you've made some decent headway on that sprawl - best of luck with the rest!