ok after playing a bit more I've figured out the difficulty with lining some stuff up. The collision is actually detected some distance behind where it appears to be with the camera. If you stand next to a brain/memory and turn away from it, you will pick it up. I still don't understand combat (at one point I was at -34hp, then jumped to 55 when I beat the enemy), or what causes switching between pink/green floor, but I did figure out I can avoid most combat using that map you posted in another comment and collect all 9 memories. Which results in the program just closing?
Overall looks interesting and I feel like there could be more to it, but it needs some work.