I appreciate the feedback. My other game designer also did bring up how he thought the jumping/movement is a little floaty, but I didn't really think about it too much, though I will definitely look into tighter controls for my future platforming games.
As for the second part of your comment, if you mean the second animal where you unlock dash (it's supposed to be a dog), you're supposed to traverse back through the same area earlier and complete a jump that was previously impossible. An idea that I admit, was lacking in execution and ease of understanding. I tried to communicate this by making zone transitions that are no longer relevant disappear, but it was quite subtle and I'll definitely look into communicating this better in future games