Thanks for playing! Yeah I don't know what the big engine games are even doing during their loading screens. I'm parsing a bunch of text files and even doing some image analysis to find sprite boundaries, but the program still starts instantly even in debug builds.
I've gotten a number of requests for auto-restart, so I'll have to consider if I can fit that in as an option. I do want dying to break the flow at least a little bit, because I want the player to stop and consider changing their strategy, rather than just rushing through and hoping they don't die next time. Also particular to this game is that the game over screen is important for story reasons, because it reminds the player that their spear is their snake companion and builds attachment because it seems to be magically reviving you, both of which are essential to make later cutscenes understandable. I'll think if there are ways I can still satisfy these requirements with auto-revive.
(FWIW you can actually press R the moment you get hit, you don't have to wait for the "press R to restart" message to appear. That doesn't fix having to move your hand, but you can rebind it).