Loved playing it through the end ! It was fun grinding for the different materials you wanted, with the different battles, even if like you mentioned, some battles felt unbalanced once you got some gear haha (But that's not a problem really, feels nice to feel strong once you upgraded your gear)
It's sad there's no sounds at all, even some basic sfx for the forging and battling would go a long way ! (I always try and add sfx to the main mechanics asap, because I know I don't always have time later on), but overall, there's a lot of work behind this entry !
It's fun because we almost have "the same idea", since I haven't seen a lot of entries about actually collecting the resources you forge with, but the execution is totally different, yet also fun !
(Won in 14 days, 55 fights and 1 death)