I originally wanted the AI to be able to perform more complex behaviors, including leaving and returning to battles. Since stuff was supposed to happen concurrently inside and outside of battles, I wanted to make sure time was always passing - hence the attack timers. The bigger problem is the lack of a tutorial and the fact that the lack of animations makes it really unclear what's happening in battles!
I had a tonne more stuff planned for the AI, but just getting the systems in place took upwards of 24 hours, so the AI ended up being really barebones ;-;
I tried to make the traditional RPG menu quicker to navigate, but as it was implemented that was a huge mistake! Don't try to fix things that aren't broken during a game jam, lol.
It ended up being a way bigger project than I had anticipated! It's only a fraction of what I had planned, so maybe you'll get to see that full game sometime in the next 20 years :P
Sorry it wasn't more clear! During battle, your arrow keys select which target your action will have, and ZXCV navigate the menu. You can only attack after the timer next to your character reaches 100 - before that, any battle actions will be disabled. You can tell if an action took by looking at the Battle Log, as well as the menu selection sound.
