Loooooove this game's design. Some feedback (I'm involved with testing features and bugs/game design for a living, so I'll try and be fairly detailed) .
Mechanics:
1) The gravity seems a little strong. Jumping doesn't feel quite as good as it could. A lighter gravity would also mean players would have more time to react when falling down large pits and the like while or while trying to climb.
2) I understand what you were going for with the knock-back effect when firing, but again, it doesn't feel very good to the player. It makes platforming and shooting at the same time more difficult, and trying to fire at an enemy while near a ledge precarious. I think a firing animation that shows Kinanthi receiving some knock-back without actually changing the player's position will look and feel much better. It will allow for the same effect (making the beam shot feel powerful and satisfying) without interfering with gameplay.
3) Is the player able to swim, or am I missing something? If water kills you, this should be clear, and there should not be rooms with long stretches of water that make the player believe they can swim.
4) It has already been said, but let players change their control schemes. You can have a default one, but let players change it as well.
Gameplay:
1) It would be nice if enemies dropped health on occasion. It is frustrating that the only way to restore health is to go to one of the main "ability pillars" and save there, or to pay for healing from one of 2 NPCs that sell it. I would also rather see the NPCs selling a portable life potion which can be used in the inventory screen, instead of selling a simple "instant heal" as that can be achieved for free going to certain areas.
2) Related to shops, sound effects for buying, and showing your new currency balance, as well as a sound effect for "you don't have enough to buy this" are important.
3) It would be better for enemies to only respawn after leaving areas, instead of them respawning simply by going offscreen by even one pixel.
4) The fine line between when to explain things to the player and to what extent is a difficult one in game design. You don't want to insult the players intelligence and want them to feel clever for figuring things out on their own, but you also don't want to leave them feeling confused or frustrated with unexplained gameplay elements.
- Explain the shooting mechanic and dash mechanic by having the button appear above the players head right after learning the move, and requiring them to press it before continuing, or something to that effect.
- At the first point the use of the blue "energy" becomes relevant, explain the energy system to the player. Something like "The blue circles at the top represent your energy. Certain abilities require certain amounts of energy. Energy will regenerate while Kinanthi is at rest. Walking, climbing, and jumping will prevent energy regeneration." Then on the earth ring item, say something like "walking no longer prevents energy regeneration." or something like that.
- Explain currency the first time the player picks it up. I've played through the game twice and still don't know what the currency is called other than "R" and didn't know what it was for until I met the first NPC shopkeeper.
- It may be helpful to have explanations of the abilities in the inventory menu, with a simple, what they do, how to use them, how much energy they consume, etc.
- Some things don't need explaining. I liked figuring out the jump-switch blocks on my own. I liked finding the secret areas on my own. Put yourself in the eyes of a player who has none of your knowledge about the game you are creating and think "would this be frustrating to figure out on my own? Or would it be fulfilling to figure out on my own? Would I be less fulfilled if the game told me what to do or explained something, or would the game's explanation help?" It's a difficult skill to learn in game dev, but it's extremely important.
5) There are some secret areas that have nothing in them or lead nowhere. I realize this is in alpha, and that is probably why. But it's still frustrating to feel like you found something new and then realize it doesn't lead anywhere.
6) It would be neat if the inventory menu was a little more engaging. Instead of generically equipping a given amount of items, it would be neat if items had categories and could be equipped to different slots. Then when more levels and items are introduced, players could choose between equipables depending on their play-style. Like they could either equip the item that increases the damage of their projectiles, or one that increases the firing speed of their projectiles for example.
7) Some aspects of the boss fights are frustrating, and they feel a bit repetitive when they aren't frustrating. Maybe add a more accurate health bar. It would feel much better knowing exactly how much damage you were doing to the boss. Also, work towards making the boss fights feel more interesting and strategic rather than waiting, dodging, spamming fire, repeat. The best example I can think of this was during the fire boss when his bullet pattern changed and he was firing way more projectiles. There were too distinct "pocket" of safety which you could dash between, and it felt clever and interesting. I felt good for having figured out the attack patter and how to stay safe. Add more clever things like this, and try not to make it feel as frustrating and random at times. The boss fight with the boss who sent shockwaves through the ground was particularly repetitive and frustrating, and felt like attacks were sometimes undodgeable. I did not feel much satisfaction for beating him because I didn't feel strategic, I felt like I spammed fire and got lucky and only took damage a few times.
Art/Music/Writing
1) There were a few sections where the player can go high up enough that the art of the parallax background gets cut off and is empty. This is a relatively easy fix.
2) The music seems like a temp track, as do some (but not all) of the sound effects. The walking sound and the charged up fire sound are some examples that sound relatively rough. Some new sound effects are needed as well (dashing, blade things that fall in the temples, the previously mentioned shopping sound effects as well as some other menu navigation sounds).
3) BUG: Sometimes when you take damage, the music cuts out and does not begin playing again until you enter an area with a new song, or quit and then continue.
4) The map art seems rushed and undetailed. A more detailed map, possible even with a legend, would be much better.
5) Although the art overall is amazing, it would be cool to eventually add some new areas with different feels and colors chemes. After exploring the world long enough, the sameness in the design and color scheme can kind of become tiring to the eyes.
5) It seems as though English could possibly be a second language to the development team. If this is the case, find a native English speaker who can help you work out some of the kinks in the writing. The story in general needs work; it feels as though there is little to know lore at this point, though I realize that could be due to the game being in alpha phase. How did Kinanthi get to "the Origin?" What are the bosses? Why are we fighting them? The game seems relatively sparse in providing answers or foreshadowing at its current stage, which again, is okay. But it definitely is something that needs development.
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That's all I have for now, there's probably a few other things I could say but maybe I will comment again on the next update. This game looks super incredible, and I hope you continue to work on it and create something truly amazing! The art and animation particularly are definitely something really special.
I hope you take at least some of this feedback into account... I normally get paid to consult and provide some of this exact same feedback, but I recently started getting into following independent devs and providing feedback to projects I believed in pro-bono.