i finally came back to this and was charmed by the sense of progression and resource building in such a small game. it seemed like it was going to be a brutal war of attrition until breaking out of the cave for the first time. there's so many fascinating design additions like the varying movespeeds and routing you can do.
though i think my favorite part of this rpg by far was the dialogue! this is truly something to aspire to for writing duo dynamics. i smiled discovering the alternate interaction with the flowers not noted in the guide. reading that this was a poison RPG before beginning made for one of the best starting lines i've seen in a game..
(also, i didn't realize until reading the comments that sunshine revived sky... i thought it was a gag spell signposting a sleep status that would never come up in the game...)