I have the same problem as Sophie and could not progress after while. Which is a shame since the game is solid AND pretty!

Also, idk what causes the issue but there's horizontal visual glitches that pop up every now and then. It doesn't really take away from the gameplay, but I still wanted to let you know ♥

really charming characters, i was not able to pick up the sponge so couldnt progress.

Would be a good idea to do some y-sorting on the sprites so that the player and other objects order properly, and the screen transitions are a little rough, but looks good beyond that.