I liked this game a lot! I just wished there was more of it
I don't want to repeat a lot of the same things as passiv_boi did, but I had a lot of the same feelings about the game. I liked the premise, and I thought the game started to pick up after the adventure started, but I agree that the game's pacing was a little shaky in the first few scenes. The amount of art and writing put into this game is incredible for only one month of development time, but the amount of WIP visuals is a little staggering.
Implementation of Theme:
The folklore exposition at the beginning of the game is a bit much, but it does a good job at setting up the story. Even though the game is not finished, I can clearly see how the folklore in the introduction draws parallels to the characters in the story's present day. I think this is what you did best, although it may have been better to stagger some details of the story, in my opinion. It was a lot of information to immediately receive, all at once.
Story:
The reason the rating for this is low, even though I liked the story, is simply because it isn't done. The scene where Jacob presents the writings he found and is told to keep it a secret is my favorite part of the story so far, but it is also right before the game is cut off for the jam version.
Presentation:
Like I said earlier, there are a LOT of WIP CGs and BGs. Obviously, it's impossible to draw everything in a month, and the amount of art you were able to get out is amazing. But it does take you out of the game somewhat when the main two drawn BGs are in-progress sketches.
Writing:
I don't have very much to say here, except that the writing had some minor grammar issues and syntax errors. Nothing a proof reader or two couldn't fix. I also personally felt like it was hard to determine who the perspective of the game was meant to follow at times, and what was an internal thought compared to what was said out loud. On top of that, I think there were a few instances where dialogue was attributed to the wrong person (If I recall correctly, there was a line from Mama tagged as from Jacob).
Creativity:
The creativity was showed off very well in the beginning and the end of the game (the folklore section and the ruins scene). It makes me want to know more about the world's history, so I would say you did a good job at this as well! There were parts of the worldbuilding that went completely unexplained (like the magic system and the academies) but I don't think they need to be exposited on endlessly if they aren't super important to the plot.
Overall, I liked this game! Keep up the good work, and I hope to see what comes of this story if it is some day completed! :)
Edit: I tried doing the drop-down menu that the other person did but it did NOT work so I removed it LMFAO