Feels kind of experimental, similar to Yume Nikki with the whole "entering and waking up from a dream state" vibe the player repeatedly undergoes. It's not a bad idea, but the clunkiness of the controls (i.e. slower/lagging movements when moving diagonally continuously, presence of invisible barriers on paths that seem walkable) as well as the lack of an initial "prod" at the start of the game takes away some of the charm.

My main critique is that the player has to keep waiting for the fallen tree at the start of the path to "reset" before they can start exploring (or reexploring) the map, as indicated by the start of the music cue. I refreshed my game the first time it happened because I thought something went wrong, but once I understood what was happening the wait time sapped my enjoyment considerably upon returning for future explorations because I couldn't gauge how long it would last.

Also, I think you accidentally labelled the "Drop Lantern" control button as "A" (which is already used for Movement), since it turned out to be "Q" after some keyboard mashing. When I got to the "Dock Lantern" section of the map however, I couldn't tell what button to press in order to activate the interaction even after trying the entire letter keyboard.

I enjoyed the music, it was minimalistic and yet it fitted the vibe of the game pretty well. The overall art direction felt coherent. However, I didn't understand what to do and what the consequences of my actions were. I believe that an introduction of a tutorial of some kind or even a context of what the game wants from a player whould improve the gamefeel for the players. See the potential though

i think it was tough to figure out what to do, but i love the inspirations here and the vibe was cool