Great little game with a refreshingly rich and engaging story! The depth and execution of the story were quite impressive for a gamejam project, while also being a solid Metroidvania in its own right (despite what the mean bird might have said). And the graphics and music were gorgeous as well, especially in the forest area.
I know many of the gameplay choices had narrative significance, but I still wished the main character was just a teeny bit faster, especially before getting the dash, and some of the big winding rooms perhaps a bit smaller. It didn't help that I somehow managed to take the exact route through the game that led me to every dead end before finding any upgrades, and some of the backtracks were definitely pretty tedious with the base walk speed.
I think my main complaint is that the ending felt very abrupt for the amount of buildup up until that point, and I feel like many of the plot threads and foreshadowing never really got a chance to pay off (unless I missed something important, which wouldn't be a first for me this gamejam).
And while I agree with the overall message, I'm honestly not sure if this community is the right audience for it? I've only been around for a short while, but I feel like during my time here, it's always been emphasised that the definition of Metroidvania for the purposes of the gamejam is broad. Heck, I'm pretty sure at least a third of the games this edition aren't even side-scrolling platformers (though obviously that's not something you could've predicted while working on this project). So in that way, it does feel like preaching to the choir a little bit.
That said, I still had tons of fun following along with the plot, and really enjoyed how much variety there was in the different areas throughout the end. My favorite was by far the optional(?) area east of the dark caves, it definitely had big old-school RPGMaker horror vibes. For a while, I thought the game was about to go full-on creepypasta on me!
All in all, excellent work!