Firstly- big thanks for playing the game to the end! I was afraid I made the last boss fight too easy, but it turns out it was NOT the case, and barely anyone saw a good ending.
It's nice to be noticed for optimization! It's kinda something that's important in my main job, so I guess I carried it over to my jam projects.
I noticed this bug after release. For whatever reason the walkmesh got built ignoring some stuff, and I didn't notice it earlier.
The art style was something I was aware of, but the first and second levels use the same terrain, and I couldn't swap out the low and high fidelity models easily (the detailed trees were supposed to be in the final fight). In the end I figured the pixelation was enough. The RIGHT solution was to use a different terrain in the final fight, because you barely see it in the dark :)
I'm glad you enjoyed the story! I wanted to use the old tropes about a main character breaking some a rule and suffering the consequences. Being defeated by the REALITY HOG is one of two endings. The other one... goes in a different direction :)
Once again- thanks for playing and detailed review!