Oof. The pictures and animations are great, but the gameplay here is a bummer.
The game has a big transparency problem. You don't get much information, and you need to level up a ton before you can get any. It isn't just about the night minigame either - you don't know the likelihood of finding items, or if the room you are in affects that. You don't see what your caps are for the various stats. You don't see what stats you get for each action. You can't see what an upgrade costs without putting the points in.
Stats pretty much only matter in increments of 5, but you level them up one at a time. This is pointless. Save yourself the "divide by five" calculation and just make the points matter.
Items that help you find items feel like a horrible outcome. I would always prefer to find something with an impact.
Items that adjust the point cost of level ups feel mandatory - feels like I'm wasting my time if I level without these.
It would be good to have items that influenced Alice's stats or mood outside of "70% to not lose some stats". I can't just give her a gift? Maybe an item that just gives a chunk of experience? The only way to advance is to play a minigame where you can't see the failure condition. It's a slog.
The "escape" option doesn't appear to work. It flashes on the screen super fast and then I get the 'caught' dialogue. Feels like there isn't actually a wait in the programming.
Something feels odd in the text scroll, it looks like something is being skipped or written in super fast, but I can't make it out. I couldn't find any option to control text speed?