AVEE'S PROFILE

I believe that's a fair assessment of Normal Mode. While Easy Mode removes randomness from enemy attack patterns, rebalancing the characters would have been equally desirable.
For instance, Flora starts with a slightly increased chance to find higher tier candies and her Experience multiplier is a little higher, but those increases were definitely not high enough to justify her low attack and survivability. Piper and Karson are hands down the strongest characters.

I had a look at my old notes: the Caznivore's pattern on Normal Mode (a loop of 4 moves) should be as follows:
1: Rock or Paper
2~4: Scissors (20%) or Paper (80%)
His magic (Scissors) puts you in the "Afraid" state which halves your Strength but doesn't damage you. Using Paper on your first turn and Scissors on the next 3 turns should ensure that you eventually beat him without taking any damage.
HOWEVER! I can see in your latest playthrough that he uses Rock during his third turn, which isn't what I intended. So either I made a mistake in the Events or I had the bad idea of changing his pattern during production.

A few enemies can indeed perform any of the 3 moves. Such randomness can definitely make the experience frustrating on Normal Mode.
Still, making this game was a good learning experience for me, and I'm glad that some people enjoy it or at least enjoy the art, cutscenes and choice of music.

Thanks for playing again and for the well-written review! :D
This part made me laugh heartilly. It's right on the mark:

As a result we have a character that is about as durable as glass while having about as much hitting power as wet tissue paper.

Videos #4 and 5 are still private, huh? I'm looking forward to the rest of the playthrough! :D

I just want to thank the staff, everyone involved and especially ankylo for allowing such an awesome website and community to continue on.

The software itself can't cause the psychiatric disorder that is depression, obviously.
But if you feel symptoms associated with depression rising, it might start with a depressed mood, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, etc. And those are likely due to other events or situations in your life or health issues and conditions, physical or psychological.

Don't hesitate to seek help if you want to. You can consult a psychiatrist, join a support group, read up on the subject to better understand it, etc. Always take good care of yourself above all other things.