Eww, sounds a bit rough. Unbindable controls in this day and age? Gotta wonder why they're not using some open source input mapping library that supports both dInput and Xinput.

Do we know if the writer is someone other than one of the main staff? Cause if the writing level is Rick & Morty or BBT levels of eyerolling self-referential humor, that could be a bad sign towards how open they are to feedback.

Ask politely and X Plus is likely to listen (over at Steam ...). Whether they listen and care (over at Steam!)? When it's reporting bugs and pointing out improvements, sharing your experience, they will. Unlikely they change story as it is so close to release. ;-)

Being a Unity game ... they will fix the input system. They even hinted on a patch for the demo, which, like Syberia's, will likely never finds its way to GOG.

Add: As regards humor, self-referential or otherwise, maybe it doesn't translate all that well from Japanese to English and other languages. It is a game made by Japanese developers after all. Doesn't mean the English script can't be changed to adapt to western sense of humor. It's all text output so ... if they wanted to, translators could. ;)

Add: Inspiration, I do have the strong feeling that one of their inspirational sources for the challenge stages must have been レッドアリーマー 魔界村外伝 or Gargoyle's Quest as it is known here.

Overall, it was *positive*, but only because the demo doesn't rely on the writing so it's really easy just to ignore it and go on. I expect the controls issues will be fixed. They felt more bug-like than "let's not do it".

The game is made with Unity. Nuff said.

As for the writing, it's worth pointing out that the developer is Japanese (and one that has been around since 1986 apparently) . Therefore, i believe this is just a "localisation" issue. Translator replacing japanese language puns with english ones. Seen it happen way too many times.
But since the game features no voice audio, it is hard to be sure.

EDIT: Basically what Mori_Yuki said.

Oh wow, you are absolutely right. Can't believe i missed that connection!
Furthermore, if you strip Smelter of the base building elements, you basically have the exploration/overworld system of Gargoyle's Quest (GB) !