dull kelp
I like the set up to encourage walking, exploring, and the journey from A to B. It certainly needs polish but I already like where its going.
That said, endless miles of bog standard trees and enemy packs will grow stale in time.
Proposal: Hide lots of extra little non-loot (there by non-balance damaging) little extras.
Examples:
Fidget thingies that just respond 'magically' to certain things to do silly little things as if ancient broken down magics that no longer really work but if you do the thing in the place at the time will still throw some sparks or teleport you onto a nearby platform or similar not useful but neat things.
Lovely little glades and clearings with old fallen statues that aren't always there, maybe normally its a forest but at certain times if a player enters that area they enter a spring with a statue in the middle.
Just simple pretty things hidden in small caves in cliffs or carved into the side of a tree.
This is an ancient world that has been criss crossed by spirits and people for ages, and is bound to have all the odd hidden things that people leave. From a cozy tea nook someone hid on an outcropping behind some bushes, to a giant rude gesture carved from a stump, to a child's treasure stash of neat river rocks in the hollow of a tree.
I think this would make the walks, if not shorter, than at least more interesting as people criss crossing the maps found these fiddly bits and simple art isntelations. These expressions of developer whims and in jokes and references to things. Can even hide in them some of the background world build lore you can't find a place for in the main plot lines and the unlock sprites.
And best of all, they give you materials to hang later quick quests and ideas on. Could later hide a small quest with a simple cosmetic tied to finding a bunch of them later, or some side quest of the story about the local gang of 'rebel' kids hiding messages in them... the physical and graphics assets are already in place!