ahhhhhhh this was properly scary. It actually gave me juuust enough real anxiety I thought I might have to quit, but the pace of the game had a way of giving me breaks to calm down so I didn't have to, so kudos for that! I played on normal difficulty the first run and the respiration 'scare' actually helped me reign in my breathing.
I think what I enjoyed most were those words and answer choices, whether it was a proper scare or just a definition that was way too on point. And really almost all the words seemed significant and carefully chosen - I love those layers of subtlety. I also really enjoyed the extra lore on the 'hard' difficulty, and the looping nature of the game.
I will say that I felt the 'final' ending was a bit too ambiguous, in a way? I thought I'd failed again because I wasn't able to turn off the phone, and then the doorbell rang and there seemed to be no one there, which is what also happened in the bad ending. After reading the comments it looks like the phone turned off without my input, and I did get the 'final ending' screen, but it was pretty confusing. Overall though this was a great atmospheric game, extremely unsettling and clever, and perfect for Halloween Eve!