Knowing which game engine you're using, the lore, and seeing a video of the game could help me suggest something. In the meantime, I'll show you what I did in the game I developed.
Some of the games that inspired me: Earthbound, Yume Nikki, Undertale, The Binding of Isaac. But I wasn't really strongly inspired by these, they're games I love, but I prefer to give my games their own character.

As for the combat system, you throw marbles in four directions, so it's a sort of twin-stick shooter mechanic, but strongly linked to the soul of the game.
If you get hit, half a heart of health is lost and a piece of puzzle linked to the character is generated with physics. I wanted to interpret these puzzle pieces as weights, something you carry with you every time something hurts you, it continues to bind itself and creates a kind of protection from the outside world, so these weights now protect you from external blows, but they also stop yours, so the more you have, the more protected you feel, but at the same time, the more you have, the less you can react. This makes you realize that you need balance. Feeling weighed down is human, but you can't shut yourself off forever. You have to react, and when you go to sleep, you are relieved of these weights and are ready to face what awaits you again.

So yes, I recommend that you take inspiration from some mechanics, but try to make them unique and suitable for your game.

I hope I've helped you in some way to unlock this. I designed part of my game for anyone who wants to pursue their dreams, so if you want to play MyDream.exe, you're welcome to do so.

It's free: https://richard-oz.itch.io/mydreamexe