This was great! I understand no Japanese whatsoever but I still fully enjoyed this. The animation was highly appealing, the sound gave me constant nostalgia, the voice acting was so terrific, I was trying to figure out how you coordinated so many voice actors to speaking a different language so successfully, the story was dramatic, yet flowed much like an RPG would, and the character development left me itching for more.
I understand that you do not want to make a sequel. My comment is: if you're feeling up to it AND you have new ideas as bright as the ones behind this, then go for it. I agree with what you said about so many titles being ruined with sequels. Anyway, I can tell you poured a lot of effort into this so let me tell you, every one of these stars... You've earned them.