I explained this more clearly in another comment, but you need to only press the up key when on top of the square. I'm sorry this wasn't communicated in the game, hopefully this makes it more doable :)
The mountain has been conquered - thank you for making such an enjoyable game.
I don’t think there’s anything “wrong” with the difficulty as it was a conscious choice even if it doesn’t cater to everyone, in the same way that I wouldn’t expect puzzle levels to be made easier just so everyone can solve them. (Still, thank you for the slow-mo version for noobs like me)
spoilers
I ended up starting from the beginning since it sounds like I softlocked it in that state. I’m still worried there are other ways to softlock that section but I managed to avoid it on my second go-around.
I ended up progressing through the middle of the decay block ceiling on my new attempt, though I kinda cheesed that too as I passed through one of those purple “rollers” that normally knocks me down, but that effect sometimes doesn’t register if an input is given at a certain time. (i.e. if a roller is on the edge of a block, you can sometimes pass through it and go one unit up and to the right/left to make it to safety).
Thank you for playing!
And stupid me, of course that's a softlock! I tried to prevent softlocks as best as I could, but I totally missed that one.
The purple cloud thing is something I was aware of but didn't change (didn't see a quick fix), instead I designed the cloud pattern so that (hopefully) only one type of solution is possible (though abusing the buggy cloud behavior is not required). Would you mind sharing your solution, if you still remember?
Edit: okay the purple clouds are actually more bugged than I thought (And I'm not sure it's something I can fix, considering the limitations of realtime puzzlescript), I'll have to try and redesign the pattern to only allow the intended solution
Edit 2: Okay I did (hopefully) fix it, was just missing something obvious :)