Thank you so much, Mist! I'm very glad you enjoyed the game. I'll make sure to implement fixes for all these little things. Most of the problems came down to time, in the end, as they always do. I implemented a cooldown system for the stick, and used the same cooldown system for the fireball... without separating them lmao. As for the boss, I kind of wanted it to look more like it's opening itself up to shoot fireballs, but ran out of time for the art. And the "Reverting to the previous room every time you die" was definitely not intentional, it seems I just missed a few checkpoint spots :p
As for the upgrades, I tried to point a bit toward the upgrades menu with the "UPGRADES AVAILABLE!" text next to the pause button that appears when you have both two gems and an upgradeable weapon, but due to an unforeseen glitch, it doesn't seem to appear until after you've already paused. rip.
And I probably should've mentioned the pause menu map showing gem locations somewhere in-game or in the description to make people look into the pause menu lol