I actually played the game a few times, almost got to the end of the fourth stage. In my opinion, the game is not all that difficult, but you have to either open the portal asap, or actively hunt the bugs, which is not obvious at first. I think that might be one of the reasons why your friends couldn't get past the first stage, as you said in the Discord.
Other than that, there are some clunky aspects of the game:
As someone commented, getting on the ropes from below is unintuitive.
Someone else stated that the controlls feel strange. This is imho true for the first 1 or 2 playtroughs, but overall is not that big of an issue.
One of my main issues is the UI. It is very small and it is not obvious which abilities are ready at a quick glance. I would personally recommend a progress bar behind the numbers, or just changing their color when tey are charged.
When the enemies clump up, it's hard to tell who you are damaging, or how many enemies there are, but I have no clue how to prevent this (in a game jam scope) and it is something I also struggle in my games.
The dash feels bad to use. It feels like there is a delay between the button press and the animation, it doesn't go very far and is way too slow.
The attack rooting you in place also doesn't feel good, but I suppose it is necessary for balance reasons.
Overall, I think the game is made with passion and isn't bad as a core concept, but it needs a lot more polish to be truly enjoyable. Other than the issues already listed, there are many possible improvements: better camera movement, more feedback: particles, animations, effects, and more gameplay stategy.
I will recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=216_5nu4aVQ as a starting point.