This is a nice bite-sized metroidvania adventure. There is just enough breadcrumbs here to keep you always wanting more. Possibly my favorite thing about this game is the atmosphere. The melancholy of the music, the whimsical character interactions, the squeaky sound effects - it all makes for a vibe that just jives with me. Exploring the cave is just fun.
A gripe I have with this game is that it doesn't do anything particularly unique. The main run and gun combat is something you've seen many times before and I found that it wasn't particularly engaging. You just hold down the shoot button and face the direction of the enemy. The platforming is also pretty basic. It's the atmosphere and level design that holds me over here.
And about that boss... It's 100 times harder than anything else in the game. it's a gargantuan difficulty spike which is definitely bad game design. I managed to get through it and even no hit the boss without cheesing. I feel that the only way to get through the boss is to figure out what the game developer wanted you to do through trial and error. Furthermore, the boss just simply isn't particularly interesting. It's just a simple projectile to jump over and a projectile from above to side-step. I don't like that you die in just three hits. The boss also regenerates its health a couple times throughout the fight which confuses the player as to their progress. Also it's dumb that you can leave the boss room after the fight has begun. Most of my criticism of this game comes from this one encounter. Luckily, once you make it past the ending is pretty sweet.