Big time thanks, it's a weird combination of reassurance and sadness to hear that the difficulty is a roadblock at the firewall. That particular challenge is where I really kicked off the hard designed levels, and I knew it would either push people away or be the moment where it connected with players.
I don't know whether I should lower the difficulty of the challenge or accept that this game won't connect with everyone, you know? I have always loved these dumb ass platformers where I die a million times a level, and it's hard to decide whether to design around that, or to pacify the challenge so that all players can continue.
Tangently, this is something I love about Mario games. Most "main quest" levels are relatively easy, and present fun but pretty solvable challenges. After beating bowser for the final time, Nintendo takes their mask off and presents legitimately hard levels to fuck with players and by the time of the final level, the best Mario players are dieing 60 times.
Long story short, can't thank you enough for playing this game. I hope you enjoyed it, and would love to hear your thoughts on how to make this a better experience going forward