So does anyone have a tip for the stage 9 boss? I've probably put a good 60-90 minutes into it alone so far (which means I've probably played stage 9 as long as the rest of the game combined) and I don't think I'm all that close to beating it at all. I don't know if I'm just missing something obvious or if it is just a random major difficulty spike, and unfortunately the only playthrough of the game I can find is of a version of the game that existed before said boss existed (lucky guy) so I'm flying pretty blind.
I get using the big lasers to try and hit the boss for me, but they don't do that much damage and 90-95% of the battle there is no other way to damage it. I made it to what feels like an ending section of this battle a few times but being forced to move that slow with both giant lasers on each side just butchers me.
I've dug the game so far but I fear I might have to give it up.
EDIT: I did eventually get past this boss (took a bit over another thirty minutes), I'm not sure what happened as it died when I was looking elsewhere on the screen dodging something else. Loading everything so that I could fire as many shots as possible during the brief windows it was vulnerable is what I think made a difference, in case anyone else gets stuck here.