Wow, thank you for taking the time to play my game, and for taking the time to leave such detailed feedback! I really, really appreciate it! :D
I actually also did the voice acting for all the enemies and the boss, so I really appreciate that nod! :)
Yeah, I totally agree with the point about the early level. I wanted everyone to make it to the boss no matter what, so I tried to make it really easy to get through, which I think is good for a jam as well, but it definitely makes the early level feel pretty inconsequential! Also, yeah, I was going to make the bats de-aggro at a certain range, but just completely forgot to implement that feature, haha! With everything to implement, it just totally slipped my mind, lol!
And I totally agree on the dropping boulders attack! I think my game definitely suffered from the "dev got way too good at fighting his own boss during playtesting" syndrome! I think I got a little /too good/ at dodging it during playtesting, which caused me to tune it on the "more difficult" side! I actually reduced the speed of that attack right at the last second just because I had a sudden doubt that maybe it was unfair - and really glad I did at least a little tweaking, haha! With a follow up, I'd definitely make that attack a bit more fair to play against LOL
And yeah, I think some small changes to the decision timing and the openings to hit him are in order! I don't hate the evasion playstyle, and I definitely intended for his "Burn" lantern attack to be the primary opening for getting damage in, but (especially in the third phase) there should be a couple more openings for the player!
Thanks again for the feedback, it means a lot to me! :D