There is so much to love about this game. Balancing the timer to stay in that sweet spot. The thought you put into the short story setting up narrative. A boss fight! I dug this playthrough a lot. But there are also little things I think that hold it back from being over the top awesome.
A key one is game feel/juice. You've probably seen it, but this is a great refresher for all of us:
My bullets were so small and the enemy patterns and spawns were so erratic, that I never felt like I was putting intention behind my actions ... I just held the trigger down because m bullets weren't big enough for me to accurately place them and the enemy moved too quick and unpredictably.That's still a blast. It's essentially like playing Cuphead with the seeker bullets on and focusing on defense and evading, but I prefer Cuphead with the charge shot, where I have to think about firing
The movement was great, but I felt like I was missing a dash or a roll. Some option for quick evasion.
The art is excellent, but the UI and Music don't quite match it. None of them are bad on their own, but all together they lacked cohesion. A cohesive style, even if simple, does so much for a game. And I'm especially saying that because I feel like the art on my submission is all over the place because I saved it for last.
Overall, this was a really fun jam game. And a very impressive solo dev entry.