A really solid submission!
The voice acting really caught me off guard, first with the title of the game, and then again when opening the options. I half expected the announcer to also shout "Back!" when returning to the main menu. I haven't even started the game and i was already pretty impressed.
The gameplay was a bit hard to learn at first, but the general idea and execution were amazing. At first i wasn't sure what exacly causes the sword to grow, after a few losses caused by bumping into enemies i realized that ist acts as a sort of reverse health bar. That's such a cool and unique idea.
I beat it maybe after around 5 tries, and had a really good time with it. The voice acted boss was another welcome surprise, although the fight was rather easy.
I really love the artstyle of the menu, complete with animations and all. You sure made the final boss look cute on the bigger art. Using that artstyle throughout the whole game would make it look amazing.
There were no major problems on the techincal side, maybe just a little bit of getting stuck on the bridges, but that's literally the only thing i can think of in terms of flaws.
Overall, amazing work.