That's great to hear, Shafla. Flattered by your compliments on the art. It was a bit of experiment for us so I'm very glad to hear that it resonates.
I was concerned about the performance impact of all the particle effects, especially the fire and such. We've actually put almost no time into optimising the game yet (besides making some high level decisions like limiting the number of enemies) so it's possible that we could get it running even better in the future.
If you're having trouble getting past span 4 I could suggest using leap a lot more to stay nimble (esp. to dodge the boss's seeker shots), and always using the shortcut transition from slash to high gatling instead of holding attack from neutral.
I hope that you get to see the "cinematic" at the end of the bridge. I worked all night on it. 😁 If you want any more tips or to chat feel free to join our Discord server.