Thanks so much for playing, and for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed this one. (Especially after the Camilla Vs incident)
Your UI feedback is helpful. Honestly, changing the card returns speed is insanely easy, I'll play with that when/if I get around to a post-jam patch. Both the balance and game length are probably victims of it being a jam game. I think I've concluded that balance-wise, it's BAD for a full/commercial game, but probably about right for a jam game. I've seen several players lose rounds on stream, and you had a few failed levels, so it's not quite too easy. But if I was to make this a full release, more play testing, balance, and variety in enemies/abilities would be a priority for sure.
Story-wise, I see this as a character-intro of sorts. (I actually revealed this character, in full, on my twitter almost 2 years ago. Lucky for me my posts aren't popular) So in that sense, I didn't want the story to be too long. But I can't deny that part of it was just the jam-time restrictions. As the clock ticked down, and there were still piles of art to draw, I simply couldn't add any more stages... and I didn't want the exposition to stage ratio to get too out of balance.
And now a very specific response: "Does that ever get stressful?"
YES. I have no idea where to go with this next, though I'll probably think of something. But it's definitely a ton of work, and this month-jams turn into a sort of obsession. Probably the most unhealthy aspect is that as the clock ticks down, I find myself having trouble sleeping because I'll lay awake stressing over the goals I've yet to hit: Stages, story, and most commonly, art assets. I haven't really found a good solution to this problem, because I really love MGGJ, and I also don't see myself scaling back (unless life/work absolutely forces me to)
But lets just say, I'm actually looking forward to TwoGoku a lot. No deadlines, no expectations, just something to make that hopefully will be breezy and fun. It'll also be interesting to see how a non-jam game performs. I think that'll be a first for my itch page.