This has to be one of my favorites. And a huge improvement over last jam so A++.
This was a super well-tailored challenge with intermediate-tricky level Touhou Shmuppage. A 2 minute level rush is a great sizable-yet-significant challenge to get players on board, and keeps them pulled in by a surprising amount of unique attacks and encounters. And the juicing and game feel are soooo nice and amplifies the experience of performing better and better.
As far as nitpicks go though I really do feel like the player could've earned some kind of life/bomb like how they earn powerups. Even if they can only hold one, it would go such a long way. Especially because once you get to the boss it feels like such a significant landmark of progress and the boss itself has some pretty tough shots, so you get taken out of it a bit when you die to her. Also I wasn't super on board with the few segments that had enemies burst from the direct bottom of the screen. It's a nice idea to have segments that don't encourage players to hug the bottom, but not by offing the player randomly when they're there. Only design misstep tbh, and it's super small.