Thanks so much for leaving a review :0, i agree that the first boss is quite challenging, part of it comes from it being my first try making an original spellcard, I'm currently working on a post jam version, so I'll add improvement to its design on my list :>, also, thanks for complimenting my sprite/dialogue work! I'm especially proud of the sprites since it feels like my first actually good (humanoid) sprite that I've made for a jam! Also, the difficulty is something I will look into, the hardest problem for me is that I'm not sure what the average difficulty for a touhou game is, I've played quite a bit of mountain of faith, but apart from that, I haven't played anything else. However, I do plan to do a bit more research of shmup difficulty in general (since this genre was especially fun to develop compared to others I've tried), so if you have any recommendations of touhou games (or shmups in general) that have a great difficulty curve, I'd love to check them out :). Again, thanks for checking my game out!
Viewing post in Touhou: Draconian Winter Wonderland jam comments
If you're looking to research SHmUP challenge curve, in the Touhou department I think you could start with either Perfect Cherry Blossom or Double Dealing Character.
Aside from being generally agreed upon as good starting points for the Touhou series, these two games I think have a good challenge curve, AND their secondary mechanics don't heavily affect the primary core of the bullet hell aspect. (They're just a free hit/an item multiplier - VS the other games with extra gauges-abilities, or with fancy gimmicks)
I'll believe this will at least allow to better see the patterns and enemy formations in themselves first.
Now (maybe unfortunately) I'm not as well versed in other subgenres of SHmUP, these are lands I've yet to explore.
I know there's a kind that is "more active" than (relatively passively) dodging dense bullet hells. Like for example "Flying Red Barrel" which I've played 10 hours - the core gameplay instead relies on using missiles constantly to erase bullet swarms and get rid of enemies very quick. The more you combo with missiles, the more easily you can recharge your missiles.
I guess you can also turn to the classics to study what ideas they were researching in the dawn of gaming, especially how they had to make games with a limited amount of on-screen elements. In general these games would be fast (perhaps to limit the objects' screentime) and lean on reflexes a bit more than on focus. "Gradius" is what most think of when they hear "retro SHmUP".