Thank you again for the ip about [ESC], with that I was able to finish the demo! The trick I found for level 1 was that I could shoot the ships from the back, that made it so I was always able to make it to the boss.
I do wish levels were swapped/there was more content around collecting different colored energy balls, I found that to be a lot more approachable and fit the theme really well! Glad I was able to check the whole game out though!