I feel the game is too difficult in terms of the time it takes to get a better rank

I can't conceive how you get a less than thirty second time on up and up without getting volcaic+. I have become deeply frustrated banging my head against a wall trying to get anything better than mediocre on any of the stages. It's either that I'm somehow playing the game wrong, or I just need to play the game faster. Should I be watching tutorials on optimal strategies? I shouldn't have to do that in a game as focused on creative combat as this. With stages as short as 20 seconds, every little thing you do counts. I keep having to restart stages over and over because a made a slight mis-input or god forbid I hold the W key the wrong way making so that I don't start moving forward as soon as the timer starts.

Another thing, is that I don't understand the juice mechanic. It seems counterintuitive with the aim that I'm getting from the devlogs.  When I'm going fast (or at least what I think is fast), I never encounter any problems with getting close to running out of juice unless I'm using the closed fist to save myself from instant death. The fact that the only way to gain height mid-air is tied with juice at all is criminal. 

Here are some suggestions that might help:

1. Make the timer start when you start moving or shooting, NOT if you switch weapons.

2. Add more ranks or nerf the times or something so that it's at least a little easier to get a decent rank (This is a personal gripe because my feelings get hurt seeing the word 'mediocre' now)

3. Switch out the juice for just cooldowns on weapons.

I'm well aware that my criticism comes from a place of sucking at fps games, but I can't be the only one, right? Other than that, this game seems fantastic and I love the aesthetic, the character design, and the finger mechanic itself. I would love to discuss this further

Here's my thinking about the Juice system: Tying a concrete cost to weapons allows for more freedom and flexibility, especially at high levels of play. For a stage like Big Windmill in particular, the high cost of the uppercut makes routing really interesting and leads to diverse strategies. It does affect those who are starting out a lot, so finding a way to make it more forgiving without taking away that limiting factor is a good idea.

It does make sense that getting the Voltaic ranks can be really hard, but I want those to feel like a substantial challenge. I could absolutely see myself lowering the times it takes to get a potent rank instead so that it serves as a more effective middle-ground and can feel like a satisfying challenge without demanding as much mastery as Voltaic. 

For the first note, whichever weapon you bookmark with 'E' is automatically loaded whenever you restart a level so you can always start with the weapon you want. I don't think I tutorialized that well, so that's something I should rework to be sure.

Also, I should have a new demo out in a few days so please give that a try when it releases and let me know if the issues are lessened in that build! Thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts.