Thank you so much to everyone who has given feedback over the past week!

I have made a new build of the game, version 0.4.2!  Re-download the included .zip file for the latest update. 

I've made a couple adjustments to the game based on feedback from all various sources, friends and itch.io posts and social media alike.  Mostly, it's just making Hero of Frost easier to play, making "Easy Mode" actually be "Easy", and fixing some bugs/issues here and there.  I don't really want to change Story Mode stuff too often (especially making things easier, b/c there's a risk of cheapening people's sense of accomplishment for beating something hard).  But, I decided it's best to change things now rather than later, and use feedback to try to set a goal of what's fair, and what the difficulty curve should look like for the rest of game.

Anyway, tbh the only reason I got into game development was to write up long, dry, overly-detailed patch notes about minor adjustments to my own games that no one would possibly read or care about, so let me indulge for a bit. 

Maiden & Spell - Demo Version 0.4.2 Patch Notes

-----General-----

-Added Stage Title Intros to Story Mode

-Removed Music Titles popping in
-Added extra color to many large bullets for visibility (Arcanist's moon, Lich's blue rose, etc.)

-Added version info to splash page and "Follow Development" screen 

-----Character Adjustments-----

ROYAL ARCANIST - In general, these adjustments were made so that "correctly" using the Defensive Special debuffs would deal better damage than just spamming Basic Attack and debuffs at random.

- Dimi Dark (Basic Attack)
         Damage per bullet 30 > 28
- Arcane Magic ("Tap" Defensive Special)
         Adjusted time when "Pain" and "Toxic" debuffs would first tick (Pain 700ms > 1500ms, Toxic 700ms > 1200ms)
         Adjusted rate at which "Pain" and "Toxic" tick (Pain 1800ms > 1600ms, Toxic 1400ms > 1300ms)
         Adjusted damage as following:
                  Death Toll 60 > 70 per tic
                  Toxic 80 > 70 per tic

HERO OF FROST - The biggest adjustment is the movement speed changes.  Her Wide Attack was also slightly buffed.  Those being fairly large changes, some other aspects of her moves were nerfed for balance, as well as a few other changes here and there to make her patterns more easily understandable and easier for a player to dodge.  This will hopefully make her less frustrating to play, and less frustrating to play against.

- Swordplay (Unfocused Basic Attack)
         Movement speed decrease adjusted 0.3x > 0.4x
         Unfocused aiming speed decrease adjusted 0.5x > 0.3x (this means your pointer will follow the opponent at 0.3x its normal speed while using this move)
         Changed pattern of second swipe
         Damage per bullet  18 > 20
         Bullet speed reduced
- Swordstorm (Focused Basic Attack)
         Movement speed decrease adjusted 0.3x > 0.4x
         Bullet spread angle reduced
         Bullet number reduced from 7,6,15 to 5,6,8
         Damage per bullet  18 > 20
- Steel Sweep (Wide Attack)
         Movement speed decrease adjusted 0.65x > 0.85x
         Changed pattern and speed of bullets
         Damage per bullet 9 > 30

-----Story Mode Adjustments (minor spoilers)-----

-All Magnus Attacks have been made easier while in "Easy Mode"
-Extra damage in "Easy Mode" reduced from 1.4x to 1.2x
-The following Magnus Attacks have been made *slightly* easier in "Normal Mode":
         All of Royal Arcanist's Magnus Attacks
         Steel Magnus: Shining Rampart
         Fire Magnus: Rapid Flare
         Fire Magnus: Spiral Flare
(Hard Mode is unchanged)

-----Bug Fixes-----

-Fixed issue where a Magnus Attack clear time would occasionally be recorded as a "new record" even if it was slower than the previous record