I actually didn't even see the furthest reticle the first couple of times playing, somehow, but seeing it did make the game much easier. I like the upbeat artstyle, and I love the crash-dump game over frame a lot with the ball-pen balls adding insult to injury. It helped with having to see it so many times 🥹 I'm not sure if you modelled everything yourself; really impressive if so. It all fit well together.
I agree that stopping at the boss kind of felt like I was running into a wall; and also that a little hit confirm animation against the boss would help it feel like shots were connecting aside from just the HP bar moving down. Also, I kept trying to grab the heart above the little boat right before the boss, but somehow I kept jumping through the boat, missing the heart and nearly (or fully lol) killing myself. That might have just been me. This is one of the first jam games I played - I meant to comment much earlier and realized I never did. It's memorable - nice job on this submission!