Thank you so much for the detailed feedback, I really appreciate it!
Yeah, I didn't have the opportunity to realize that the hitbox mechanic wasn't really changing gameplay much until late in playtesting where it was too late for me to make the necessary changes to really lean into that harder!
And yeah, the plague attack and the enemies in the beginning were definitely a symptom of the classic game jam balancing problem, ha! I playtested the game a lot, and I got pretty good at dodging the plague attack, so even though I tried to make it on the easier side, I still ended up with it being a little too tough overall! And I wanted the enemies at the beginning to be informative and interesting, but not a tough challenge, so they ended up being a little too easy overall! But I'm glad you had fun playing it, regardless, thanks again for checking it out! :D