The gameplay needed a lot more time in the oven, it's true. I added checkpoints and skippable dialogue to make death less punishing, but it was still inevitable. The first fight could have done a much better job of communicating the mechanics, and been made a lot easier. The second fight was OK-ish, apart from the purpose of the moonbeam (extra punishment for letting your heart fill up) not being clear. The third fight could have done with some more visual clues about the new objective.
Auto-fill dialogue would have been nice.
Thanks for the comments! And for suffering through.