Thanks for your feedback!
I implemented some of your suggestions in the last version.
The game does stay mostly hard, because that's the goal! But hopefully things are a bit smoother now.
I thought about being able to hit in a different direction than facing, but was kinda lazy/didn't find it necessary. I kinda think the game is complex enough as-is. Maybe a better indication of where the character is facing would be better?
Anyway, are you currently being killed by the "bombers" at around 5 sec? You may not have realized you can dash past them and let them explode! Dash has long range and is good to abuse of, it also passes through (most) units :D
Nice thematic way of making pachinko more proactive. Maybe things could be a bit more intuitive though, I thought I could only choose the spawning point at first!
I think the dog mechanic is the best part, especially when there are multiple balls and you have to make choices, also the fact that you can place two of them, I liked it.
The gates felt a bit useless/awkward to use. maybe on/off vertical gates would feel better?