Thanks so much for playing! The length is an issue and I did NOT think the game would take nearly this long. My friend (my main playtester) beat the game in like 15 minutes their first time through, which I think is due to their experience with the genre. Probably why it also got too hard, also.
I think the reason for the higher difficulty and longer game is that somewhere during the jam I stopped making my game for the jam and started making it for me, as I was having so much fun. Is the map probably too large for a game jam? Yes. Is the difficulty curve going to ward off players from completing the game? Probably. But I like it. While I do want other people to enjoy it, that stopped being my priority. And I don't think I regret that.
I'm glad you enjoyed it even with its objective flaws (: