I'll add a frame darken slider to the options menu shortly
The pixel/high-res dichotomy is intended, I actually really like that setup in games like Celeste
The game is pretty different-feeling from Touhou games. The item collection line was replaced with a user ability, the patterns are shorter and generally (not always) simpler, and faster-paced (there's almost no downtime anywhere in the game's 29 minute run!) The game's bell mechanic is a point of importance in both the narrative and the gameplay and services both pure survival and pure scoreplay modes of play, as you can grab them all to use as bombs/autobombs or ring them to delete enemy fire and merge them together for massive score.
The entire game's stages and patterns are designed around the player being able to switch between three shottypes on the fly at any time, and each of those shottypes have a number of subtle attributes and extra effects that really ramp up crowd control and damage output in the hands of skilled players.
The Story Mode is served up on a stage-by-stage basis, and if you want to play the whole game from start to finish using the Arcade Mode, it'll remove all the dialogue for a seamless experience.
As for twists, well, I'm about to patch in the Extra Stage in a couple days. It's going to recontextualise some plot points on top of sending the game mechanics into overdrive- please look forward to it
