So after seeing the recent posts, I decided to give this game another shot (I never made it past the Stage 1 boss on my previous playthroughs).
The game is in fact significantly more balanced than I had initially expected, though the general lack of extends and extra bombs can be painful. The main complaint I have, however, is the Stage 2 Boss. But not the boss - the background, or something. Because the moment the pre-boss dialogue started, the FPS went straight from 50+ to a solid 10, and remained that way through the non spell and into the next spell. Since it did not fix itself upon the start of Nonspell 2, I suspect you have some kind of extremely expensive task running in the background.
This seems to be more of a potential flaw in object and resource control since the danmaku is not to blame. I personally believe it to be an issue with the background at that point but it could also be an issue in regards to something the boss is doing (that other bosses are not doing).
Just wanted to point it out, because a captured spell card at 10 FPS is not rewarding in the slightest.
Edit: For some reason, it mysteriously fixed itself halfway through Spell 2.
Other concerns
-FPS Bug - FPS of 8 will left-align, FPS of 09 or above will right-align and have two digits, ex: 09
-Spellcard Practice HighScore issue - shows the high score for the difficulty. Better to have the high score for the spell itself or simply 0s.
-0 position Enemy Marker - when an enemy is defeated, the enemy marker, instead of deleting right away, first moves to (0, bottom of screen), as can be seen in spell practice. Not really a problem but after clearing a spell card, you can see the enemy marker, which may or may not be optimal.