Holy cow, that's the first time I've seen you ever show any visible signs of worry in one of your videos. You could see how you were basically "ffffff thissss" at a couple of points there, and then escaped and continued to win. Nice. 
Yes, this is the bit that made me wonder if I'd gone a little too far. Though, at the same time, the pattern is very abnormal. It's been *really* difficult to balance. It took forever to get the stupid thing to do that. You shoulda seen some of the stuff it was doing during testing. I tell ya, it's hard to dodge when every inch of the screen is glowing pain.
With this game though I figure, if I'm not getting hit somewhat... it's not hard enough. In an actual bullet-hell shmup, with one-hit deaths, this would be a very nasty pattern. Not quite AS nasty here... sort of. It's kinda difficult to figure out where the difficulty should be with the varying levels of HP and such that can happen in this. Not just on this difficulty, but on all of them.
And this is a mid-game boss, too. Later ones will get interesting though I'm not looking forward to testing THOSE. Particularly a certain upcoming special boss. That'll get more than a little frustrating.
What'll be interesting with this specific boss though will be to see wether players can figure out HOW to deal with it. The more you move, the more distorted the whole thing can become, depending on HOW you move. Kinda like the Warden's second attack.
So how should a normal mortal react to this monstrosity?
Pray that the thing somehow glitches out and stops firing. Though I'm hoping it doesnt do that... These stupid things can be buggy as heck since my code is so messy, I do get tired of fixing them (Warden).
Misery, how long took it you to practice games like this to become so good?
A couple of years. These games are made that way (Roguelikes kinda are too, like, the traditional ones like Nethack and all... or something like Dwarf Fortress, where I watched *50* tutorial videos just to learn how to play it; so freaking worth it though, that game). They give you as much replay value as possible by having nearly unlimited difficulty while still being technically entirely fair. The worst example was the boss at the very end of Mushihime-sama's Ultra mode. It took me AGES to get to that little nightmare. It was another year (literally) before it finally went down. Talk about a difficulty spike... And then there's it's sequel. I dont stand a ghost of a chance in that one's version of the "Ultra" mode. Can do the first level but the second eats me.
Soooo, no 2nd stage? 
Ugh, even I'm not THAT unpleasant. Well, maybe... but I'm saving that for later. THIS boss does enough. And if I have to test it just one more time I'll throw the monitor out the window.
I kinda envisioned a series of rotating C-shaped rings that start out large and contract, with the player's ship at the center. So you need to maneuver out of through the opening of these rings.
Ya know, I'd had this thought before, for other bosses or whatever, but when I think about it, it's one of those patterns that's actually a little overused. I've seen that one in so very many games. Doesnt mean it's a bad one, mostly just that I personally didn't want to use it. Of course, if someone else wants to make a boss or miniboss that does this, by all means, go for it.
