Well technically it was "playable" before but it was extremely merciless on the stage portion. As a result of a few runs of practice I was still able to maintain 4 lives by the midboss (but usually ended up with one by the main boss). Consequently in the new version I had minor difficulty on the entire stage portion with the exception of the second and third midboss card, mostly as I haven't finished figuring out the best methods on them. Now instead of ending up with one life by the boss, in one try, I maintained 5 lives. Still failed by the end but the last half of the boss was me winging it as I've never seen it before (due to the harder version draining my resources badly).
The beginning is still intense "looking" but due to the mandatory learning curve of the previous version it is still easy. No real complaints on that part as grazing is still grazing.
Edit: Alright so I got better at some things. I find the second spellcard to be a bit dense but I "have" cleared it once, just once. As of now I have managed to clear the boss finally. Winging that final spellcard's new sections was rough but it was done. Stage is easier thanks to a bearable stage portion.
Another note, the 6th or 7th or something spellcard where the blue and red bullets shoot out, the explosion radius of the red bullets seems to have a rather large hitbox for what it shows. I often find myself getting hit even though it feels like I should be safe.