Inferior sequel.
This game is effing grindtastic. It reminds me of those frustrating old rpgs were you had to pop potions and save the game after every rat or whatever.
You have deliberately made it necessary to grind the everliving shit out of every previously accomplished level, be it with added modes or whatever, before you can even hope to move on.
You barely ever get to create gems or towers or anything because you get like 3 mana for each creature you kill. You end up with like four spitwad towers and a few traps. Upgrading the mana pool seems an overly dangerous bet because it costs so much and the gain rate seems almost insignificant. And increasing the mana capacity is unneccesary, because it will never be filled.
Get this fixed, it's frustrating. You nerfed everything almost beyond playability.