Does the +1 circumstance bonus to attacks provided by the spell end with the killing of the albatross? Insofar as I can tell, it persists for the full minute since nothing says it goes away at any point.
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I very much read it as the +1 circumstance bonus goes away once the albatross is attacked and dies. Although I have to admit rereading the spell just now that definitely is only implied rather than clearly stated.
The only reason I'm fairly certain the intention is for the +1 to go away after the albatross is killed is that if it doesn't the second part of the spell would be less likely to get triggered. Why would the target of the spell attack the albatross if the only effect is having to do a Will save and potentially incurring further penalties? (Obviously depends on whether the target knows the spell etc though it seems like a fairly recognisable spell if you have access to it)
Though even if my interpretation is correct, some clarifying language would be helpful as it definitely is not what the spell says strictly RAW.
Side note - I can't make up my mind whether the critical failure effect is meant to still end after the first Will save or last for a full hour. The former seems functionally the same as a failure and the latter would be incredibly powerful.
I agree that the circ +1 is intended to be, but not explicitly tied to the circling albatross. A single word or two could have locked that in, but I would 100% run the spell as if striking the albatross ends the circ bonus.
The failure vs critical failure seems IMO like something happened in a revision of the spell, I don't think that kind of useless crit fail can happen normally.
As we should postulate the simplest thing first, my guess is that the Failure effect once lacked the "after which the albatross disappears" phrase.
Someone else / another pass rightly identified and then smacked that spell as being ludicrously too good, but no one revised the crit fail to do something else.
As such, this position is actually pretty sticky for GMs. There's no way to massage the wording, either you leave the Crit Fail as nearly worthless, or it becomes absurdly overpowered.
As the spell is already great, I would default to the useless Crit Fail reading. However, if a table wanted to, I'd homebrew the Crit Fail to read: "As failure, but the effect may trigger three times before the albatross disappears." (honestly just 2 misfortunes may also be plenty strong)
For those who like the circ bonus more than the misfortune side, you could alternatively have the Crit Fail effect leave the +1 circ bonus intact until the single misfortune effect triggers to end the spell.
What is so different about the spell is that it provides a +1 circumstance bonus to attack a highlighted enemy.
That is extremely rare a spell providing a circumstance bonus to attack - Omnidirectional Scan is another. This means it stacks with Bless, Heroism and Courageous Anthem.
Being on Occult list is not so strange but also being on the Primal list is. I think it might be the only Primal spell that grants a bonus of any kind to attack. So for Primal casters it is amazing. Please let me know if there is another !!
Then the potential will save curse is very interesting.