Looks Pretty, but the gameplay needs work.
This game looks awesome, and the combat's ideas are pretty good. But it just doesn't measure up in the end.
On hard mode, I've found that a lot of combat situations are impossible to win unless you mash to get your special up fast enough to use the "w" special that basically means a win. No matter how much I practice or how well I execute things, there's no chance otherwise. For example: the bird enemies. If you get a group of six or seven of them all using their attack at a different time, you will get chain hit until you are dead, period. Once they get you, there's nothing you can do.
In addition, waiting for an enemies "get up" animation every time you miss a combo makes no sense at all. If they start to get up, I should be able to hit them. Why is it in an action based game I have to sit there for two or three seconds waiting for an enemies animation to complete? Sure, it's a nicely done animation, but there's just no point to it.
The combat doesn't feel any different after awhile either. There's two basic enemies and they each have one basic attack. Sometimes you'll be standing right in front of them and swing your sword, only to somehow miss them and have them combo you to death.
I like the aesthetic, and the music, and the idea behind it. But the gameplay just doesn't measure up to the appearance of the game. It's stale, uninteresting, and often times hard for the wrong reasons. Games should be hard because you aren't good enough at the game, not because of the limitations of poor control over the character and overwhelming amounts of enemies.