Terribly unbalanced, with perks that seldom define your run.
To start, enemies have no cooldown on their attacks. This means if an enemy swings a heavy weapon in a 180 degree arc, it can immediately swing again the moment the attack animation is over. Constant circle aoe attacks, fast line drives, and relentless weather hazards remove any sense of combat rhythm. In other games enemies will serve your these massive attacks, but then afterwards will flow into a smaller attack pattern. This gives fights an ebb and flow as you find a rhythm to attack enemies based off of their individual behaviors. Not here.
Combine this lack of attack cooldown with enemies that all attack at the same time in unison, and you are left with no moments to attack. Every character has a standard 3-hit combo in theory, but in practice all you are doing 90% of the time is chain-dodging and waiting to get in a single hit of your weapon. Fighting should feel great when you land that 3rd blow for devastating damage, but you seldom get the chance.
Enemy projectiles track you with insane curvature. Rather than give enemies some small allowance of aim assist to let projectiles somewhat curve towards you, they straight up will track you in a complete circle. You are not allowed to move around them during combat, you must dodge into them, regardless if an enemy awaits you where you land. Projectiles will also travel through scenery placed on a stage, so you will be hit by a projectile that wasn't visible until it's too late.
The standard combo attacks also don't track enemies. If you are moving towards an enemy, your will often overstep their hit box and swing your weapon behind them or to the side.
This game has a fantastic art style, but not much else. I usually devour these games but the bones just aren't here to support it.
