Ultra-Violence is the keyword here. This game is absolutely vicious in its combat, prioritizing agility and agression at almost all times - even the parry button is mapped to the attack key.
Still, the game is not braindead - there's a really satisfying flow to the combat. In most encounters, Raiden will first wear down the enemies with a flurry of attacks - ocasionally defending himself with parries and dodges - and then, when they're weak enough, perform a 'Zandatsu', basically entering slowdown mode and slicing the enemy to TAKE THEIR SPINE OUT AND CRUSH IT, healing ALL of the player's health back. Successfully performing this is both adequately challenging and fun even after doing it hundreds of times, and has the added benefit of allowing the player to focus way more on the offense, now that they can heal themselves up with kills.
In terms of bosses, they're (mostly) great. The songs that accompany them are the highlights of this game, with backing vocals rising in during the epitome of each fight, and the bosses themselves are usually pretty challenging, requiring multiple attempts to master their attack patterns. While most of the campaign allows Raiden to go to town with the common enemies, boss encounters ask the player to slow down and focus more on precision and parrying. It's a nice change of pace.
All in all, it's hard to not recommend this game. It certainly has its flaws - it lacks a good tutorial, some sections feel shoehorned in, and I feel it ended too early - but overall, man, this game was a blast. Few games had me panting of stress after finishing it, and this was one of them.
Still, the game is not braindead - there's a really satisfying flow to the combat. In most encounters, Raiden will first wear down the enemies with a flurry of attacks - ocasionally defending himself with parries and dodges - and then, when they're weak enough, perform a 'Zandatsu', basically entering slowdown mode and slicing the enemy to TAKE THEIR SPINE OUT AND CRUSH IT, healing ALL of the player's health back. Successfully performing this is both adequately challenging and fun even after doing it hundreds of times, and has the added benefit of allowing the player to focus way more on the offense, now that they can heal themselves up with kills.
In terms of bosses, they're (mostly) great. The songs that accompany them are the highlights of this game, with backing vocals rising in during the epitome of each fight, and the bosses themselves are usually pretty challenging, requiring multiple attempts to master their attack patterns. While most of the campaign allows Raiden to go to town with the common enemies, boss encounters ask the player to slow down and focus more on precision and parrying. It's a nice change of pace.
All in all, it's hard to not recommend this game. It certainly has its flaws - it lacks a good tutorial, some sections feel shoehorned in, and I feel it ended too early - but overall, man, this game was a blast. Few games had me panting of stress after finishing it, and this was one of them.