while it tries to play as a mixture of melee combat and bullet hell, the swordfighting is dull, always the same "combo" of pressing the button four times in a row, or using a charged attack. it's bland but it's also slow: most enemies will start blocking your attacks if hit enough, and will gain invulnerability when knocked down. should be noted that any flashy attacks are animations that play after hitting the enemy enough with your normal attacks. good for an action game that the stuff you can watch is better than what you can perform in-game. anyway, most of the windows for hitting foes come from parrying them, and while most games manage to make parries a satisfying mechanic, the only challenge here comes from some attack animations being clunky, and that the fights are long and drawn-out, so it's more of a test of patience to parry the same 5 chain attack so that you can retaliate.
in short, it's a better idea to use your charged shot most of the time, instead of chasing down an AI that will sometimes run away indefinitely if you keep chasing it after hitting it for a while, because it's trying to do a projectile attack but it can't have you being aggressive. this just shows how the pacing of fights in this game is never up to you, and is only intended to be played with a specific approach. even when it leans into the bullet hell segments, bosses will often be invulnerable during them, and instead have you shoot the bullets that they fire to block them, essentially yet another "wait through all these attacks until you can damage the boss again". it also seems to me that the more the fights lean into projectile dodging aspect, the shittier they are. the line fight is another test of patience not in a good way; fighting against the burst is just running after them 90% of the time...
all in all i find the shooting is also mediocre, and shares many of the faults of melee combat because they are more problems of the game itself, combat is dry, for a game centered around boss fights, half of the rooster is extremely forgettable and rarely adds something that makes it feel different, and you often have to wait your turn in the fight which goes on for longer than it should.
in short, it's a better idea to use your charged shot most of the time, instead of chasing down an AI that will sometimes run away indefinitely if you keep chasing it after hitting it for a while, because it's trying to do a projectile attack but it can't have you being aggressive. this just shows how the pacing of fights in this game is never up to you, and is only intended to be played with a specific approach. even when it leans into the bullet hell segments, bosses will often be invulnerable during them, and instead have you shoot the bullets that they fire to block them, essentially yet another "wait through all these attacks until you can damage the boss again". it also seems to me that the more the fights lean into projectile dodging aspect, the shittier they are. the line fight is another test of patience not in a good way; fighting against the burst is just running after them 90% of the time...
all in all i find the shooting is also mediocre, and shares many of the faults of melee combat because they are more problems of the game itself, combat is dry, for a game centered around boss fights, half of the rooster is extremely forgettable and rarely adds something that makes it feel different, and you often have to wait your turn in the fight which goes on for longer than it should.