The thing that really ruins the combat system of this game is that the correct parry timing relies on the OUTLINE of your character flashing. The outline, that's non-intuitive as hell. Since you don't actually any kind of parry animation unless you actually press the button in the 4 frame window you get, it feels random and unrewarding to actually parry, and you find yourself just going for the safer dodge, which ALWAYS plays an animation, whiff or not.
It's the reason why the battles in the Mario Superstar games always felt natural. Whenever you pushed the jump button, you jumped on frame 1. you ALWAYS jump, and it feels natural to time those jumps to land on enemies or evade attacks.
There needs to be more animations in this game so combat feels better. Pushing confirm should always do a parry animation, even if you whiff, and enemies should have more of a tell that they're going to swing at you.
I do think this game looks stylish, but the characters and enemies need more animations, also the first quest to get the safe combination is the most tedious thing I've ever seen to represent a game's potential.