Tried first with mouse. Enter on the main menu didn't select anything, but clicking prompted me to start the game even if I had moved down to "options". If I right clicked after that it would take me back to the main menu and I would be able to click to go to options after the fact. Gameplay settings menu was blank.

Couldn't figure out how to equip weapons or items with mouse/keyboard. I tried every button, clicking, dragging, etc in the box menu but no idea what I was supposed to do. Looked at the keybinds in options but still didn't get it, so I ended up just punching things. Enemy weapon animations look nice though, especially the guy with the long spear or whatever it was. Tried dodging around some enemies. Dodge doesn't seem to have invincibility frames, which might be fine. Some of the faster projectiles seem hard to dodge on reaction. Not sure I like the falling down if you dodge while already running, but again I had no weapons so I didn't get a great feel for the combat. I also noticed the player character jitters a lot when moving diagonally.

I tried launching again with my gamepad plugged in (ps4 pad), and got the following error when attempting to hit play in the main menu

___________________________________________

############################################################################################

FATAL ERROR in

action number 1

of  Step Event0

for object obj_parent_player:

Variable obj_player_1.left_stick_edge(100595, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

at gml_Object_obj_parent_player_Step_0

############################################################################################

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

stack frame is

gml_Object_obj_parent_player_Step_0 (line -1)

I don't have a controller so I couldn't really do anything besides basic movement and click-to-attack. which is a shame because based on your gifs and the in game hints it looks like most of your efforts have gone into your combat system. What I could do felt pretty smooth however, so that was good.

I must have done something wrong with the weapon. For some reason hits just did not register on enemies. The offhand weapon worked fine though. Based on the gif the combat does look quite fun though.

Fun demo.  I like the animations.  Combat was fun.