You've really captured the tension in soul-like combat between the most effective way to play (lots of patience and not overcommitting to attacks) versus the most fun way to play (swing wildly and hope to dodge). I'll have to come back to this later to give it more time but what I've seen so far is great, the frantic music helps push the player to push their luck, it's difficult but fair - every hit I knew I could have avoided if I was playing tighter. My one criticism would be the enemy movement, it occasionally seems like they teleport through you which is a bit disorienting, moving smoothly between positions might make it feel more natural.