I like the fighting system, I just feel like the timing on the attacks are waaaaaay too unforgiving for a combat system introduction. It would really be an adjustment of 10-40ms extra, I think. On fight #1, at least five separate things get introduced (bad timing on flash=miss, quick/fierce have different timings, color match to block specific attacks, confirm action with right shoulder button, enemies can attack during your attack) and players have no clue how it all works together yet. Once someone's figured it out, it's fine, but as a very first tutorial fight, I feel like right now it's more liable to frustrate a good number of players into not playing more. There's even a reason to slightly ease it up built-in since the first guy's all drugged up.
UPDATE: Just finished the alpha build. I think that once you can use the specials, some of the crucial ones that differ from the regular combat systme should be given there own mini tutorial. Not every one of them, but stuff like "maintenance" should have a little "hey, this is a new type of mechanic" notice right before. That one is epsecially confusing when the "up, down, left, right" simon says game starts, since the text made me pause for a split-second, thinking it meant the directional buttons. By that point, everyone should know what color is for what button. If it's to accomodate colorblind players, I'd suggest instead displaying "Y, A, X, B" respectively. Actually, I'd suggest that anyway.