Thanks for the feedback!
You're very much right on that, the movement system and the combat mechanics don't fit too well together, requiring staying close, swinging and parrying, it's not really until the boss fights that the Arena lends itself better to using mobility to avoid their area attacks I believe.
I had overscoped for sure, yeah, originally I planned a melee system and a spellcasting system, skills you get from defeating enemies which would then be consumable abilities of one time use, with enemy variety, but I realised that having to make all those spells would be too much and focused on the melee.
Having to press E to pick up swords... it does limit what I can do with the combat, since after one strike it breaks and I have to throw and retreat to pick a new one up, it certainly shows I think that I could have done something different with the sturdier swords at the end level.