Great feedback and so much praise! Thank you so very much.
You're right on the nose. We wanted to shake the player portrait and telegraph successful hits that way but responsibilities got in the way of a nice chunk of me and my compatriot's development time. I was personally worried that a rapid fire sound effect would get in the way of the music or be overwhelming but there's something that would have worked for sure.
Thank you for noticing the patterns. I was up very late at night hammering that one out.