Katanas are so fucking good it isn't even fair. Absolutely massacred Craftwork with Eleventh Hour and Zantetsuken (or however they spell it in this). Crafted a Honebani, which gets a new skill, Helm Splitter. Down, Down, Attack while grounded, Miriam leaps and smashes the sword down. Has something like a 50% crit chance, and causes Defense Down on the target (if it miraculously lives). Oh, and it has hyperarmor for the duration.
I hardly touch shards, but when I use them nothing can top Heretical Grinder (even True Arrow imo). Have taken a liking to Summon Bat, too. Similar effect to True Arrow, but it moves slow, and I think the bats pierce your target. Most importantly, uses a different slot from Grinder. Bloodbringer hits hard as fuck (50+ usually), but I find the Silver Knight more useful, since he attacks faster and blocks some hits for me.
Did some exploring and got the Armor that lets me turn into Shovel Knight, a cool touch. For whatever reason, Shovel Armors are also one of the few monsters that actually kick my ass. And they do some serious damage. But I already have like 700HP, and feel invincible so....yeah.
Finally got to the Twin Dragon Tower, or whatever it's called from the E3 demo, and I'm liking it a lot. Map doesn't seem to help all that much since you're constantly twisting.