Boy, does it feel good to be right. The combat system is very good. There are two attack buttons, and any weapon can be bound to each of them. I didn't get to use every weapon type in the demo, but the ability descriptions in the move list make them all sound pretty diverse: swords can launch enemies into the air, hammers knock things down, staves cluster enemies together (making them perfect targets for AoE spells), chakram attacks create distance between you and the target, and so on. Depending on your weapon selection, your approach to enemies will change. Equipping a sword and a fast weapon like a pair of daggers allows you to do potent juggle combos, while equipping two ranged weapons enables you play Dhalsim-esque keepaway game.
On the defensive side, there's rolling and blocking. I think rolls don't have invincibility frames (at least not for the entire duration), but they do offer a percentile damage reduction bonus that can be further increased by equipping a finesse-oriented destiny (more on these later). Blocking seems to eliminate the damage entirely, but it has quite a few recovery frames, so it's difficult to punish blocked enemy attacks. That is, unless you tap the blocking button right when the attack connects, in which case there's no recovery time for your character, and the enemy is put in a second of hit stun. Think Royal Guard.
There's also this purple bar that fills up as you fight. It can be used to activate the Reckoning mode, which is basically Devil Trigger and the Quicksilver style combined. It increases the damage you deal and slows everyone else down, allowing you to do otherwise impossible combos. When you exit this state, all defeated enemies unravel into threads that are absorbed by your character. If you mash a button during this animation, you gain bonus XP. X-TREME and stuffies.
As you level up, you get ability points. These are spent on buying new attacks and spells, as well upgrading the ones you already know. All abilities are split into three categories: Might, Finesse and Sorcery. Investing enough points into these ability trees unlocks destines. These are basically classes, and only one can be equipped at a time. Mostly, they give various percentile bonuses to your character's attributes, but some magic-oriented destinies make a big change: they turn rolling into teleportation. According to interviews, some destinies are unlocked by completing certain quests and advancing the plot.
On the negative side, enemies have way too little HP. There's a hard difficulty setting that is locked in the demo. Hopefully, it fixes this issue because it would greatly improved what already is a very good ARPG.
