Thank you so much for the feedback and kind remarks. The game was unfortunately one that grew well out of expected proportions and quickly became difficult to manage and balance. This ended up with having various aspects of the gameplay either unpolished or not fully implemented.
I think the issue with stamina was that there was no lower limit cap. So if you were on say 1 stamina and used 90, it would drop all the way to -90. I wanted to have penalties for using the really high attack weapons but definitely think it was too severe.
Defense was just very wonky. Also, the enemies have no clear indication of them being staggered upon you successfully defending so make it seem like nothing happens, especially with enemies like the spear skeletons that have very fast attack.
I don't really think there is a single part of your feedback I don't agree with. I'll be revisiting this series/game in the future. This is a really rough prototype that outgrew my capabilities but I think I could do a much better sequel or remake. I've been getting the fantasy itch once more and so revisiting this idea may come after completing my current fps :)
Thanks again for playing and I'm really glad that it was possible to see what I was aiming for through the glitches and dodgey graphics.