I thought it seemed intentional. For me it added a little extra flavour to have the more limited controls. Maybe it would be helpful to use something to make it seem more intentional for those that might not have as much experience with that style. Or maybe you could make it so the controls are limited or less limited in certain situations like if the player defeats something something extra difficult and negative, you might get a slight extra amount of freedom of motion? That would be tough to balance though.