Thanks for playing!
I agree on the timing of the Melee. It was a bit of a design conundrum trying to decide how to approach that. I didn't want totally free movement with it, because I felt it provided more value to the dodge. I also didn't want it too fast from the start, as it would make the Attack Speed Boon less valuable. I tried to compensate though by making sure the dodge can interrupt Attacking and Vice versa. Also it suspends the attack-chain combo for a smidge of a second once the dodge ends, so you can one two dodge three, or whatever order. Like many things it for sure needed some more polish and tuning lol.
I love that you relate it to Hyper Light Drifter, that was actually a main reference Houndfall and I used when discussing the gameplay and visual design. Of course that team spent way longer producing a way higher quality game, but to be put side by side to it even a little bit is awesome!
As for the stress, yes. Oh my goodness were so many lessons learned on this lol. For sure the biggest thing is Scale. From now on, my first goal will always be to make sure the player can do a single thing, and that it relates to the theme. THEN and ONLY THEN do I dare contemplate expanding.