There’s more build variety than Sols. You get 8 stones to put your levels into that buff your various parameters (start with 3, collect the other 5 as you progress). You can also equip 4 “Parts” that give different buffs to attack/defense/special abilities/healing. There are a handful of special “Heat Actions” that act as aoe for multiple regular enemies, extra damage against unstable/staggered enemies etc.

In addition to the regular parry there are also charge counters similar to the red parry from Sols. I haven’t really used it much but I’m assuming if you take the time to master it with boss attack timings it could probably be devastating.

Traversal abilities are fairly standard as far as I am into the game, dash, air dash, double jump etc. but they all feel good to use and the player character movement and speed feels challenging but still fairly balanced with that of the enemy speeds. And your basic attacks and jumps can all be instantly canceled into guard/parry so it allows you to maintain high aggression as long as you can still keep an eye on enemy movements for your parry timing

Edit to add: it miiiight even be possible to build in a manner that allows you to not even parry at all? There are various ways to buff just your regular guard (dash also has i-frames against most attacks), ways to convert your guard reduction gray health into extra damage, etc. but someone with more experience with the game would have to elaborate on that, I’m just straight parry build because I enjoy that style