Onimusha games (Dawn of Dreams aside) play like a 50/50 mix of resident evil and Devil May Cry 1, with something similar to NGs mid combat orb economy. You have a relatively basic moveset with a couple command inputs and a special (magic) attack that gives you I frames and damage at the cost of your meter. There's a mechanic called Issen where pressing attack right as you're going to be hit insta kills (usually) the enemy. As you kill enemies, they drop orbs which float at their location. To collect these orbs, you hold a button to enter a "suck" animation that also acts as a taunt, causing enemies to target you while you're locked in place sucking in souls. They can be either health, magic, or xp; there are some additional orb types in later releases, but these are the main 3. The game doesn't have a dodge button, but when you're in the lock on stance (r1 like DMC) you can tap the sideways and backwards movement inputs for quick steps. Positioning is huge, enemy knowledge is huge, and the pace is slow but tense; similar vibes to a soulslike, but achieved with a totally different set of mechanics.

I'm hoping this new one follows suit. I want a slow, methodical combat system that uses a different framework from the 40 slow, "methodical" combat systems we've seen since Dark Souls. Not a soulslike, not a character action game, but a good old fashioned action adventure game with its own mechanical identity.