It's going to be difficult for SE to pull off air-warp anime-style combat with realistic recovery time - it feels sluggish if you hold O. When I -don't- hold O I can block much more easily as the block triggers immediately after my current attack instead of my next-queued attack from holding down the O button. Which tells me, holding the attack button down is a beginner's move that's meant to be outgrown and moved beyond once the player gets a hang of how the basic combat flows. IQ is bad - textures are muddy and framerate is inconsistent. The art direction is fantastic however and that music completely redeems the demo's faults all on its own just because I can finally hear Altissia's theme for longer than a few seconds. I haven't gotten the hang of warping yet.
I think XV's combat will require more investment than Kingdom Heart's because a lot of the actions you can perform need to be done with button combos and timed presses such as in mid-air - KH by comparison requires much less attention to that, you can just keep mashing X after you jump and you'll automatically pull off a great looking aerial combo animation. Attacks in KH have much less recovery frames and blocks are usually almost instant, versus XV's block taking some animation frames to activate as you press it. You can hold square to block automatically, but you can't run while holding it and I felt like the AI knows when to use its guard-breaker moves on you. In short KH is arcade-y, XV you have to be deliberate about your button presses and each attack or block requires more commitment, you can't cancel out of their animations (or at least, not nearly as often) like you can in KH. I can foresee a lot of people not enjoying that, in addition to the combat itself the combat controls are non-standard. XV will be a divisive title gameplay-wise.
