It's just not fun to play. The only defensive move is the dodge, and that comes with a litany of problems. First: Enemy attacks almost always either track you, or have a large enough hitbox to still be a threat at the end of your dodge. Second: I-Frames seem incredibly inconsistent. Being in the middle of a dodge animation is no guarantee you will actually dodge anything. Third: Perfect Dodge timings are all over the place. Some enemies have an obvious telegraph. Some have a fake-out telegraph. Or a delayed telegraph. Or *no* telegraph. Or a telegraph that might have two different timings. Fourth: Enemies appear to have a 'combo' system - if they hit you during your first dodge, they'll just keep swinging until you die. Fifth: There's essentially no way to tell if an enemy off screen is attacking you. The threat indicators don't always show up, and they're useless for timing dodges as they only indicate direction. There's a red flash to indicate an incoming attack, but it's too late to dodge by the time you see that; you've just got to guess at the telegraph. Sixth: While the combat is cribbing its notes from Souls, the enemy population is still Darksiders. So it's routine to run into a room and find yourself fighting 6 guys with no telegraphs. And since it's moved onto the Souls style "Die, and do the level over again" you can get one-shot by some rando skeleton because you mis-timed a dodge, and suddenly you're back at a spawn a dozen rooms away wondering "Why?"
The Messenger wears its Indie-ness on its sleeve. The game is very obviously made by people who appreciate the games that came before it, filled with both references to and implementation of the gameplay from its predecessors. Almost every piece of the game can be described as 'just shy of...' The music, the controls, the interface, the story... it's all good with just enough issues to keep you from getting completely lost in it. As my example: Cloudstep. In the early game, I was overjoyed to find this 'hit thing, jump again' mechanic had some attention paid to its controls, where the jump and attack buttons could be pressed simultaneously to get the effect. Taking effort away from a minor execution demand and letting you focus more on getting your avatar to do what you want. Later in the game you get a glide mechanic tied to the same jump button. But it didn't get the same usability pass. Gliding requires a discrete button press once you're in the air. It also modifies your attack from horizontal to vertical. That has the double whammy of first, making it so that earlier 'press both simultaneously' strategy can cause you to miss your target and deny you the second jump, dropping you to the ground. Secondly, if you get hit in mid-air, you can't simply hold the button down to continue the glide. You need to hit the button again to get the animation and go back into the glide - and hopefully you didn't waste your stored jump and then miss a follow up attack... Of the 160-ish deaths I had in my playthrough, I'd put 3/4 of them at less than a half dozen puzzles which had similar issues of it being very difficult to get my ninja to do what I wanted. Like most of the other issues with the game it only affects a small percentage, but will hit you like a truck when they do.
