I enjoyed the combat itself quite a bit myself. The keyboard control sucked a lot but some patch and autohotkey fixed it. I especially liked using the counter chip. If you move your character in the direction of an attack, they can block and reflect the damage. And it's insane dps in late game with high difficulty because the enemies deal way more damage than they can withstand themselves and one shot themselves. It can return up to 250% damage so the defensive chip actually turns into main damage for me lol.
There are a lot of recovery frame after attacks, but the game allows to cancel attacks quite freely before the hit connects. (I think you can also trigger counter during attack recovery, i'm unsure)
Being a dark souls2 enjoyer I'm okay with the fact that comitting to attacks leaves the player at risk.
But it's true that the game is a bit too clunky for pixel perfect control no hit runs. Sometimes my char would dodge in wrong direction or do stuff I didnt intend.
Anyway it's not a good idea to mash attacks, as delaying a bit between each attacks makes the game more likely to register your commands.
Mirage program is also quite badass defensive mode.
My motivation to play the game was simple. My monke brain only needed the addiction of farming better chips and make my character more powerful and it carried my motivation quite far in the game. Like farming crit chance chips with stupid weapons like the metal pipe. It only worked because I liked the basic combat gameplay itself. And crit/counter fishing spoke to my inner gambler spirit
Storywise it didn't leave too deep impression. Most of the story was just people stuck between their unreconcilable desires and circumstances without ever reaching happy closure.
But story fights were great fun and varied. Especially mecha fights that were breather between normal fights. There was a lot of variety: humanoid vs giant robot, small robots vs big robots, big robot vs big robbot. I really didn't expect all that during my first playthrough. It was like a funny sparkly kablooey themepark ride
Edit: actually the final ending was quite touching. The story throw misery all game long at the player with all character getting fucked over in cold blood by each other (game overs are lore accurate since memories are stored in servers and bodies reconstructed at the android dispensers lol) but the final ending gives the first and last opportunity for the cherished main characters to receive the love, pity and help of others (from the pods and the player themselves) to cheer on for their freedom and happy ending. Weight of the world is really a warm fitting expression of the relationship between player and characters. Though you don't exist for them, their prayer is heard and fulfilled by the help of strangers (yourself) just like how you receive help with other player's save data
Even if life is bleak and hopeless. There are people out there who empathize and share your pain somewhat