There's some outright falsehoods in the negative reviews for this game so here's my take.

First, this is Way of the Samurai, through and through. The camera perspective may be different, but the combat is very similar. You slash at enemies with your swords, you learn sword skills by using them, you can perfect parry/dodge to do an instakill move (WOTS3), and you can kill enemies to charge a gauge that drastically increases your strength when activated (WOTS4).

Enemies can be fought with or without lock on. Without lock on, enemies freely charge and attack you, so it's easy to get overwhelmed. With lock on, you and the locked enemy enter a duel and you can freely ignore nearby melee enemies (ranged enemies still attack). This is identical to how combat works in previous WOTS games so it felt intuitive to me. You can also cheese the game by sheathing your sword, running around until it builds up steam, and then unleashing a screen-clearing AOE, but that takes a lot of time so it's mostly useful for thinning a herd rather than actual combat.

The first dungeon is 20F and constructed of pre-made maps with random items and enemies. It's repetitive - budget game, remember - but has some interesting complications as you play that make the game either harder or easier (depending on how good at the combat you are).

During the day - when you're not dungeon crawling - you have to help Dojima the Smith fulfill sword orders using swords and materials you bring back from the dungeon. It's like a very stripped-down Recettear. You get an order from each of the three factions, and can fulfill it how you like. You can either manually select the swords to send, or you can make Dojima pick. The quality of sword impacts the strength of that faction's fighters, who come to the pass and fight from time to time, as well as their behavior towards you. If you keep sending them awful swords, they'll insult you! You are encouraged to anger factions and make them fight each other, which I did by getting everyone drunk and sending them way more swords than they needed.

Speaking of swords: the most important and impactful thing you can do in Katana Kami is invest in a sword. If you see someone complaining that you do no damage and the enemies are way too tough, it's because they went into the dungeon without enhancing their sword. At the start you won't be able to upgrade much - maybe 4 or 5 enhances if you're lucky - but that changes as you progress and get access to higher level materials and smelting. Eventually you'll be able to fully upgrade swords you like. I'm only 8 hours in and I already have some near-maxed swords that have trivialized the dungeon up to level 14 or so.

Oh, and death basically doesn't matter. As long as you store higher-quality swords in your chest in case of emergency, you'll be fine. But even if you don't, this game is quite easy, at least in the first dungeon.

I came into this knowing exactly what I wanted:

* A goofy, tongue-in-cheek plot full of absurdist caricatures.
* Combat that emphasizes crowd control and character action in equal measure.
* The grind to acquire swords with titles and attributes that make you happy.

Katana Kami delivers on all fronts. It's not WOTS5, but it should keep you sated.