I think the combat in this game needs some improvements, here are my ideas:
Combat in this game feels a bit too easy, I think the devs could make the game more interesting and engaging by giving the enemies, in particular the boss enemies, more complex and challenging movesets. They should be movesets that require you to observe and learn them in order to avoid their attacks, and wait for openings to hit back at the appropriate times.
Additionally, while the ranged purifying orb attacks and plunging attacks are cool, the game does already have a sword accessory, it would be nice if they let me use it as a weapon as well. They could even add more weapon types (like hammers, axes, spears, halberds and so on), and it would also be cool to have a shield for protection as well.
I find controlling the camera during combat in this game to be a little clunky. It would be a nice quality-of-life feature if they allowed us to, for example, click the right analog stick to lock the camera on to enemies, so that the camera automatically follows them without us having to manually track them with the analog stick.
It also feels a little non-intuitive that the attack button is circle (B on xbox) while the dodge button is R1 (RB on xbox). I can't explain this very well, but I feel it would be more intuitive to swap those buttons and have attack on R1 and dodge on circle. And speaking of dodging, it looks unrealistic that you can avoid enemy attacks with just a simple dash animation, I think the dodge animation should be a more complex animation that better represents the act of jumping out of harm's way, like for example a rolling animation.
I'm also not a huge fan of the fact that, if you get hit, you automatically recover health over time. It feels more intuitive and engaging to have healing come from something like healing potions. But it's not a good idea to have players rely on consumables, so I think it would be cool if we had a set amount of potion flasks (like 5 or 10) that re-fill every time you reach a warp spire. This creates a cool gameplay loop where you try to go from one warp spire to the next without running out of potions, and if you successfully reach the next spire you're rewarded with full potions again to continue.
Also in the subject of warp spires, I think it's a negative for the game that enemies only respawn once per day. I think the game would be more interesting if all enemies respawned every time you rested at or teleported to a warp spire. That not only makes the game more engaging, but also makes it much easier to farm combat insight.
With this extra focus on combat, it would be nice to have more outfit options that look and feel adequate for combat. We already have the police officer and winter flame outfits, but it would be great to have more outfits with a vibe similar to what the NPC Bettina wears. And further beyond that, it would be great to have new outfits that are more geared towards combat, like for example something inspired by medieval armor or something like that.
It would also be amazing for the gameplay loop to have some form of punishment for losing all your health. For example, if your health goes down to zero, there could be a mechanic where you drop all your blings and diamonds on the spot where you died. You then respawn on the last warp spire you visited and have to make it back to the spot where you died to retrieve the blings and diamonds you dropped. If you don't manage to make it back to that spot and die again on the way, you permanently lose all those blings and diamonds. That would create some very engaging, high-stakes combat gameplay that the game needs.
Finally, I sometimes get confused when I lose all 5 hearts and Nikki just gets teleported back to the start of the section I'm in. I find that sudden transition jarring and confusing, and it often leaves me unsure what happened in the game. I think, for the sake of clarity, every time you lose all your hearts the game should prominently display the words "YOU DIED" in the center of the screen to make it easy for the player to understand what happened, and send Nikki back to the last warp spire she rested at.