My first impressions after having played the game for 2 hours. It's good, but expect things to have changed after all these years, which I suppose is on brand for NG each game does have a unique feel. This is very much Platinum giving their own spin of what NG is and not doing a bad job of it. I can understand why Yakumo is the main character because he has many things that wouldn't feel right if Ryu was the one who had it.
A Perfect Block, Parry, Perfect Dodge, a block that can break if you break and needs a moment to recharge to encourage you to stay on the move. Blood Raven attacks which you can used to break enemies super armor, a berserk mode which lets you instant kill enemies if you can line them up for one attack. You gain temporary damage health back from attacking to encourage aggression.
That on top of OT's UT's, Flying Swallow, Izuna Drop, some stuff you'll need to buy in the skill shop, which is typical for Platinum having you buy important skills, so new players find out they even exist, it's a tad annoying not having the series staples from the word go, but you can buy things quick enough, and a new player will actually learn that On Landing UT's are a thing. Since it's a skill, they'll buy and be able to practice in the training mode.
There are a lot of mechanics to juggle and grow accustomed to, you could argue there are too many, but the game just came out, and over all the gameplay feels good. You can move around the fast as fuck during combat, and that's just fun. This is some of Platinum's better work. It doesn't feel like just the normal Bayonetta template. I've only scratched the surface of this game, but impressions are positive.