They could make the combat more engaging by making it so that weapon types and attacks actually matter. An example would be to have it so that straight swords/falchions/katanas bounce off enemies wearing metal armor (like that armor dude in Sekiro), forcing you to use blunt weapons like a mace but also make metal armor weak to thrust attacks so swords aren't totally invalid, and have it so that non-armor wearing enemies are too fast for blunt weapons, forcing you to switch back, or have it so that you can deflect attacks from a non-blunt weapon if you are using that same weapon time by perfect blocking while two-handing. I wish it actually made a difference what type of weapon you use in these games besides dps. Also, remove dodge i-frames and make every human enemy in the game fight like npc characters with the same moveset as you so group fights are actually challenging and play by the same rules as you, with switching what types of weapons they use base on what you're wearing or using to attack to gain an advantage and also deflecting or parrying your attacks if you just R1 spam