Eight levels in now. Apparently I was incorrect about specials not draining life, it just does it inconsistently so sometimes you lose and sometimes you don't. The difficulty seems to be smoothly getting harder which is still good. However, levels and bosses are being recycled now, which while I know is not unheard of in beat-em-ups was a little disappointing. It just feels like artificially padding the games length. I am still having fun though.
Only finished the first four missions so far, but I am really enjoying this. Simple controls but a variety of moves. I like how the difficulty curve is forgiving in the beginning(I assume it will get harder) so more casual beat-em-up players like myself can get into it. I have seen other similar games where they seem to think making it hard from the first level is a good idea, which I never understood. The controls are responsive. The art is great. I like having my special moves being tied to a recharging energy bar instead of depleting my life. Bosses not taking damage due to actually blocking instead of long invincibility frames was a good call. Only improvement I could suggest so far is maybe a way to attack downed enemies.
Seems to be an issue with not actually getting the resources you earn in endless. It said I recieved several of each resource (2-3 each) but when I went to go unlock units I had found it only had given me Mana Cores.