Can you try giving some directions on how we could improve it? Some references of games that implemented it well?
The combat mechanics... Well, I don't see a huge problem with the combat, except that this is supposed to be level 1, yes? I really think the player should be swinging faster and be able to take a lot more hits than the enemies... The way it is currently designed where the player is not only unfamiliar with the entire control scheme, has barely any abilities is outnumbered and seems to have the same or a smaller health pool than the enemies on the lowest difficulty is frustrating.
Can't really give any references to other games, I haven't seen a design like this before but I don't think it's a bad one... dodging is a little weird as camera angles don't really give the player much information on what she's dodging into. And the camera angles make it somewhat difficult to see the enemy animations... Not really clear on if combos actually occur or not as attacks are so often interrupted. Maybe a little more time in the first few frames of enemy animations to make it really clear the enemy is attacking, or some kind of special effect, just to notify the player that it's time to block.
I know in Skyrim, in third person swordplay I always liked to have the camera high, almost looking down on the action to have a clear view of everything going on. Models, animations, and fx are amazing though, but a frustrated player might not notice if he's seeing a game over screen too often.