Whys the combat so boring?

Im like 3 hours into kiwami i just beat shimano and the combat feels painfully boring. Enemies take like an hour to beat coz kiryu does no damage whatsoever. The blocking and dodging are pretty much non functional except when youre in rush mode since kiryu is slow ash otherwise. So ive been sticking to rush mode. Again half an hour of ass whooping later the enemy starts to heal. Its just so tedious. Im curious if the combat gets better or am i missing something