After playing it a while, it's not quite street fighter, but because I'm level 1 I guess it's harder for me to parry and counter (I'm pretty much a rdm at this point, but I can change to thf as I level). R1 is light attack with your primary weapon/spell, R2 is a heavy attack from whatever's assigned to your primary weapon/staff. If you have some kind of staff you'll cast a spell that you select instead. You change spells by pressing up on the Dpad. L1 is raise shield, or a swing secondary weapon. You can equipt a secondary weapon and press triangle which cause you to 2hand grip your primary. Doing this cause you to double your damage with the primary weapon and retain the stats of your secondary equipted shield/weapon. You can buff up with miracles (devine magic), you can enfeeble and stuff too.
I'm still a noob though, but the fighting system is kinda slower than street fighter, but you just can't make too many mistakes. Especially against real people trying to take your soul. They would probably jack you up for little mistakes. Combos are just pressing R1 again and again, you're stamina determines how long you can attack with speed. You level stamina/endurance, dex, int, etc for different abilities like in normal rpgs. Dex make you hit harder, and stuff, int makes you nuke harder. You can roll dodge to evade, and thf is best at that because of their speed, but you won't have enough endurance to carry heavy armor..
Sorry for rambling I'm not quite sure how to explain everything when I'm just figuring stuff out myself.
Here's a interesting trailer that show more aspects of the game especially the end credits. You will die in this game, over and over. It's part of the system, you learn how to handle the enemies on the first level. From there it's all about assessing the situation, and executing. You play thf so I think you could react fast enough. I soloed a red eyed monster people aren't supposed to fight their first time through the first area on my level 1 Royal (rdm).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66lEFzlp8kAlso the world is made up in stages. The stages are huge and to access them you enter portals in the hub world. The hub world is where you upgrade stats, fix armor, and upgrade armor. If you're seriously thinking about getting it you should probably rent it. Here's a vid of a guy quitting the game on what seems like the first level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0F1glN9JjEt=9m32sOh and when you die you lose all of your souls unless you return to it and reclaim them. Souls aren't a problem further in the game though. They're easier to obtain.
Edit: Hah I'm having a blast. Everyone is being nice at the moment, with a few people testing the waters on being a prick. No one is invading my games yet, but I'm a spirit most of the time (being in flesh form is like a super power. You're weakened when you're a spirit).
My character in flesh form. I need to find new body armor. I got to go through so many loops for some demon bow synth.