Crossed Swords gameplay is like Punchout with swords. Or it's like Dragon Quest Swords, if you played that game. Also the level progression is a little bit like Dungeons and Dragons Tower of Doom / Chronicles of Mystara.
It's a pattern-recognition based action game with performance based rewards and a little bit of equipment upgrading, with various enemies with different patterns and bosses at the ends of levels.
IMO, it's good.