Combat, character progression and gear.

ultimateduck

I was hoping someone could give me a heads up on how combat progresses and how the character progresses.  From what I can see, combat looks incredibly basic and character progression seems almost nonexistent.  Do you eventually get combat styles or is "swing" and "build up swing" all you ever get?  It looks like "styles" are traded in for weapon types (sword/shield, 2hand hammer, bow) and that the styles are the same for all weapons with varying results depending on what you're holding.  Do characters ever progress into something other than what they were when they started the game only with more HPs?

I was also curious about gear.  How deep is the item pool?  Few things turn me away from a game more than and endgame where everyone is running around with the exact same gear and skill setup.

Thanks!