I just finished the game in a 10 hour marathon sitting (with a small break to grab pizza from the delivery guy), swords on hands and whips on feet was my combo for most of the game, although I never really experimented. What are your favorite weapon combos?

I alternate between Swords/hands Gun/feet and scythe/hands swords/feet. I occasionally set B to Bow and swords. I mess around with all of the weapons a bunch other than the hammer, I've never been a big fan of the big, slow, heavy weapons though.The first game didn't seem to incentivise anything other than your favourite weapons, but there feels like far more of a reason to mess with different stuff in this one. I've just unlocked the chainsaws/finished chapter 10 so who knows what I'll end up preferring.

Bow + whips is fun. Actually, bow + anything is fun. I went through most of the second half of the game with double Undine on set A, with the bow and guns on set B.

Having just cleared the game on Climax 3... I may have a new favorite weapon but I need to test it out.

Dual Alruna (whips) are my current fav. Chernobog(sycthe)/Rakshasa(swords) are my runner-up. Just picked up the Takemikazuchi(hammer) though and it's preeeeeeeeety gooooooooood. I'm definitely keeping the Dual Alruna, but the Chernobog might just get replaced.

I found the Hammer was great in certain situations (breaking past those shield guys' defenses) but it is so slow to swing it can be hard to use in frantic melees (at least on Climax 3, I haven't touched 2). However I will say charging it up all the way then going into cat mode and charging into a fight to lead off with a huge chunk of damage can be super great.