That seems like a bizarre excuse to not do it, but if he's only going to do one main character that's fine. I'm more concerned about how clunky the game feels, even compared to Hounds of the Blade, just trying to get in range of people and punch without getting shot or knocked back is a hassle. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if it's just the game.
In regards to the character thing. Time and effort wise, I believe it'd not be impossible, but a very foolish endeavor (gives me PX multiple character flashbacks). It'd be interesting to have her as only a playable character later when there's more content done and the balancing is overall better.
Now, gameplay wise I agree with you, the game feels clunky and I remember range being somewhat an issue (that you can use blocking to deal with, except the alley stage), limited stagger on combos and slow recovery too (I feel you can't use combos on the alley stage and expect to win, unless you distance yourself perfectly to land only the roundhouse, the low attack works much better). But these are balancing issues that the dev can approach in many different ways without much difficulty, depends on his willingness and creativity (he may like the game the way it is and not want to change it).
But I remember Hounds of Blade being quite similar, with the physics mario-esque movement. I think the biggest difference is that in that game you had a sword so the dev made the stagger and range overall more reliable.
Edit: Oops, wrote Meteor instead of Blade at the end there.
