There's been a lot of changes. The vertical sword combo is X-A-X-A... instead of just mashing X, there's a double-slash sword move, axe mode hack-and-slash has a roundhouse finisher which can morph into sword mode, there's roll forward into attack moves, and so on.
I believe the consensus is that it's been rebalanced to make axe mode more useful this time around.
Perhaps a 3DS grip is an option?
Oh my.
Guess it's time for me to start looking up info/trying out weapons.