Getting stuck while charging, unable to dodge, due to some kind of bug or animation issue, is the cause of so many failures and hits taken while using nodachi. Especially in Chapter 4, where such things have to be immediate, and precise. It is really frustrating.
As a follow-up, I feel nodachi needs a bit of a buff:
Regarding hyper armor for nodachi, there's Steely Iai. I think it is a necessary thing on a nodachi build honestly. I believe I had it once on some lower rank armor piece, and I see in the weapon tree that you can get it as an inherent skill, but not inherited, so you can't build for it. You can only use that armor piece or that one specific nodachi - if memory serves. I do not have a talisman with Steely Iai, but I have been praying to the RNG god to please drop one.
As far as a buff, I think the weapon has a stamina problem. It's a bit too hard to manage in Chapter 4. The game requires that you use fusion katakuri to lock down foes sometimes. Unless you have insane skill, the game literally doubles down on this. That makes the tried and true method of using springs as a key mechanic for nodachi more challenged. You either run out of threads for springs, or you run out of threads for fusion. Both will result in mission failure or at least taking a hit. Celestial Breath helps a little bit, but locks you into one armor set and the Human Path only.
As above with Steely Iai, and then with Celestial Breath, I don't think there should be very narrow locks into very specific setups to try to mitigate overall issues with the weapon. It's not like Celestial Breath frees up threads enough to let you breathe, because to make matters even worse for nodachi, monster aggression is so bad in chapter 4 that sometimes you just have to dodge instead, which of course hurts your stamina use even more.
So, maybe instead of a damage buff, or at least as a starting point, I suggest Steely Iai being a little more available, maybe some hyper armor in specific use cases, and a little more breathing room for stamina usage, which is pretty bad currently. Amaterasu Human Path should also maybe not be the "only" armor set piece you can use to try to help a weapon shortcoming. It sucks when there's limited to no variety in build options due to weapon/mechanic shortcomings, so everyone builds the same, because you are left with little other sensible choices. I think that's a sign that some things need to be buffed or rebalanced.
