I had to give up on Soulslike games. It's not that I *can't* do it, it's that every boss makes me feel frustrated for 30 mins to an hour and I'm cursing a blue streak, pissed off when I'm supposed to be having fun. Not worth it to me or my blood pressure.

Its a crutch because its used to hold the game up, rather than the game supporting its own weight. In your bullet hell example, dodging isn't a crutch, it's the foundational mechanic. A better example would be a slot machine system (something that is near-inherently engaging) being added to a bullet hell game, not because it fits but because its fun and helps distract from the fact that they haven't put any effort into the core gameplay. The mechanic isn't a crutch, its inclusion as a tacked-on addition is.

Didn't Furi do this in 2016? I'd be surprised if it was the first game to tie parrying to health gain either. In the slew of action games that came out in the PS2 era, someone must've done it.

Then it can be said about any mechanic, isn't it? In Soulslike, parry is part of the core mechanics. When Balatro exploded, a ton of copy cats tried to get in on the action. It happens all the time. Why is parrying any different?

Using your clones example, the Slay the Spire "clones" that give roguelike deckbuilders a bad name aren't Inscryption or Monster Train or Balatro. Its things like Across the Obelisk and Wildfrost, that are good, but fail to capture what makes others great, and the numerous low-effort copies you've likely never heard of that viewed it as an easy way to make a good game without understanding it. Its not that Roguelike Deckbuilders are bad, obviously, its that lazy, or thoughtless use of the mechanics that is. A game isn't one mechanic, and trying to treat it as such just results in a messy or bad game.

I had to give up on Soulslike games. It's not that I *can't* do it, it's that every boss makes me feel frustrated for 30 mins to an hour and I'm cursing a blue streak, pissed off when I'm supposed to be having fun. Not worth it to me or my blood pressure.

I had to give up on Soulslike games. It's not that I *can't* do it, it's that every boss makes me feel frustrated for 30 mins to an hour and I'm cursing a blue streak, pissed off when I'm supposed to be having fun. Not worth it to me or my blood pressure.

I think, part of it is also that it's a rather isolated feature which is fun on its own. You don't need multiple systems working together to make parrying fun. Instead, you just react in the right moment and there's your endorphins. Pretty much the hardest part about implementing it, is to make enemy attacks readable, which you likely need for dodge rolls, too. And then especially for AAA titles, which can't afford to experiment much, such an isolated feature is just a no-brainer to include.

Whoa AtO catching strays? I enjoy it a lot, particularly great that it's multiplayer

This is a timely addition to the recent discussion on this comm

No no no no. No. You ever played DOOM? And i dont mean the recent incarnations, i mean the original one. No Parry. Only damage and more damage. And lots of endorfines. BFE. I hate parrying.

The guy who made the video (Ben Croshaw) is a long time game journalist. I often prefer written things over videos as well but he's not padding his run time with a story about his grandma before he gets to the recipe or anything like that. The above bullet points get to the gist of the content but the rest of the video has examples and deeper explanations

Semi-Ramblomatic is also his long-form content. Fully Ramblomatic, which used to run as Zero Punctuation, is even more concise.

Glad to see second wind is doing so well. I haven't been back to the escapist since the exodus.

My summary: * Parrying has gotten very popular. * It works fairly well. * Not everyone wants to play a game that relies on responding to cues. * It doesn't give a feel of being able to control combat. * Overuse of one mechanic can make it unappealing.

I mean, I am all for failure as a whole. Cause it really is true what they say about the growth being in the action of failure. I also like tactics, but I like to have the space to think on the tactics I am enduring. I think it's cool that a game introduced that in a very action-oriented way. There seems to be a lot of creativity in the creatures as well, which I like. I will say as I get older my reaction time has lessened even worse than I'd say it originally was. I never played shooters or anything, although I had friends go ham on them. I think perhaps it might be an incongruity with what I want out of a game with swords x boss battles. The game I think of when I think of big papa boss battles is Shadow of the Colossus. Cause it's pretty much the only one I have ever played like that. I feel the game though, while exciting, is actually pretty slowly paced. Which makes it more accessible to me. Most "sword" games though, I want to play like a dumb-dumb. I wanna hack, slash, and feel all powerful. Smash everything in sight (Dynasty Warriors). I think the two clashing might also be making it difficult for me to pick it up. But I guess the third thing is that pretty much any time I have grabbed a game that is hyper popular nowadays I don't really seem to like it much. That might be an age thing too, idk. Might be a lot of things, but I generally think I might not be the audience for most AAA games. In fact, I know I am not =P!

That's totally fair! I'm very much of the opinion that while From's soulslikes are great and much less insurmountable (a word I choose carefully — they _are_ difficult, but they can be learned) than their reputation suggests, that still doesn't mean that everyone will actually find them fun. If the combat isn't to your taste then that's an entirely reasonable position. Elden Ring is particularly demanding in terms of the pace of combat compared to the Souls games as well Shadow of the Colossus is such an incredible game. I think it was the first game I played that showed me that games could do more than just being fun to play. It wasn't the first to attempt to do that, certainly, but it was the first to show that to me and it has stuck in my memory ever since. The soundtrack is phenomenal too. Have you seen that the dev team teased a new game late last year?

When dabbling in fencing and (watching) Historical European Martial Arts, I find parrying pretty satisfying IRL.

Get out! I was thinking lately that I wish they would (re)release all of their games again so I can finally play the damn game with the bird-dog. A long time ago, a friend showed me a trailer for that game before it came out. I missed it, and maybe with them releasing a new game they might consider putting the old ones up for funding? I don't care how awful the controls or the ai is, their games blow my mind, just like you said =)! Thanks for the heads up! I wonder if it'll end up being an Playstation exclusive, or if they'll open the channels up a bit more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJHXe_9uhxw Here's the teaser, since they reformed the team with a new name so it might not be easy to find. I think this is the only thing they've released about it so far, which doesn't really tell us much other than that they're making something, but honestly I'm just excited to see more from them. It being published by Epic suggests to me that it'll come to PC, which is a relief for me because I don't have a console