Cuz it's a fun mechanic

It can be, if it's implemented well (like Sekiro). A lot of games just do it lazily to hide that their combat doesn't have a lot going on (Doom The Dark Ages for example).

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.

To make people who can't parry complain about parrying.

I love Yahtzee and have since a hundred years back when a friend introduced me to him via...Amnesia or something like that (then had me play his bomb ass adventure game - the first one I ever played). I am so thankful that he posted a video on this. Cause these modern games going hard on timing based hyper-tough combat have pretty much made the inaccessible to me. Everyone has gone gaga over these modern souls-like games. I just don't think I have the brain for quick responsive reactions. That's okay, cause not every game is made for everyone. I do however love bigguns, body horror and phantasms. I have seen the majestic and creepy things in games like Elden Ring, and would love to smash the hey out of them. I just don't think there's a chance I could ever "get gud" enough to play to the expected parameters of this type of game when I can't even do quick time events right. First mil to the person who can bring Soulslikes to the common man! Until then, I'll play my turn-based clicky games with a dumb smile.

Prime 'content' Because that’s all that content is. Stuff to fill emptiness. I hate our timeline so much.

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.

If you ask me, if done correctly it's very satisfying when parying, feels like a rhythm game.

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

Dude, I'm fucking **AWFUL** at parrying - to the point that it's just a mechanic I simply don't interact with at all - in Soulslikes (and I'm not great at dodging tbh either) and I've made it through the majority of the bosses in Elden Ring base (haven't gotten the DLC), ALL of them in DS3, and I'm currently working through DS2. (Plus both the Star Wars Jedi Souls games completely solo, which are honestly just My First Dark Souls with a SW skin lol) If at first you don't succeed, roll a caster and summon people lol

This is fairly benign compared to the AI generated slop which is now in the process of taking over every social media.

I think no discussion about parrying is complete without mentioning Ultrakill. It strikes a good balance between being usable without being an auto win button. In Ultrakill, besides from dealing extra damage and gaining style points, parrying enemy attacks is one of the most effective ways to regain health. Low on health? Find an attack to punch and you’re back in action. This creates a risk reward system. Committing to a parry is risky. If you miss you lose health - and it’s easy to miss when there’s 10 other things going on at the same time. It’s not always easy to find an opening to commit to. It also had a bug in early development where the player could also parry their own shotgun bullets if timed correctly. This was developed an intended mechanic, so Ultrakill is the game where punching your own shotgun bullet makes them go faster.

The funny thing about Clair Obscur is that because they made parrying "mandatory" people now focus on all-hit runs as the hard thing to do instead of no-hit runs. So they're proving that it is actually not mandatory and that the game is really a normal JRPG that is just a bit hard in the beginning.

I beat every boss in base game Elden Ring without parrying once, using melee only, and no ashes or player summons either (I summoned NPCs a few times if it was an NPC I liked or an interesting story, which meant summoning them for Morgott, Fire Giant, and the two gargoyles). I even got Malenia, eventually! I don't say this as a brag, because I am NOT good at these games. I say it to say that if I can do it, basically anyone can. I think it's a matter of mindset. You've got to go in psychologically prepared to fail a over and over again, and you've got to be analytical enough to figure out _why_ you failed. If you're really struggling with a boss, maybe don't even try to attack for a couple of runs, just focus on figuring out when to dodge and when you have windows. Maybe your current weapon isn't the right one for the job because it's a bit too slow to hit this boss or it does a damage type that the boss resists. Maybe you just need to go somewhere else for a bit and come back with more vigour and a better weapon. Elden Ring is really good for letting you do that. Obviously that's not going to be a process that everyone enjoys, and if someone doesn't enjoy it that's totally fair enough. It's a game, we're all just here to have fun. But the actual skill floor is one almost everyone _can_ achieve if they want to and approach it ready to experiment and learn

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

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.

That's not it though. No one complained about parrying in Bayonetta or Ninja Gaiden II because this is where the mechanic belongs. But when you start seeing it in Resident Evil or Doom, or even new IPs like Slitterhead, you have to start questioning if combat designers are being pushed to ride a trend or if they're being lazy and using parrying as a crutch.

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.

This reads like a crutch though and reflects part of the problem: games are being treated like products and not carefully curated, cohesive experiences, which's why its consistent inclusion everywhere is being criticized. If everyone is using the same crutch, no one should be surprised if people start complaining they're seeing the same crutch everywhere instead of interesting new ideas.