I love parries. I always have and probably always will. These days though, it feels like most people hate parries no matter which game or type of game they show up in.
This will inevitably turn into rambling and ranting of sorts, just so you are aware.
Not every parry looks like you’re batting away a sword. Some animations look more like a dodge and still act like a parry, others are a weird shrug off, but the function is always the same. So for this post, I’m pulling in anything that behaves like a parry, even if the game calls it something else or tries to dress it up differently.
My First Encounter
Guard Impact in Soul Blade (or Soul Edge, depending on where you lived) was my first real encounter with a parry. Even though in the Souls series it didn’t leave you at a full advantage, since the opponent could still GI you back on your next move. Bushido Blade had a version too. And obviously, Street Fighter III: Third Strike gave us the most iconic one ever. “Let’s go Justin.”
In fighting games, parrying has always been tricky to balance. It shouldn’t be too easy to do, but it should be accessible. It also needs to give you a meaningful reward for pulling it off, but not so much that it becomes a Parry Game. Because who wants to play Parry Sentai 3, a parry fighting game spin-off to Sweet Hentai 5… *shrug*
Street Fighter 6 found a solid middle ground: auto parries that cover highs and lows but leave you open to throws. Land a perfect parry in its two-frame window and you get what feels like forever to lay out your combo buffet. But the scaling is so heavy, it forces an actual decision. Do you burn meter and try to kill, or carry to the corner and go for pressure?
Imagine you have a full stack of butter. You hit that perfect parry, take a quick glance at your opponent’s health bar during the freeze frame… is it low enough to burn everything including a level 3 or critical art to kill? Or do you carry them to the corner and go for some meaty strike-throw shenanigans?
This was the case up until now. I’m not sure how much has changed beyond the required inputs in Season 3, but you get the idea.
Tekken 8 works similarly. Low parries usually lead into specific combos designed to grant oki advantages rather than damage. You still optimise for damage, of course, but the scaling is brutal, so it’s rarely your primary goal.
There are plenty of other examples in the current fighting game catalogue, but I don’t think that’s what people are complaining about. So let’s move on.
Parries in Stylish Action Games
Stylish action games, character action games, whatever they’re calling them now, most people who play them are familiar with parries. At least since Devil May Cry 3. Royal Guard was one of the styles introduced and it’s all about blocking and negating incoming attacks. Better timing fills your meter faster, letting you unleash a powerful attack.
Bayonetta has the Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa, which lets you parry and even trigger Witch Time on perfect parries. Revengeance makes parrying essential, you even have to unlock a dodge. Same with Viola in Bayonetta 3, though at least you don’t have to unlock the dodge. Transformers Devastation, Korea, Nier Automata and whatever Platinum game I’m forgetting right now all follow suit. In Devil May Cry 3, 4 and 5 it’s mostly optional, except Revengeance.
So what about FromSoft and other Souls-likes?
Between Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2, 3 and Elden Ring, it’s all the same. Equip something that can parry, hit L2 on an incoming attack and if timed correctly, enjoy your 10 business days of riposte prep. PvE is a reaction-based decision. PvP? It becomes a read, latency ruins everything.
As someone who plays fighting games and has been doing so longer than some of you have been alive, I just cannot get past the latency thing. It doesn’t feel right. Which sucks, because I watch channels like ChaseTheBro and it looks like a blast if you know what you’re doing. But if latency kills the feel, then it’s not worth it for me. That’s fine. I don’t play co-op anyway.
Bloodborne swaps in the gun mechanic to set up visceral attacks, which is just a riposte with flair. Sekiro is full posture damage, full parry, full deathblow, same logic. Lies of P combines blocking, parrying and posture breaking too. Different wrapping, same gift inside.
You know we could keep going. Black Myth: Wukong, metroidvanias like Hollow Knight or Metroid Dread, parries everywhere. Games just rename it: block and strike, offset, retaliation, heavenly counter, Jack and Jill, peanut and butter, but it’s still the same mechanic.
Most of the time it’s not even mandatory. Sekiro and Revengeance are the main exceptions. So generally, no one really cared. Until someone adds it to a game where you didn’t expect it, and suddenly, outrage.
Enter Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
When Parries Become Controversial
I absolutely love this game. I started it on Expert and that was the best decision for me. The game even told me during the difficulty selection: if you want to parry, pick Expert. So I did.
Gameplay is what keeps me around, always. Parrying in 33 is overpowered, full stop. I thought I had to dodge those party-wide attacks, but nope, you can parry them. All three party members counterattack. It’s busted. But it’s single player, so who cares?
It’s the kind of game Final Fantasy XIII should’ve been. Why XIII? Because while I love XII, it was experimental and didn’t quite land. Monolith made that concept work later, but that’s another story.
Final Fantasy X is my favourite JRPG of all time. Lots of nostalgia. But 33 is starting to challenge that. From my perspective, 33 is the natural evolution of X’s combat. Feel free to disagree, I even encourage it, comment below, engagement helps, but just look at Square Enix. They’ve been trying to push more interactive and reactive systems for a while now.
Which games did it better is mostly pointless to argue. It’s usually just about which one you like more. I can’t stand XV, Remake or Rebirth, but I love XVI. I think XII is brilliant, XIII being linear never bothered me, again, X is my favourite, so complaining about linearity would be rich.
Expedition 33 spells it out: pick your difficulty and you pick your playstyle. Want to parry? Pick Expert. Want to chill? Pick Story. If you don’t like or can’t deal with the mechanics, just choose the lower difficulty. It’s not much different than my dislike for PvP latency in Souls games. It’s an optional part of the game. The game gives you literal options to avoid it. Use them.
The outcry, as always, is a small but loud minority. Best ignored. The game is selling. It’s getting praise. And it’s all deserved.
In my opinion, and you’re welcome to disagree (again, the comments are right there), if the game lets you skip what you hate and enjoy what you like, do that. I hate Remake and Rebirth but nostalgia made me platinum Remake and do all the Intergrade trophies. Rebirth though? I gave up before I even stepped into Junon. I’m just not enjoying it. This isn’t the game I imagined when that tech demo dropped 20 years ago. Yeah… I’m old.
So in the end, this really isn’t about too many parries in games. It’s about what mechanics you’re willing to put up with, and which ones you’re not. I’ve seen the parry discourse around Doom: The Dark Ages. But I don’t really play first-person shooters. The arguments against it might be valid. I just don’t care. I’m not playing it. So I’ll leave it there.
Alright, that’s my rant about parrying. See you next time.
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