I came from Bloodborne where the parry with a gun is quite similar to the standard parry you'd expect from Dark Souls: relatively long wind-up, only certain attacks can be parried, for others you're SooL. Even though I liked the parry mechanic, as a consequence of it working on only a limited amount of attacks and pulling it off was generally hard while in the midst of a boss' very frantic moveset, I'd usually rely on dodge rolls.

FF to Sekiro and Lies of P, the parry has been replaced with a deflect that's easier to pull off since it's just a well-timed block combines with a stance bar that allowed for alternative win-cons outside getting the boss' HP to 0. Especially Sekiro's hyper focus on deflects being the name of the game, a lot more attacks can be deflected which, in previous installments, usually would not have been deflectable/parriable.

FF to Elden Ring, the classic parry is back and only a limited set of specific moves can be parried. It's certainly an option for those who like it but some enemies just outright don't accommodate for parries to be usable, so again you're SooL. The Deflecting Hardtear attempts to remedy this by including a deflect similar to Sekiro with the added caveat, unfortunately, that outside of not taking damage from attacks you'd normally be damaged by, with exceptions like builds and specific shields, you don't again anything by doing so outside having an alternative to dodging. It's a good idea but not exactly what I want from the game. What it does well, however, is that you can deflect attacks that you'd usually not be able to.

What if this system were applied to standard parries? I know you shouldn't be able to parry some kinda laserbeam or something similar. But specifically in Elden Ring where the aggressiveness of bosses and their mobility is off the charts to combat the increasing skill of players, I'd wish for more tools to be able to deal with the increased complexitt. For example by letting me parry attacks that clearly should be from a visual standpoint but can't be because FS says so.

Is this just a severe case of GitGud™ or does any of this make sense/resonate with you?

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[–] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I just completed a few runs of Elden ring with a parry build, it was really fun! Forced myself to develop parry strata for Malenia and PC Radahn. The more I played with it the more parryable attacks I discovered. Most of the time if an enemy is two handing a colossal weapon, you can't parry. Otherwise there are tons of attacks that are parryable. Parrys absolutely trivialize lots of otherwise very difficult fights.

Historically, the way I like to play fs games is to like pick one strong build and use it all the way through. This doesn't really work for ER, every boss is kinda like a puzzle with different weaknesses and strengths to defend against. So you need a few different approaches in your build unless you wanna struggle like hell using a slash weapon against like Radahn. Parry is like this too, its a good tool against many enemies, absolutely trivializes others, but doesn't work well, or at all, against some others. Its just how the game is, IMO.

But there's def some sides of it I don't like. I really enjoy quick roll mechanic but the game gravitates toward heavy armor and a giant fuck off weapon. Being quick and nimble is hard, being unga bunga is easy. There's not really incentive to develop a quick and nimble play style, eventually it becomes like a challenge run. I could not defeat like Malenia or even make real progress in the dlc with a light roll character. I accept it for what it is, but it doesn't work for me. And yeah there's probably a skill issue component, but I've completed probably 10 playthroughs of Elden Ring base game, and SOTE 4 times. I've platted every game since bloodborne, and have thousands of hours logged in soulsborne series, I got as good as I am going to get.

Sekiro is one of my favorites though, mastering the parry in Sekiro made me want to try a parry build in ER. I think my favorite thing about Sekiro is if I'm struggling with a boss, the strategy isn't to find some gimmick, but to just play them straight, defect their attacks, focus on position and spacing, concentrate. It feels more honest to me. I also came from Bloodborne. Have you tried Nightreign? There is one character that is parry focused and is very fun.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    That's a good way of putting it. Parries are one part of the whole game's arsenal - naturally they won't be fit for every fight and circumstance.

    I also had the impression that many players opted for huge armours and two-handing or power-stancing some gigantic weapons. Not really my style either, unfortunately, and the point about Malenia is soo true. The lifesteal is really strong.

    That's also the way I'd put it for Sekiro: more honest. There's absolutely some bullshit bosses but overall, most are very manageable and straightforward when it comes to their movesets.

    I haven't yet because I don't really have friends to play this with :/ I understand playing with randoms is fine but still a little discouraged? Plus I'm not sure if I'd wanna pay for it on PC

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    That's fair, although I don't have friends who play it either. Found a discord group with an active common and pick up games from there by and large. The game is also quite good solo IMO, especially with the Executor character I mentioned. Just thought I'd bring it up because Executor checks basically all of your boxes. I actually couldn't get the hang of Sekiro until I played NR, so I feel a lot of fondness for NR since Sekiro is probably my fave FS game, and it used to frustrate the hell outta me, so getting over that hump was huge for me

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 day ago

    Yea I saw Executor before and thought that would likely be the only way I'll want to try NR. The thing about NR is that it's based on ER. And while I wouldn't call myself an ER hater per se, compared to other souls games and soulslikes, I'm not too fond of it. Yes, the gameplay loop is different and very condensed but the bosses are a major part of why I dislike ER compared to their other titles. And from what I've seen, the bosses in NR go super saiyan quite often

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