Whether it's a skill issue or having carpal tunnel, parrying has become the gamer's way of a better life because of the reflex involved in using it. There are games I played recently the mechanics integrated in martial arts, sword fighting, gun fighting, brawlers, robots, and more.
And it's been going around in the latest titles for the past few years. Even the popular ones. But, the fundamental design of the parry were easily introduced into video games long back. Today, this mechanic functions more dynamically than before.
I really want to explore just how fast this trend has caught up in recent games. Like, I've never thought I could be better at games than I was before. I was pretty much wrong, because all the tougher games now have mechanics that feel old, compared to the ones we have right now, that gives constant engagement and amazing challenges.
By definition, parrying means to pry out the opponent's weapon, if you're fencing, of course. But it could also mean a lot of things, like shutting down your enemies, disabling them temporarily, or other ways of counteracting their offense.
Parrying in today's world in often talked about in boxing, karate, martial arts, and many other forms of combat based sports. When it comes to games, it relies on the player's reflex to act quick. As well as memorizing enemy patterns, and new moves to use against.
Getting To The Basics
Parrying is something noted mostly in fighting games, in fact, one of the first few that did introduce it was Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike with the Guard Parry. The first game that introduced it in a fighting game was Samurai Shodown II, but this kind of popularized it later on.
The parry didn't punish the sender, but rather rewarded the player who parried the attack with a quick recovery. A good parry can turn the tides of fights instantly. Introducing mechanics that provides a high skill ceiling, which encourages any experienced player to stay engaged. All that sounds great, but the parry system was difficult to implement in about any other games.
The parry mechanic was mostly found in niche titles like Castlevania: Aria of Sorrows for Gameboy. PS2 exclusives aimed towards the esoteric demographic, few games that added it for experimental reasons, whether they mostly work or not.
This was because other mechanics like blocking or dodging were mostly prevalent and that they worked as designed. Easier to work on too, because there was no additional visual info, animation, or coding required to make it registered. Kind of sloppy, but this was the early 2000s.
And then the 7th gen came around, a lot changed during that era, and people were embracing more of third-person action games. A little known game that was known to be "the" hardcore action RPG, the one let rise to the "get gud" movement, the revolutionary that changed it all; Demon Souls.
A right timed shield parry would stun the enemy, and leave them open for a devastating attack. This exact mechanic is still implemented in nearly every FromSoft's souls like title. Including, and especially, Elden Ring. For good reasons, too, this was like a way of truly allowing the player relief by finishing a tough enemy faster.
The game that successfully made it a quintessential part of the overall experience was Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice. You thought trying to parry once was bad, try doing 120 parries per minute. Sekiro's fundamental game design stems from players deflecting and parrying all the time.
Widespread Reach
So a few games have it made to cut, what about the ones we play now? I'll talk about a couple of games from my experiences. Starting by looking at a pretty known franchise that I, for some reason, played almost all of their games by now. Such as the Yakuza series, which is well-known for implementing a myriad of fighting styles, moves, and counters.
Counters are the brawler way of parrying by either disengaging, stunning, knocking down, or brutally damaging enemies. If you want to pull the ultimate "pro-gamer" move, this is how. Imagine that rush of adrenaline and serotonin when you start to get the hang of mowing down thugs giving you a hard time.
Yakuza was my gateway to using the parry techniques, because it introduced this element where you find a way to punish someone back for their aggression. Of course, the A.I. doesn't reciprocate that, but it's fun to do nonetheless. All for fun while being rewarded, playing stylishly.
But it took another game that made the parry, as well as its other combat mechanics, essential to learn what it meant to be the ultimate brawler. Sifu's combat is based on Bak Mei, which requires a lot of fast button mashing, discipline, practice, and parrying. Lots of parrying. Because a well-trained martial arts master needs to make fast defense against multiple foes simultaneously.
I was taken aback by how much choreography was put into doing the fighting moves, especially ones involving defense. Sifu is a hard game, If I die, I get rewarded with new skill points, but my life expectancy decreases.
Some skill points stay permanently, but I have to finish the game in one lifetime of the character, as I was basically playing a marathon while getting the hang of the combat. Parrying is one of those difficult moves in this game, because enemies move fast and nimble. Playing it while being punished repeatedly, basically turned it into muscle memory.
And saving this one for last, even coming before Y0, and Sifu, there was blood, and guts, and plenty of mayhem. MGR: Revengeance made the parry system not only essential, but super cool to use too. Because of how extensive the combat mechanics were. After a parry, I would go into slow dicing mode, and just slice enemies into sushi bits.
Doing a parry would also prompt QTEs at certain times even, and this parry only required me to move my analog stick to the direction that enemies are striking. Sounds familiar, Godhand maybe? This was one of Platinumgames classic gems, and probably influenced many other games to introduce their design later on. The best way to encapsulate what it meant in this is from this boss battle.
In Places Not Expected
For the past 5 years, a lot of games have implemented the parry system, from Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, Recent Wo Long, and so on. Most of these are action hack'n'slash, aside the fighting games where it's also prominent. But, there are other places no one could have predicted.
I've been playing Hi-Fi Rush, and man, the game's kind of tough just attacking enemies on the rhythm, but switching gears to deflect and parrying, it's like a dream come true. Especially when you do it in showdown fights, timing the block and dodge together.
The newly released Resident Evil 4, also has one. An action shooter, using a knife, parries thrown axes, lunged pitchforks, and a freaking chainsaw even. A good timing stunts attackers, leaving them open for a melee attack. We finally got this far.
Zelda: BOTY borrowed the shield parry from the Souls games, but makes the counter use even more interesting. Another funny tidbit, even Condemned: Criminal Origins had a parry system. I wonder if in the near future, you could parry bullets in-game. Or by technical definition, that wouldn't fit.
We live in a pretty prosperous times, where all sorts of new and old are finally brought together in the modern era. Especially the parry, because that insignifies that us players finally can play tougher games, not as a niche, but finally something that transcends us. I hope to see more as time goes by. Even pushing it beyond the genre norms.
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