Ranking "Parry" Abilities in Video Games 

Download GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon Here! ► bit.ly/3LNmwbr

I never really made use of the parry mechanic in Hollow Knight because for me it was too inconsistent and definitely felt like a "happy accident" just like you said. That changed at the Nightmare King Grimm fight. Parrying his upward slice attack was literally how I survived and managed to beat him. Can't do it consistently against anyone else XD

Nothing beats the neutral special: the gun

The gun has to be my favorite. It is completely wrong and should not be possible, yet it is so perfect. I’m also biased because Bloodborne is one of, if not my favorite game of all time.

I love that in sekiro the parry becomes a crucial part of hyper aggressive gameplay. In a lot of cases you can make fights much easier by attacking until they parry you and then you just parry their counter and rinse and repeat. And nothing reinforces that aggression Like the mikiri counter which requires you to dodge into the attack. All together, the mechanics of sekiro reward you for finishing fights as quickly as possible. No other game puts me in the kind of flow state that sekiro does. And unlike other souls games, when you beat a boss super quickly, it isn’t because you had the strongest gear, or the best spell, but because you completely mastered and dominated them.

Can’t forget the ultrakill parry where you can parry your own shots and a massive corpse’s punches.

Just wanted to mention that DMC has three parry mechanics, not just Royalguard. You can also parry like in Hollow Knight with your own attacks but in DMC it's actually usefull, it knocks enemies away and gives a ton of Style and DT, if it's a ranged attack it will get reflected back to the enemy too, which can deal massive damage. The other parry system is Nero's buster, it can catch certain melee attacks (mostly charges like Vergil's dive) and ranged attacks like Credo's spears.

The dodge is pretty much the first unlock you can buy in Metal Gear Rising. Also the stealth is more to avoid combat if you're not good enough than something the game incentives you and rewards you for

I honestly really liked the parry in Ender Lillies, it was basically a boss exclusive ability. First: it was super useful against some attacks event though they were basically always fair Second: it was difficult to time, especially because of some tricky attack animations from a few bosses However third: it's hella rewarding to time it, you take no damage and deal a ton yourself I also never really ran out of it since I used it defensively, it's a really cool ability

Royal Guard is pretty fun to me tbh, but DMC5 also lets you parry almost every weapon attack with the right timing, as any character.

I really like how Furi handles parries, because it really fits with the fast paced combat it creates. It makes a streamlined and fair way to get health that teaches you how to telegraph bosses really quickly. It’s never disruptive and creates so many DPS opportunities if you learn how it works. It’s repetition done right, something Furi excels at. It’s such an integral part of the combat coupled with the relatively simple mechanics :) Perfect Parries are even better, because it’s so wonderful to see that cool animation when you hit the button at the perfect time. You get ab interesting and dynamic animation that shows the player character rising above the challenges they’re facing, as well as a pretty chunk of damage. Overall, Furi has a simple and efficient parry mechanic, and I highly recommend it.

Devil May Cry 4 was the best for me in that regard. I remember fighting this one boss, chucking lances at my face and I couldn’t beat him. Then I realized I can use my “grab” ability just as the lance is flying towards me and Nero would grab it from the air, do this ridiculous wind-up and throw it right into the boss’s chest. Empowering.

I really enjoyed the challenge of getting Ghost, Clean ?Hands and Mostly Flesh and Steel in my first playthrough of Dishonored. I found it fun.

The parry system in the witcher 3 is pretty underpowered. For 1 on 1 fights against human enemies, parrying has a large input window, stuns the enemy and can even reflect arrows with an ability. It's also the primary way to fight opponents with shields. However, if the opponent doesn't have a shield it's easier just to spam the fast attack and stun lock them. The animation is also too long to use against groups. And parrying just doesn't work on monster attacks, so you don't even have the option to use it most of the time

The parry ("melee counter") in Metroid Samus Returns and Dread has to be understood in context. Before Samus Returns on the 3DS, the only real defensive measure you had in the Metroid series was just moving around. And you didn't have many offensive options, either, besides spamming missiles. Now Samus Returns comes along and introduces the Melee Counter, giving you something else to do in fights. Only problem is, the melee counter makes you sit still, and many argued that killed the pace of the gameplay... Sure, fam. There's also the fact that, similarly to Senua, every parryable attack is indicated with both an audio and visual cue. So, you'd have to be completely out of it to not see a parry window coming. On the bright side, you get more goodies for killing normal enemies after parrying them, so abusing the parry means you can survive a lot more easily. And in boss fights, even against widdle baby gamma metroids, parrying often gives you a cinematic counter where you have another opportunity to do the usual Metroid thing of spamming missiles. What Dread adds is the running melee counter, which actually does some damage, outright killing the weakest enemies in the game. It also makes the parry much more intuitive to use, but some attacks can ONLY be parried with the running counter and it's not always clear which ones those are. For example, some of the Chozo soldiers have shields which they can ram you with, and the normal melee counter won't do shit to a shield slamming against you. Took me a few tries before I used the running melee and broke the shield outright, making that fight much easier. But adding to the cinematic flair is the pose Samus strikes after a successful running melee counter, making the riposte even more satisfying. So, there's that.

While I understand that you dislike the penalty, I feel like it’s sort of a weird gripe to have. The penalty is meant to incentivize you to perfect and master the Style, and is more forgiving than the earlier Parries in the list where you essentially get COMPLETELY decked if you mess up, (with a near identical amount of frames to work with at times). The penalties in earlier games served as an actual **reward,** considering that if you completely messed up you’d get decked because you F-d the timing, and if you did it terribly enough your guard would BREAK, leaving open for worse damage than THAT. Essentially leaving you with Perfect > Flawed Guard > Broken Guard. And worse still, most agree that DMC3-4 had sort of arbitrary values or attacks. Sometimes it’s able to defend against the unstoppable and other times it’s unable to block basic enemy attacks. There wasn’t a real indicator unless you were skilled enough to keep track of exactly how you used it in a run while also performing all the other tasks that go with fighting in a game with as much mechanical depth as DMC offers. (And keeping track of how much Rage you had in 3 was just 3 blinking lights in a corner in comparison to our newfound Red Wheel.) So switching to **DT** is actually a MASSIVE increase. You now have a VISUAL indicator of what your Royal Guard can do, and similar to how Focus works you’ll be fighting defensively if you want to bring it up quickly, but you could easily build up DT through normal attacks (identical to how Focus works). The Royal Guard defensive option has a few outlets, too. Unlike some parries, which merely serve to break the stance of an enemy do you can whale on him or a time slow so you can punish their error, you can yourself choose when and how the RG option will behave in a given scenario. Middle of an Enemy’s Attack Animation? Boom, you can do that. You want to save it for the Boss Fight? You can store it all up and go ham if you want. And depending on the game you can even go as far as HEAL YOURSELF if you’re in need of Health or turn yourself (3) into a Juggernaut that allows you to no sell damage while you get all Stylish on your opponents (4.) And yeah, Blocks can block grabs, but Perfect Blocks had their own benefits at times-Like being able to block AOE attacks like Judgement Cut End or counter **counterattacks.** It works as a punishing option, a get out of jail free card, a health regeneration factor, a Mario Super Star, all at once. The fact it isn’t consistent through the games is fair, but I think DMC5 truly perfected and refined the Royal Guard mechanic in big ways that are definitely notable. Edit: Someone pointed this out to me, so I’m going to mention it here as a P.S. If you’re good enough with Royalguard, even AFTER you’ve blown your enemy half to shit, (as in, Post Release, your enemy is like a GOOD DISTANCE AWAY), you can still make FULL ON COMBOS on your opponent as long as you’ve achieved enough skill with it and the other weapons at your disposal. Further, you can expand that to include multiple Releases within a combo in multi-enemy scenarios if you’re skilled enough to be beating the tar out of someone and know exactly when to RG. (Each enemy within DMC5 has set tells and animations that inform a keen eyed player when, where, and if you’ve played the entire story mode, *how* they will attack.) This means on Royalguard *alone* you can complete entire runs without taking damage once and having used the full meter in question SEVERAL times. Also, additional mechanic I FORGOT to mention is that if you perfect block in DMC5 you *GAIN* DT. (Meaning you’re not ONLY just being rewarded by not dying, the plethora of combo starters and enders, stored up damage, etc. etc., but ALSO you straight up gain DT meter, you know, your *all important super form,* mechanic in the game?) TL;DR, Royalguard is GOATED and it should’ve been A rank or higher imo.

RuStY tHeRe AcTuAlY iS a DoDgE iN mEtAl GeAr. ;) In all seriousness, though, as someone who’s been looking into content creation recently, I understand the difficulty of doing all this on your own, especially with personal problems going on. (I hope you’re doing ok) I love your videos and your streams because of how genuine and real you are about things. You’re not afraid to speak your mind, or call people out for being stupid. You’re aware of your own flaws, and you acknowledge them. And, most of all, you’re just fun to watch. Thank you for continuing to make wonderful content, and please know that there are people who appreciate the effort you put into these videos. ❤️

What I love about Dark Souls is you don't even need a shield to parry. It feels really fun to just slap an enemy's attack away with your bare hand.

the Hollow Knight parry is so... satisfying. the visuals and sound effect really brings up the "knightly bevavior from a very small creature" vibe the whole game exudes. you're a small bug, smaller than almost all of your opponents, and yet you're a knight who knows how to use its weapon, and has this inherent nobility in its behavior when clashing swords. i dunno if that makes sense, but that's why i love it so much.

Imo, I think my favorite parry is from Sekiro. Sure, its nothing too flashy or complex, but its sure badass as hell to land 5 perfect parries in a row, more than landing a parry-riposte in Dark Souls/Bloodborne.

29:15 I don't understand your take on Dishonored here. I'll admit that I'm heavily biased, as I've played Dishonored ever since I was a kid and I've loved it for a long time. That being said, I don't think Dishonored punishes you for engaging with it's combat at all. Sure it makes levels harder, but if you're going for a high chaos run then you'd probably enjoy more guards to fight anyways. The game also presents you with a bad ending when you murder everyoneyou see, but I feel like that's just a natural part of the world. Of course the empire would go to shit if everyone was dead. Besides, the only reason that I went for the good ending was because I found it more fun. I've never seen a bad ending discourage somebody from playing like a violent maniac (which is also super fun, Dishonored did really good at making both routes fun in their own ways imo). A game that punishes you for your actions would disincentivize those actions. Instead, Dishonored provides more opportunities to engage with the combat by providing more enemies and increasing the difficulty. You also say that the combat is the unequivocal most fun way to play the game. I disagree. It's a ton of fun, but I personally enjoy the stealth far more. It's a different set of challenges that appeals to me more, and as a game inspired by Theif, I'd say that the game was designed more around the stealth than the combat. The game doesn't punish you for murder as much as it incentivizes stealth. Overall, I enjoyed your video but I personally disagreed with your take on Dishonored. As the type of pretentious nerd that would write a paragraph or two to defend the honor of a 10 year old game, an hour long video dissecting a common videogame mechanic and comparing how different games incorporate it into their control schemes is right up my valley, but as much as I enjoyed your video I just can't understand the anger at Dishonored. In conclusion, Dishonored is objectively one of the videogames ever made and anyone who doesn't agree with me shall be turned into a pillar of salt when the day of reckoning comes. Love you all and thank you for tolerating my soapbox rant.

Referring to the section talking about dishonored: If a game's narrative focuses on the moral implications of player actions, isn't it better to have a robust fun combat system? Requiring one to eschew the fun mechanic in order to make a positive influence. Otherwise it's not a choice at all. It's just wish fulfillment. I mean that's fine and all but very much not the vibe dishonored is going for.

I'm consistently shocked to find Dishonored players that _don't_ aim for "ghost" by default. also, no classic Assassin's Creed games? Counterkills were the meat and potatoes of those games.

Great video! I think you missed one detail regarding Blasphemous though. It took me awhile to figure it out because the game doesn't make it obvious at all. If you successfully parry an enemy then press the attack button right as you retaliate, you perform a "righteous riposte" and instantly kill the enemy. Obviously this doesn't work on projectiles and stuff, but it's a pretty effective mechanic that is satisfying and makes most combat much faster once you master the timing. Anyways - I'm a Blasphemous shill and had to say something lol. Good content, keep it up! EDIT: To correct myself- performing a Righteous Riposte does not instantly kill the enemy but rather staggers them for an Execution. I only found out about this move because I was completing the Achievements and ran into it.

Nice video, but I have to disagree with you about Dishonored. Playing evil gives you the most epic and fun ending, that's not what I'd call "punishing the player".

Started on your content just cause I'm obsessed with Hollow Knight right now, but after watching this all the way through I realize I'm not watching you simply cause you talk about my favorite game. Keep up the good work bro

I feel like ULTRAKILL's feedbacker arm (the parry fist) would have toppled this list Every parry heals to max hp, reflects the projectile/damages the attacker, slows down the game for a split second and has a noise that's pure dopamine. And you can parry almost anything

It was awesomely satisfying to see you praise Grime so much. I bought it because it looked cool and then finally gave it a shot in late December 2021 and it SHOT up to my Game of the Year last year, heads and shoulders above most other games I've played. It was just so fun, satisfying, and challenging in a while that I personally found more enjoyable than most other games.

I love Hellblade and seeing someone almost launch into an essay mid-video about it just brings a smile to my face.

I'd give the Surge 2 a try. I've heard the directional parry system is quite rewarding in that one. Full disclosure, I still haven't played it yet. First heard of it from Shammy but I haven't gotten around to it.

51:27 it does, you have to buy it with battle points in the customize menu

Sekiro was the Fromsoft game that got me to try the others. Currently trying Elden Ring. I loved Sekiro though. Super hard but felt so damn good to beat Sword Saint Isshin.

I'm surprised that The Surge 2 isn't here due to the fact it is in his range of games and it has a great perry mechanic that technically works the same way MGS Revengeance does but a couple additional things this too it that also improves it in general like the limb targeting system and the dodge mechanic that honestly is better than most games made then and now

The party from 3rd strike still reigns supreme for me, the sound, the feeling of actually doing it with your hands, how it flips the game inside out.

Minor thing Perfect deflection in sekiro does not negate all posture damage it just reduces it and prevents your posture from being broken even if it's maxed out

TL:DR, Curse of the Dead Gods has one of the best parrying systems i've seen in a game. One of my favorite parry mechanics comes from Curse of the Dead Gods. It's a rougelite game that had combat inspired by souls games whole being a completely different beast. Instead of a bar, you instead have 5 stamina pips that limit what actions you can take. Attacking takes stamina at different rates depending on the weapon, dodge rolling takes one stamina, and parry doesn't cost anything but its the riskiest option. The reason why I bring all of this up is due to how Dead Gods plays with its stamina system. It's a game that wants you to keep the flow going and will reward you with stamina when you kill enemies, perfect dodge, or parry. By default, killing an enemy or perfect dodging recovers a point of stamina, and parrying recovers two points. You can also cancel out of most animations which makes parrying both an option for keeping the flow going, but also as a good last resort when you're spent out of stamina. There's also other factors that make parrying great. You window for it is increased slightly when holding a shield. It's not a significant amount, but enough to make a difference. Different shields also have different rewards for good parrying. it Also staggers enemies and puts the Weaken effect on them, making them take more damage after. On top of all of this, there are optional perks that can make parrying better. One of them recovers ALL of your stamina when you parry, and another one staggers enemies around you with a wind blast. It's such a simple mechanic, but with how much it flows into the game naturally and how many ways you can add to it, it makes it just so much fun to use.

Hard disagree on Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, though I sort of struggled to understand what your actual problems with it were. The game doesn't force you to use your whole blade mode bar every time you want to Zandatsu; my preferred method is just a single precise slice, or to style on them I challenge myself to try and slice off every one of their limbs without destroying them. Even then you don't even have to do the actual Zandatsu if you don't want to, you can just let it hit the ground and run over it. Personally I think the parry itself is really good because it has a lot of dynamism some other parry systems don't: Some enemies will attack suddenly from an unexpected location, requiring you to quickly react in the right direction rather than just pressing a parry button. Some enemies will dodge away from your counter even if you parry, which rewards you if you're able to corner them, leaving them with nowhere to dodge. Some enemies will counter your counter, or not be stunned, requiring a series of timed parries similar to Sekiro. Parries have a higher armour damage value and instant kill button prompt setup chance, allowing you to cut limbs off of armoured enemies sooner and kill them before their actual HP is depleted, similar once again to Sekiro's posture system. Another similarity to Sekiro is that the parry also functions as a block when pressed early which can be used to passively defend with little repercussion; MGRR doesn't have a posture bar equivalent for Raiden, but it makes up for it by locking you in a block when you parry early instead of being able to try again like in Sekiro. Honestly MGRR often gets criticised for either having underdeveloped offense or underdeveloped defense, but people seem not to realise that it's the dance between the offense and defense that gives MGRR its depth.

Rusty, please never change! Im pretty sure I played 2 of the games on this list, so I was watching this just for your personality! And I had a great time! Also sorry you got laryngitis, I had it a year or so ago

I absolutley love the perfect timing mechanic in games as long as they properly reward you for it. A good example is dragons dogma's mystic knight shield magic

*Curse of the Dead Gods* is one of my favorite rogue-lites of all time. Parrying in that game is basically the entire spectrum of what anyone could think of a parry; -Parry with anything, parry without anything. (as in literally bare-handed (yes, I know its a torch, shut up mom)) -Parry hard, parry soft. (right on time or partial) -Parry while moving (shield charge) parry while standing still. -Parry projectiles, parry AOEs, obviously, parry melee. -Parry to create projectiles, AOEs or instant melee damage (shields are kinda wild, ngl) -Parry to inflict status/elemental ailments. Even ones you otherwise can't inflict. (ye olde uno-reverse) -Parry combos by SPAMMING PARRY (success may vary (hey, that rhymed)) -Parry only. As in don't do anything else. Make a PARRY BUILD. This is your damage output now: Their damage output. OUR damage output. (*faint USSR anthem*) -Never ever, in your entire playthrough of the whole game, parry even a single time. Dodging is absolutely viable. (I love the devs for this one) -Attempt to parry, fail miserably, equip the 25% auto-parry-chance shield and pretend thats all you, tiger. tl;dr: play Curse of the Dead Gods. It fucks. Hard.

8:25 actually the Llewellyn shield and other small shields have the same parry frames as Iron Round, its not better. Basically parry frames are based on the size of the shield, the smaller the better. Greatshields can't parry, Medium has the least, then Small (Llewellyn, Iron Round) and the best are the Parry Shields, basically extra small shields (Buckler, Target Shield)

After nearly 4000 runs and multiple completions of 5 BC, I can say that inconsistency is the name of the game in Dead Cells parrying, at least on Android. It regularly feels like the timing window changes based on how the game is performing or some other factor. Combine that with getting severely punished for missing that window and it becomes an unnecessarily frustrating experience. Sometimes you can literally stop everything coming your way and other times those same situations lead to taking 4 hits. Often times it's better to just dodge and hope you have enough DPS.

hearing the exploration song from the salt and sanctuary soundtrack come on while you were talking about grime made me so happy bro, i love s&s so much. its my favorite game of all time. i love the parry mechanic in that game, its insanely satisfying

Metal Gear Rising does have a dodge with I-frames, it's the "defensive offence" you can buy in the moves store. Edit: I guess I'm an assneck

I somewhat agree with your Dishonored points for the first game (though I'd say that is more of a flaw with the emergent narrative and upgrade system than with the parry itself), but that isn't really applicable for the second game at all, since you can parry them into a state where you can choke them into unconsciousness. My only other major disagreement would be that I found blade mode in Revengeance fun every time, but that's just a preference thing. Overall, pretty good video that covered a lot of different games in detail! Only constructive criticism would be that you should use/get more avatar images (if that is even the right term) that look less upset, it is hard to agree with you complimenting something when the little you in the corner looks mad. Again, though, an interesting watch that you clearly worked hard on!

Rusty, what about Fretia's Ring in Ender Lilies? Did you forget? Does it not count? It's a 0-cost relic that lets you negate/repel any attack with a parry that has the same timing window as Headless Defender. It might not have a riposte, but it puts you in an advantage state where you can easily follow up and punish an enemy's attack. Even if you just use it to block a projectile, a second's worth of free time during boss fights is somehow an advantage state for the player when you have such high mobility and certain spirits equipped. To me, Fretia's Ring is meant to be a main combat mechanic (basically a permanent upgrade, no reason not to equip it), and the reason that Headless Defender has (such comparatively low) limited uses. The ring is a basic parry that opens up an opportunity to counter, but Headless Defender is the OP as fuck 'stronger option' that does everything automatically. It's insanely strong, deals loads of stagger/poise, and can knock airborne enemies out of the sky (they take fall damage lol). If you're a speedrunner, you can basically end most boss fights with a Headless parry with the right setup. Also, your point about spamming buttons? Speedrunners actually do that. It's a pretty effective strategy, unsurprisingly. You just press all of your buttons and all of your spirits attack simultaneously and stack their effects. Players being able to spam spirits isn't something that the devs seem overly concerned with curbing, and every boss fight ends long before you can spend all of your spirit uses. I'd say that the limited uses are intended to add to the challenge of exploration, the point being that you can run out and lose all of your attacks if you can't find a bench in time. Rationing and conserving Headless Defender's 10 uses in a boss fight isn't something you need to be doing at all. I picked up Ender Lilies recently on your recommendation. I'd seen peple play it and talk about it, but didn't really take notice. Your video on it that that explained and showcased stuff clearly and concisely was what sold me, and I'm so glad I decided to try it. I expected to like it at least a little, but it's become my latest obsession, I just can't put it down. The spirit system scratches a particular itch for me, I'm having a blast over here. Thanks Rusty.

Since you mentioned in the GRIME section that you don't know of a game where learning new abilities is done through parrying: in Absolver you can learn new martial arts moves by parrying them when they're used against you enough times.

I whole heartedly believe that parrying in Blasphemous exists to deal exlusively with Crisanta's bossfight. If you know her timings, on a normal run, it renders her fight rather easy. And on the New Game+ or the third phase in the True Ending, parrying is probably one of the few ways to either give breathing room or actually land a hit against her.

interesting how you put DS3 as easiest and Sekiro the hardest. For some reason I can not hit a parry in DS3 for the life of me. Meanwhile I can parry depression is Sekiro and Bloodborne

I noticed right now, at 43:27, that this is the Salt and sanctuary soundtrack. I fucking love it when games have soundtracks recognizable even when they are not super flashy.

Very minor correction: perilous attacks as a rule can't be deflected. Thrusts, a type of perilous attack, can be, but sweeps can only be dodged or jumped. Grabs can be deflected with the umbrella, but that's not really what your average Sekiro player would call "deflectable".

Royal guard is one of Dante’s styles. There’s a completely separate parry mechanic across all characters and their melee weapons in DMC. Hitting perfect Guards and Releases consistently is also totally feasible. People do it, including me. A good way to get better is loading into a level with an empty load out and clearing it with Royal Guard alone. In 5, you can practice against all standard enemies in The Void, and you can queue up specific boss fights in Bloody Palace after beating them by selecting the “Warm Up” option in the menu. The timing for perfect guarding which you’ve claimed feels different has actually been the same six frame window since the third game. What changes are the additional mechanics of Royal Guard from game to game as well as enemy design. 3 had pretty good enemy design with some exceptions, 4 had enemies designed to ruin an otherwise stellar combat system, and 5 has fantastic enemies across the board. Some can get spongey especially on harder difficulties, but, hey, chewing threw massive health bars is what Royal Guard is for. *Edit:* Changed the phrasing and added a bit of advice as to not sound too much like a buttmad DMC fan, even though I don’t think it got the looking it deserved. You can use taunts to parry in DMC. For me, that amount of depth goes unparalleled. -except for maybe Sekiro with its variety of parries and attached lore-

In hollow knight, parrys can help when you’re attacking a boss mid attack, like pure vessels basic swing, when you have the right muscle memory, parry’s come more often, so it helps with radiant fights

I don't believe that this video was a solo project... It was awesome Great content , keep up the good work man 👍

32:03 I can answer your question quite simply, and that rewarding the player for mass murder takes away the significance of the low kills route, and going out of your way to not become what you've been accused of. Why bother even going with the harder route if that's the playstyle that gets you the bad ending? Also why on earth do you care about the story implications of the gameplay? This is about the parrying, not the lore of the game surrounding it. If you want the better ending, just do a second playthrough, it isn't *that* long of a game. Besides, (in my opinion) getting by in stealth in and of itself is very satisfying. (Also it's worth noting that the second game does give you lots and lots of options for a no-stealth combat pacifist playthrough so uhh maybe you should have used those.) I'm taking that F as an S by the way, since your grade had absolutely nothing to do with the parry itself, and that giving it a low grade because you couldn't use it means it the parry was good enough to warrent complaining about not being able to use it. Grade the *parry,* man, not the game.

A game that handled parrying terribly by making it "too good" was Minoria. It creates a screenwide explosion (on a ridiculously generous window) which makes parrying actively make the combat less fun.

You keep complaining about dishonored and the bad ending, you only get the bad ending when you kill the main targets. I killed every guard in my play through and still got the good ending by going non-lethal on the main targets.

27:50 brushing off such a large attack from trolls might look hard, until you consider that you are playing as someone who can flip the whole planet upside down

and here I was, all this time thinking the llewellyn shield had the same amount of parry frames as the buckler or rusted iron shield...

While I agree the parry (proper one, not just block) in Blasphemous is underutilized, it is nearly-essential for two of the basegame bosses (trivialising one of them) and quite useful against a few of the expansion bosses.

In dark souls 3 you can also parry with a bare fist if you have no weapon on your right hand.

I think it was around the end of my final attempt at a Steel Soul run where I finally figured out how to parry as anything more than an accident/unreliable gimmick in Hollow Knight. And I got SO addicted to trying it out that I almost threw the entire run practicing it.

Does Dishonored really punish you for having fun with combat? I mean yeah you can get a "bad ending" if you go on a genocide murder spree... But it's just one of the endings... This game is really focused on the story and it makes sense that murdering every single guard just doing their job won't net you a happily ever after lol You want to have fun and murder everyone, cool! You can do that and have fun with the game this way... You want to take the roleplay approach where Corvo actually is a good man (and not a murder-hobo) trying to prove his innocence and expose the evil government... You're very welcome to do that as well... And it's not like you have to spare everyone lol, you can kill a hefty amount of people and still get the low chaos ending... Just don't murder everyone... Like idk man it just makes perfect sense for me and would be kinda stupid story wise if it didn't work like that. TL;DR: The F rating is unfair, since you can kill "a lot" of people and still get the good ending. A genocide run murdering everyone on sight resulting in a bad ending just makes sense and thinking otherwise is just stupid.

I think you're overstating DisHonored's bad end. You can kill a good portion of the guards in a level and still get low chaos.

i just saw the title and i thought instantly HELL YEAH ANOTHER RUSTY VIDEO :D

Ultrakill parries are pretty cool, that would have been a great game for this, as it's not like the enemies are the only thing you parry or punch i guess.

Fun idea for a vid. Two of my favorite additions: The Surge 2. Normal parry is now a directional parry, which requires you to not only read the timing of the enemy attack, but also its direction. Gives the system a lot of extra depth while also making defense the fun part of the equation while still having offense be the fun part. The Surge 2 rules. Curse of the Dead Gods: In many of the games on this list, parrying is optional. That is not true in Curse of the Dead Gods. Not only is the parry incredibly strong, it's timing window is super tight. And with how fast so many enemy attacks come out, parrying them is a must. When you get used to what the game is asking of you, though, you feel like an untouchable god.

Bloodborne the most fun thing to do if you can manage it, is parry then use the stake drivers transformed charged heavy.

Been a while Russ regularly ranking retreaded rants revolving round relatively rough range of retold replays rapidly recorded rapping responses roughly rhyming

In DS1/DSR the Heater Shield is the best shield for parrying, this is because of two factors: 1. Parrying feels WAY easier in the first game than in the others 2. It has the parrying frames of regular small shields (not Buckler or Target Shield) for some reason Not only is it a great shield for parrying, its easily the best shield IN THE ENTIRE GAME, it's a 100% physical block shield, it weights 2.0 units, literally ANY build can make use of it and it has AMAZING stability for its weight, outperforming the Crest and Dragoncrest Sheilds at +14 at 68 Stability (doesn't get better at +15, so don't waste a Slab on it). It may not be as stable as Havel's or the Greatshield of Artorias, but it's very easy to fit onto a build due to its low stat requirements and weight, the fact that it's pretty easy to parry with (in a game where parrying is rather easy) solidifies it as the best sheild in Dark Souls 1/Remastered. If you go Warrior you don't need another shield as you've already got the best one the game has to offer, unless you want a shield that you can tank behind then the Heater Shield will be more than enough.

For me, for honors parrying system is the most satisfying due to the amount of experience and skill it takes to be able to pull them off consistently, what makes it especially satisfying is the risk and reward in using the mechanic, parrying a heavy attack may seem trivial and worthwhile since it will guarantee you a light attack (or more depending on the hero), leading into your heros offense and the fact that heavies are generally very slow, but you run the risk of being feinted, leaving you open to guardbreaks or worse. And thats just scratching the surface of the mechanic and the game knowledge that goes with it

In hellblade you can parry the orange attacks, the timing is just harder. In fact after getting Gramr you can parry ANYTHING, I’ve gotten so good at this game you can actually parry melee guard break attacks and Fenrir is easy to parry once you get the timing. You can even parry the Northmen out of their invulnerability. Idk if they meant for the game to be like this, but after getting Gramr you can parry everything. Even like the huge ass things long windup attacks. Also one last thing after a parry in this game you can press B or Circle and stun them for a period of time. This makes dealing with a lot enemies a lot easier.

Before watching the video: As a HUGE parrying/riposte fan in action games, I think I'm gonna love this vid. I'm gonna predict though that you won't rank very highly a parry that has too small of a window (SSB, and SF, for example). Will edit afterwards 😀

MGRR does have a dodge, but it's only useful against very specific things. It's the defensive offense upgrade. I used it to beat the fist mode of Armstrong on revengance mode so it's ok.

I doubt this changes much, but I appreciate how Dishonored games after the first one would incorporate more means of avoiding lethality even within a direct combat approach, such as being able to perform non-lethal takedowns in the same situations as lethal ones (such as falling or sliding takedowns, the latter of which feel very cool to do) as well as creative approaches (like chucking a bottle at somebody's head). Also, shooting an enemy in the foot is pretty effective at managing them without killing them (and also could be comboed into an instant non-lethal takedown, iirc). Where the parry comes into play is that when you parry an enemy, you can follow that up by grabbing them into a sleeper hold to choke them out. Admittedly, this is only practical if you're not fighting more than one enemy, but it at least expands the non-lethal applications of the parry by a little bit (other than simply running away or chucking a bottle at their head when they are stunned, or making them fall off a ledge when they stumble back from being parried.)

Sekiro good, am satisfied. But really, nice video. For a while there I thought you were going to include witch time and dodging under parries, but thankfully you didn't expand the scope even more than you already have.

So about dark souls parries. DS1 has by far the most accessible and easiest parry. The parry frames start exactly when you press the button, so it's completely reactionary. DS2 has the most varied and complex parry system, most weapons being able to perform parries, but it also has the hardest parry windows (you have several frames before the active parry frames). DS3 is somewhere inbetween ds1 and ds2, not as easy as ds1 but not as hard as ds2. It's also less varied, since it's a skill in ds3 and not a function of weapons.

Technically, you can, in Metal Gear Revengeance, buy a dodge button in the in-game skill shop.(Edit: god damnit) It's an absolutely dogshit dodge the I never found a use for, but you can get one. Though, personally, I'd have to say the Revengeance is legitimately one of my favorite games, having played it for the first time a few weeks ago. The only part I consider outdated are the quicktime events and button mashing segments. The parry is practically integral to the game's combat system, and I found the game far more fun than Nier Automata partly because of it.

honestly, this is quite informative. I played most of these, and am interested in some of the ones I have not. didn't notice a few things you pointed out. you also could read me bedtime stories with that voice.

Yo Rusty MGR has a dodge. It's an offensive defense move. It's in the command list. It has Invincibility frames. Let's you do a slash attack that dodges around your target. A lot like Monster Hunter's Long Sword Fade Slash move.

I like this longer form video style from you, I love how you will go on tangents about some of the games, you can tell you really have a passion for games you made me want to play senua now lmao

Hollow Knight's parry is really more of a 'clash', similar to things you might see in DMC or Soul Calibur. It doesn't serve the same gameplay function as a parry, it's less of a counter and more of a hasty deflection.

The Surge 2 parry mechanic is so satisfying. Block and push the controller in the direction to get a deflection and own everyone.

oh my GOD i totally forgot about ghost of tsushima's parries... they're so fucking good, and they feel really good to pull off- i like that there's 3 degrees to defense: holding block, timing a parry, and perfectly timing a parry to force an opening i just wish that it had more enemy variety past mongols and ronin

I love the parries in the Nioh games, pretty much every weapon type in them has at least one or two options for parrying attacks, with different use cases, it's pretty neat. Even though it's one of the hardest to pull off, my favourite parry in Nioh 2 is a counterattack with the fist weapons in the low stance, because of how stylish and unexpected it is. It's activated while lying down. You kip-up and catch the attack with your feet, then do a deathroll type move to drag them down with you before standing back up.

Llewellyn shield has the same frames as the iron round shield dummy Edit: 56:55 not quite my friend, I chose a different thing to nit-pick like an asshole.

The parry in Bloodstained ritual of the night is just one the most satisfying things in the world.

My beef with BB's parry is that it's TOO GOOD. Bosses like Lady Maria become cake walks. Even Orphan, if you can get him in a good loop, becomes nothing more than parry bait. I know the same can be said for Dark Souls, but in Dark Souls you run the risk of getting your shit kicked in because you HAVE to be close. BB you don't HAVE to be close to an enemy.

Honestly not mentioning nioh is a massive head scratcher. It's a game where different parries have different outcomes such as katanas switching your position with the enemies, tonfas throwing enemies away, adachis being able to parry normally unparrable enemies, or nioh 2 and it's yokai forms with their individual parry styles

I only ever accidentally parry in hollow knight. I've never purposefully parried purely because it feels unreliable and impractical

Ender Lilies had a ring/charm that allowed you to parry without spirits I'm almost 100% sure. It was the dash button without a direction presses simultaneously. It didn't cost any relic (charm)slots. I never used It (unless it was a happy accident like Hollow Knight) because I couldn't do it as consistently as dodging through attacks with I-frames. I learned about Ender Lilies back when it released from your video and I'm so glad I saw it. It was amazing! I played through NG+ when I convinced my buddy to play through. Soundtrack was incredible!

Im in the "Rusty Talks at Length About Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Because it's Honestly an Excellent Piece of Art" fanclub

Personally, the Bash ability from Ori is one of the GOATs. You throw enemies, launch yourself, and redirect projectiles all with one ability. But since there's no contact it might not count.

I really like Dust: An Elysian Tail's way of handling parrying. It's like MGR's parrying, but in 2D

You missed out not including Death's Gambit. It's proper parry can deflect almost any enemy and boss attack, and the reposte(although a bit slow wrt fast bosses) heals you. It also has a perfect block system, where blocking just before youre hit(like rg) staggers the enemy and lets you do an invincible zippy counter attack. Both are great and have their ups and downs. You can also unlock a dive kick that both opens enemies shields/guards, but also parries enemy charge attacks. Much less useful but very stylish. Also light attack + jump is a dodge in MGR and has a HUGE amount of invincibility

I also didn't know the Revengence dodge existed until my replay of the game. Why it wasnt part of your base moveset just confuses me. Great video Rusty, well done on editing this behemoth solo!

I'm the kind of psychopath who played Cuphead for days on end until I could beat every stage at max difficulty with an S rank. I will never get that week back, nor the twelve years it took off my lifespan due to lack of sleep XD

as soon as I find out games have a parry mechanic I instantly know what I will spend 90% of my time doing. Parrying is just one of those things I find extremely satisfying especially if it's hard. and yeah, Sekiro is basically my parry dream land, everything can be parried everything has to be parried and dear god you better parry

The fact that dmc 5 has an achievement/ trophy for beating a full mission and boss with only the royal guard puts in perspective that it is a great parry since the devs had that much faith in it.

Llewellyn is a Welsh name, so the LL makes a sort of hissing click sound, its hard to describe but try hissing like an angry cat and that's pretty close to it. We used to have a letter to represent it but because printing presses only have English letters Welsh words end up using two together to represent one.