Game is amazing and I love the art and concept but the combat and especially the parry needs rework. As in ER a dodge/roll parry focused combat drifted into this weird “hold your attack as long as possible” and it is not a good thing(Margit type of thing). I fought many enemies who just stand there before an attack and it is not a good practice.
I think it is a result of wanting to make the game around parry but I wish devs understood more the philosophy of what makes a good parry game. It is a mistake imo to have the parry of elden ring in such a game. Make it a deflect like Sekiro where u parry multiple attack and that does stamina damage over time, instead of this ER parry with the shield that reposts enemies.
I would make the parry as it is now as an active skills for shields ( There is a lot of room for shield skills) which uses focus and stops the attack chain and make the normal block be a parry/perfect block if done at the time the attack is about to hit which does posture damage. Also if you want to go with a parry mechanic you have to introduce a reposte attack animation like Sekiro to make it feel good. You can also make it so that some charged/special attack can only be repost-blocked by the shield active skill or have to be dodged, which would add much more weight to the decision of whether or not one one chooses a shield.
If you do this the gameplay will naturally shift towards combat flow rather than this “hold and attack” format which is a bit outdated and unimaginative. I really like the game hence why I took the time to write this, so this is no way a bad faith criticism. Game is amazing and the artstyle is so unique and special. But if you want to dwell into soulslike depth of combat, don`t do kinda the mistake of POE2 and try to have someone with a bit of a more specialized understanding of soulslikes combat on your team, rather than only ARPG devs who have inherently only ARPG habits. Would gladly help with something as I believe the game has an amazing potential.