Relatively new here with about 25 hours in game. I am loving the game and most of its mechanics. I am actually pretty happy with the way parries work at this time. It takes some practice and specific timing to pull off, and better yet, worse enemies have better telegraphing on their attacks so it’s easier to parry them compared to larger and tougher enemies that have wild combos, long windups, etc . . .
One thing I would really like to see, is a riposte after parry. It could even be the same animation as the backstab, but doing it from the front after a parry makes you feel like you really earned that critical attack, and it’s just badass. Now I have read through some discussions from the past that said they had a riposte at one point, but removed it because it was just used over and over again instead of rune attacks/other options. However, what I do now on many enemies is parry, then run around to their back, and backstab them. Which just seems a little silly and immersion breaking when they are all exposed after a parry, just asking to get stabbed through the chest. Also, why run around and backstab after a parry when a really well placed dodge can put you in a perfect backstab location mid combat? Which cuts down a significant portion of the risk that comes from a parry.
My proposed solution is to have the riposte only possible on enemies that can be backstabbed. Correct me if I’m wrong, but from all the enemy types I’ve seen so far, only about 50% of them can be backstabbed. With this, the parry has a great reward for those weaker enemies that you can run around and backstab anyways, and still has a great use for those bigger and tougher enemies, since they get staggered and you still gain focus.