I hope this Topic brings more attention to this video.
This is my answer (which you can also find below in the comments of the video):
Perry is Problematic, especially for the experience of long-time players.
Obviously, using Perry is much more difficult and less intuitive than using a roll, but once you understand Perry’s “language” you can use it more and more often, and suddenly it goes from a very risky option that has a high payoff to a rather usable option that is too strong.
This isn’t much of a problem in Souls because you defeat each enemy or boss only once per game but in NTFTW the more you play the more Perry tends to overpower all the other options and in the end it becomes trivializing, and paradoxically it becomes less fun to play using the perry which should be more difficult than the roll.
Calling it Cheating is a bit of a hyperbole, but it is not well balanced, and it is very difficult to balance.
I think a good solution would bethat after having successfully performed a perry for about 10-20 seconds, the next perries on that enemy no longer give focus or give less.
I would like to clarify that the title was chosen to bring more attention to the topic. Clickbait so to say and I don’t actually think parrying is cheating.
The conversation was started in light of changes that were made to backstabbing in the open beta, where some people were of the opinion that the mechanic trivialized the game. Citing it to be detrimental to the game for experienced and new players. To which, my response was to draw a parallel between parrying and backstabbing, a mechanic that although require a bit more skill, still serves the same purpose. Parrying and backstabbing can both trivialize the game, only at a different cost.
The solution is not to nerf parrying rewards, the solution is to have properly balanced content that will keep challenging even the most experienced players. Basically infinitely ramping difficulty based on player progression. Which is a topic for another time along with proper implementation of a backstab system that raises the cost of backstabbing.
Admittedly the video was made in haste, and I intend to revisit the topic in a later video discussion.
For me, the main problem with parrying is that I have trouble seeing the swing of a blow. For some reason, I perceive the swing of a blow as if it were all Margit enemies from Elden Ring. I see when the enemy swings, but I don’t see when they start to attack. By the time they hit, I’ve either already tried to parry or I don’t have time, and this happens very often.
