I was thinking about both mechanics, and honestly, I can’t find an explanation that convinces me. Why is it necessary to separate both buttons?
If you have a shield in your off hand and hold the button you can block attacks but if you do it at the right moment, you perform a parry, similar to Sekiro, right? This way, if you fail the parry, you could still block the attack, and the failure wouldn’t have such a bad result.
In case of NOT having a shield you just parry (can’t hold) but only one button would be needed.
I agree. I think with the attack buttons not using the shoulder and trigger it’s less ergonomic to use 2 different block actions across 2 buttons.
Also without respawning mobs it’s more difficult to practice combat. I’ve basically given up parrying in favour of dodging but might use the shield if there’s ranged enemies about
Normally, the mechanics of separating the block and parry buttons is because the left and right hands are separate, and it’s also possible to equip a weapon in the left hand to perform simple or heavy attacks (at least in the Souls’ games).
However, it is true that so far, I have not seen any weapons that equip in the left hand. If this is not the case, it would be a good idea to put everything on a single button.
After a few hours of playing No Rest for the Wicked, I was finally able to equip a Bow and now I understand why there isn’t just one button for parrying and blocking.
When you equip a Bow in your left hand, the RB (Xbox) or L1 (PlayStation) buttons allow you to use the Bow’s abilities. However, this makes the controls much more complex, especially when switching between a shield and a Bow. This is why the developers have chosen to use different buttons for parrying and blocking depending on the weapon you are using.
But you could still have the block button also do a parry when you do have a shield.
Or give runes to the shield so you have skills that you can performe with the shield and have the parry buton also do the blocking when you have a shield.