Is the parrying multi-directional like and/or as difficult as Sekiro?

[By-Tor And The Snow Cat]

Hey, everyone. I'm sure this is an annoying post at this point, but I have a very specific question about the parry mechanic and its comparison to Sekiro. Sekiro is the one Souls/Souls-adjacent FromSoft game I haven't come anywhere close to finishing, simply because I could never get a hand of the parry no matter how long I tried. There were two big issues: the extremely limited window and the fact that you had three different types of parry based on the attack direction. I think it was the latter that really screwed with me, since I was never able to identify when I needed to perform a low, medium, or high parry. Couple that with how difficult it is for me to parry in a 3D game in the first place and I'm just incapable of beating even the third Sekiro boss (the fat guy. I feel like he was the third real boss. Maybe the second). I did manage to get the hang of parrying in Lies of P after maybe 20 hours, but I was still very inconsistent and used a lot of throwing items to deal elemental damage to later bosses from afar. It also helped that you could dodge almost any attack.

I'm much better at parrying in 2D games, but I'm still worried by the comparisons to Sekiro. Based on my particular issues and abilities, what do y'all think? Am I capable of playing this game? I'm not interested in story mode. I need a real challenge to keep me engaged!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[GamerVoi]

on ground, you have to face the direction of the attack (left or right).
in air, you can parry all direction.

It's hard to tell a person would like or capable of this game even they had 100% Sekiro and Hollow Knight. If people play Nine sols as HK, they might get frustrated by Sekiro part and vise versa.

you play Nine sols as Nine sols. not HK or Sekiro.

my suggestion is, set a timer maybe for 1h40m if you know what I mean.
if this is not your cup of tea, do what you have to do.

if you pass that timing and got frustrating of dying or something.
go story mode for practice your parry. I know what you said but hear me out.
the story mode in this game just a slider bar you can adjust how much you damage and taken. you can always adjust them back as normal mode settings.

DO NOT adjust how much you damage to enemies. you practice nothing if you do that.

[Daimesik]

Originally posted by Moving Pictures:

There were two big issues: the extremely limited window and the fact that you had three different types of parry based on the attack direction. I think it was the latter that really screwed with me, since I was never able to identify when I needed to perform a low, medium, or high parry.

While I can understand limited window (although it is limited for parrys, you can still block and take posture damage), I don't understand what you mean by low, medium or high parry. You can parry the same way any attack, that is not identified by red kanji. For those attacks yes you need to identify which attack it is and deal with it accordingly.
Anyway if you struggle with tight parry windows, you'll struggle even more in this game. Since it sort of punishes you for simply blocking by dealing internal damage (which can be restored with time and precise parries, but still).
On the other hand this game has Story mode. I haven't tried it myself, but I heard it allows you to modify damage parameters for yourself and enemies. So if you don't care about Standart difficulty, you can make the game easier.

[By-Tor And The Snow Cat]

Thanks to both of you for your detailed help!

Originally posted by Daimesik:

You can parry the same way any attack, that is not identified by red kanji. For those attacks yes you need to identify which attack it is and deal with it accordingly.

Sorry, it's been awhile since I tried it. You're right that I did mean the red attacks! EDIT: It was like trying to learn the move-sets of Soulsbornendenring bosses, just with the added bonus that now you also had to identify when the attack was landing and exactly which of the three stances it was coming from in the same window of time, and then parry accordingly.

But you both gave me enough information that I feel comfortable giving this game a shot now. Thank you.

[CJ]

I'd say the parrying is easier than in Sekiro.

Overall, I found Sekiro to be a harder game, but the final true boss of 9 sols was harder than any of the bosses in Sekiro for me.

[Xxanno]

Originally posted by CJ:

I'd say the parrying is easier than in Sekiro.

Overall, I found Sekiro to be a harder game, but the final true boss of 9 sols was harder than any of the bosses in Sekiro for me.

Funny, I find it harder so far. In Sekiro you don't lose Hp on an imperfect parry, only posture. While in Nine Sols you can potentially lose all HP after a series of poor parries (Edit: and then getting hit proper of of course).