The blocking/counter mechanic is off, and its literally off

[Aerensiniac]

I have not had a problem with the game until the 2nd and third boss fight, but the Yingzhao Boss battle was basically a play test session for me.
What exactly are the values on countering?
Cause this is not dark souls or some cute metroidvania, this is a flipping guitar hero expert mode game. The counter window on Yingzhao is what? 0.2 seconds wide?

Is this intended? And with the game having only 2 difficulty settings, either normal or game journalist mode?

What am i missing?
What am i doing wrong?
This seems completely nonsensical to me. I played half of the dark souls franchise and it did not force me into this level of bs.

[Gravy]

Yingzhao is the first "real" boss you fight. Everything up till then unless you deviated from the general path is a mini boss. I don't say this to be rude but to put it in context that this is your first big hurdle to overcome.

In terms of countering you essentially have three (left bumper while on the ground) counter states:

• Perfect counter - You take no damage, and build up a Qi charge
  
• Imperfect counter - You take damage (but cannot die) and build up a Qi charge
  
• Missed counter - You take damage and do not build up a Qi charge

In addition to this by the time you get to Yingzhao you have the ability to jump counter red attacks IF the enemy also has a green aura around them (the aura is always present prior to the jump counter and allows you to determine if you can counter the attack or need to dodge). If you nail the jump counter you'll often get a stun in addition to a Qi charge and zero damage taken, but if you can't make the jump counter it's better to dodge than take the damage as these hurt a lot. It's a risk and reward situation. Maybe it becomes mandatory later but I'm not sure as I've only finished the first 3 bosses.

Countering is essential to winning in this game. You might be able to beat some bosses if you only dodge and don't counter but it's going to be a real grind and not the way you should play the game. The counter window for the general attacks on Yingzhao for when you can perfect counter is very slim but this is the case for all enemies.

The attacks go from the "shine" on the weapon, to you countering a certain amount of time later. This time changes depending on the attacks and attack patterns and is what you have to learn the rhythm of to beat this boss and other bosses going forward.

If this is your first counter based combat game it's really important to understand a few things:

• Countering is not optional, while you can dodge it should only be used when you have to and is a crutch to avoid normal attacks which can be countered
  
• You must learn the patterns of the bosses because while the order of the patterns may be random, the patterns themselves are not. So you could have Pattern A -> Pattern A -> Pattern A or Pattern A -> Pattern B -> Pattern B
  
• Understanding of your abilities is critical and if anything I said about the auras, etc. above is not clear you should go back and read the ability descriptions and test each one until you feel you understand it

Dark Souls is not a good comparison for this type of game because you can't simply dodge roll repeatedly through attack patterns using invincibility frames and then attack between patterns. You need to counter the patterns then use the openings to attack and get Qi blasts, either through openings you create (jump countering the red attacks with the green aura) or those you recognize between the patterns (using a Qi blast after a series of attacks that built up your Qi charges, or using a Qi blast to interrupt some patterns).

You need to change the way you think about fights. Sekiro's famous quote: "hesitation is defeat" is just as relevant there as it is here. You need to be aggressive, you need to recognize the patterns and their counters and abuse them. You cannot simply dodge the enemy to death like in Dark Souls. If you do that you're going to have a bad time and the game will be very frustrating.

If you're still confused about the value on countering after reading this or not understanding how devastating the Qi blasts are I would recommend going to the area just before this boss where there is a simple swordsman and a dog. The dog has a single very fast attack pattern that can be countered, and the swordsman has a good "shine" example of when the attack is coming that will help you recognize what Yingzhao is doing. Practice the Qi blast on both enemies, don't attack them AT ALL unless it is a dash through with the Qi blast (right bumper to dash through them then hold to explode). Perfect parry them until you can defeat both at the same time without taking a point of damage and can kill them with nothing but Qi blasts. You'll see how much damage the Qi blasts do and be better prepared for the various attacks Yingzhao does. Remember you can't counter a red attack with no green aura, you have to dodge those.

Hopefully this helps. If you're still struggling you can always look up a video on Youtube to see how people are fighting the boss, but this won't help you understand the power of the abilities because it isn't hands on.

[Senki]

this is not dark souls, it's sekiro

if this is your first parry focused game then I guess you'll have some big issues until you get used to it. Personally I don't have many issues because I played Sekiro and Lies of P before and the parry in this game is more forgiving than in both of those games.

The post above covers pretty much everything and is good advice. I would add that for the imperfect parry that only gives you internal damage, you can find something later on that allows you to recover the damage pretty quickly so you don't even need to perfect parry everything.

[Aerensiniac]

Thank you for the extensive answers. We will see if im capable of learning or just get frustrated with it and go story mode, but In short, this style of game is a level up from dark souls.

[Gravy]

Originally posted by Aerensiniac:

Thank you for the extensive answers. We will see if im capable of learning or just get frustrated with it and go story mode, but In short, this style of game is a level up from dark souls.

You've got this! Once this style of combat clicks it feels really rewarding and is very enjoyable.