Mano a Mano and some of the other 'special moves'.

[NeonDirge]

I haven't played this since I was little so I can't really remember all that much if anything, however the abiltiy to lock swords with an enemy and you have to mash the attack button never seems to work for me. I either lose if I don't mash the button enough or we draw. If it has any relevance i'm using a ps4 controller.

Also the parry after blocking never seems to work for me either, it's probably just that I don't have the timing down but I can pretty easily counter right before they attack to achieve the insta-kill. Even if it's super specific timing.

[[N] BartKaz]

That "parry" is called issen, you can either do it by attacking just when the enemy is about to hit you or by blocking the attack at the last moment and hitting the square button, if you are a newbie (or a dumb vet like mewho spent lots of time on Onimusha 3's issen challenges) I suggest just mashing L1 and when it flashes just press square, if you still can't handle it, just boot up Onimusha 3's arena, where you can do issens (even though timings are way different in both games, core mechanics are the same), if you don't have access to Onimusha 3, just give the issens a try (you can easily do an issen on a Genma Footsoldier easily, since they have the most predictable and easiest attacks to issen).

Mano a Mano is easy, I personally just mash square while mashing L1, R1, L2 and R2 at the same time and I always win it.

Using a PS4 controller here too, the game works fine on it.

[NeonDirge]

Thanks for giving a detailed response. The Issen's aren't very hard, it's just that the window of opportunity is super small and I haven't noticed it yet for the block issen.

So with the Mano a Mano you need to spam buttons other than just square? Righto, I'll try this out.

Also just going to say, the game is pretty easy if you don't even try to use issen. It feels like you can steamroll through eveything without making it harder for yourself, but I digress.