Why is parry so inconsistent?

[Elite Seraph]

Can someone explain to me why I can try to parry two of the EXACT same attacks, and one time it works, and the other time it doesn't?

This is the most frustrating part of this game so far. I enjoy difficult challenges and have done things like deathless runs in Dark Souls. But one thing I absolutely CAN NOT tolerate is inconsistent game mechanics.

I can understand if two different enemies require different timing, but when I test the same enemy over and over, and the parry does not always work, I get real irritated real fast.

Am I the only one that has this problem with this game? Is my controller busted? I need an explanation, because I want to enjoy this game. But this is really stealing all the fun.

[Artek [General]]

From my experience parrying is very consistent, so i can only assume that you are doing something wrong.

There's also a possibility that the incosistency could be caused by your positioning, since the same attack can potentially reach your hitbox with different timing depending on how close or far you are from the enemy.

For clarification it would be nice to know which particular enemy we are talking about and which particular attack is giving you trouble.

[Elite Seraph]

It's not any one enemy. Even the basic enemies will often get attacks through.

I'm using a switch pro controller, which is generally pretty good. So I don't think it's input lag.

Maybe I should start by getting some general parry advice. I'm trying to wait until the attack almost hits my character before hitting the button. Is this the wrong timing? The game isn't very clear on when, exactly, you need to hit the button. Am I trying to cut the margin too close?

[Sokurah]

I only can speak of using Logitech controller or mouse and keybord but its likely just you.

You still miss some deflect timing thats it.

Maybe try kb+m if you not sure if its the controller.

If you get a direkt health hit yes then you press too late. If you press to early you get a block instead of deflect which is not that bad in early game.

[Xaphnir]

Originally posted by Elite Seraph:

Maybe I should start by getting some general parry advice. I'm trying to wait until the attack almost hits my character before hitting the button. Is this the wrong timing? The game isn't very clear on when, exactly, you need to hit the button. Am I trying to cut the margin too close?

That sounds like you understand it, though depending on your definition of "almost hits my character" you may be thinking the window is narrower than it is. It is fairly generous, much more than the parry window in Dark Souls.

[Elite Seraph]

Originally posted by Xaphnir:

That sounds like you understand it, though depending on your definition of "almost hits my character" you may be thinking the window is narrower than it is. It is fairly generous, much more than the parry window in Dark Souls.

Well I don't know what to say. I'm having more trouble than anything reasonable with the spear guy in the Hirata Estate. I'm trying early parry, late parry. I'm trying Mikiri-counter(press towards enemy and hit dodge).

Literally it works maybe 10% of the time and I literally don't understand why. At this point I think the game is broken. I don't know how my experiences with it can be so different than other people. It's not like I'm some dirty noob. I've been playing videogames for 30+ years. I've played Souls games. I play Dead Cells. I beat the Arena level 3 in Hollow Knight and got the true ending against Radiance. I do regular headshots in The Division(1 and 2).

t's not like I don't have the sharp reaction time or fine motor control to do this. And everything my experience with games is screaming at me that this game is broken inconsistent. And nearly every non-standard enemy I've fought mirrors the guy in Hirata. Same with Gyobu(the mounted general boss). NOTHING seems to work consistently.

Is there maybe some kind of FPS throttling setting under graphics maybe? Something that could cause the game to speed up and slow down randomly?

[Hyperion]

Deflecting is very consistent in this game, you just have to get the timing down properly.

Generally, the timing is that you hold block 0.3 to 0.5 seconds before the attack actually connects with you and you should get a deflect. The problem with this is that FromSoft capped the FPS at 60 which will increase input lag and can screw up your timing. At 60 FPS, each frame is churned out in 16.67 milliseconds. This may seem negligible but some attacks require very precise timing windows to deflect and you may actually have to buffer your input well in advance to account for the input latency.

I recommend using a mod that uncaps your framerate because the game will just feel more responsive in general which you help you to nail the deflect timing. Especially so if you have a monitor capable of higher than 60 Hz because the input delay gets smaller and smaller the higher refresh rate you have. ie) 75 Hz = 13.33 ms, 100 Hz = 10 ms, 120 Hz = 8.33 ms, 144 Hz = 6.94 ms and so on.

For those who ask: No this isn't cheating; it's literally common practice in PC gaming to have an unlocked framerate in 2020. Anything less than that and it's a sloppy port.

[Elite Seraph]

Originally posted by Hyperion:

you hold block

Oh...ffs.......

I've been TAPPING block in order to parry. I knew it might be some kind of seriously fundamental thing I was missing, but ...uhg. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

/facepalm

I'll report in a few hours to see it that helps. I'll also try unlocking framerate.

[Sokurah]

I had no problem with the framerate

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Elite Seraph:

Originally posted by Hyperion:

you hold block

Oh...ffs.......

I've been TAPPING block in order to parry. I knew it might be some kind of seriously fundamental thing I was missing, but ...uhg. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

/facepalm

I'll report in a few hours to see it that helps. I'll also try unlocking framerate.

You should still get deflects even if you just taped the parry button, provided it was tapped at the last possible moment.

Hell, you can even get a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ miss-timed block with a tap, i surely got it a lot of times.
You dont have to hold it to get the deflect.

Its a possibility that you just time deflects wrong, but i can't confirm it until i see either a recording or maybe a livestream.

[Krono]

Originally posted by Elite Seraph:

Oh...ffs.......

I've been TAPPING block in order to parry. I knew it might be some kind of seriously fundamental thing I was missing, but ...uhg. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

/facepalm

I'll report in a few hours to see it that helps. I'll also try unlocking framerate.

Tapping to get the deflects should still work as long as you're not blocking too late, but being in a blocking stance helps make sure you at least block the attack if you goof the deflect timing. If attacks are getting through, I guess you should be deflecting a tiny bit earlier?

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Elite Seraph:

It's not any one enemy. Even the basic enemies will often get attacks through.

I'm using a switch pro controller, which is generally pretty good. So I don't think it's input lag.

Maybe I should start by getting some general parry advice. I'm trying to wait until the attack almost hits my character before hitting the button. Is this the wrong timing? The game isn't very clear on when, exactly, you need to hit the button. Am I trying to cut the margin too close?

Some enemies have slower charged attacks, like the Corrupted Monk and Headless sweeps, some other enemies have faster and more "on release" attacks (where for you to "parry" you have to press "parry", delfect, the moment the enemy release the attack, like Elite ashina, where the moment he releases the attack you have to press deflect twice to deflect both his attacks and if you press only once you will get hit once but if you dont press the moment he releases his attack you will get hit twice and probably insta-killed).

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Krono:

Originally posted by Elite Seraph:

Oh...ffs.......

I've been TAPPING block in order to parry. I knew it might be some kind of seriously fundamental thing I was missing, but ...uhg. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

/facepalm

I'll report in a few hours to see it that helps. I'll also try unlocking framerate.

Tapping to get the deflects should still work as long as you're not blocking too late, but being in a blocking stance helps make sure you at least block the attack if you goof the deflect timing. If attacks are getting through, I guess you should be deflecting a tiny bit earlier?

Just tapping the wrong moment will make you either just block or completely miss the deflect, where if you tap too late it will be a miss and if you tap too soon it can be considered either a block, if you can tap again too fast on the window of deflect, or considered a miss if you tap outside of the deflect window.

If you just "spam" taps on block button expecting to deflect everytime it dont work because you cancel the previous deflect and it can be either considered a block or a miss because of that, so if the enemy dont attack fast enougth and consecutively and if you dont land the first deflect, chances are high that it will not work as a deflect at Sekiro because of this "deflect window cancel" that happen.

If the game was just "spam tap at block button" and be happy with, Sekiro would be the most idiotic and easy game out there where to defeat every enemy all you need to do is spam fast taps at the block button and kill every enemy by posture.

[Elite Seraph]

So I switched from tapping block to holding block.

I'm not going to say it's night and day, but it does seem a LOT more effective. I feel like that meme where they say "We intentionally trained him wrong....as a joke!"

I pretty much smoked the Shinobi-hunter in Hirata Estate with ease, and regular enemies are now more or less a joke unless there's 3 or them or something. So I think I can say that I found out what I was doing wrong.

[Krono]

Good to hear it man, hope the game is more fun for you now. Enjoy!

[Sokurah]

Good news. Try not to block too much tho. It eats your posture. 🤗

Also it deals no posture damage to your enemy. You can win a fight only by deflect but not with block.

Try to get at least some deflects.

In boss fights you will get problems.