Action games with cutting mechanics.

So by this I mean actual precision cutting, not stuff like dismembering (ex.NG/Lollipop Chainsaw). Best and most obvious example is MGR.

The only others I know of are Afro Samurai and Neverdead.

In Afro, whenever you do a normal slash, you can hold the button and Afro will hold that pose and a glint of light will travel up the blade. When it reaches the tip, you let go and you'll slice the enemy apart. That's not the best explanation but it's kind of hard to explain.

You need some kind of energy to do it but I forgot how that works. I think you get it from attacking. You can also aim the camera to aim at specific body parts. Some enemies like ninja will often jump horizontal attacks, so you need to use a vertical attack as they rise and you can cut them clean in two. I've taken their legs off like this as well.

In Neverdead, the slashes go in the direction you press the stick, so you can pretty much cut in any direction like Raiden. I just mean it's similar, but nowhere near as good. Some enemies block so you can use this to cut the part they aren't blocking.

I can't think of any others. It seems to be a really rare mechanic. Thoughts?

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword has cutting mechanics; slice vertically or horizontally, enemies will block either vertical or horizontal so swing the opposite direction.

Red Steel 2 your able to slice horizontally, vertically and diagonally, enemies will block certain directions or be exposed to some more than others. You have to block vertically or horizontally depending on the attack. This game has wii plus mandatory use so another mechanic is that the harder you swing the more damaging the strike is.

A fair few other wii games have dynamic slicing due to motion controls, something they can accell at due to that.

Do the enemies in Neverdead actually get sliced apart? I vaguely remember that but could be wrong.

I wanted the topic to only be about actual slicing, not just the act of causing damage with a sword, though now that I think about it, I guess it doesn't hurt to discuss free cutting in general and your examples are good.

There's just a huge difference when you can actually target and slice off body parts or armor, etc, compared to simply doing damage.

All the examples we've listed are precision cutting. Do you want to talk about free/dynamic aiming with swords and such which is what all of the above offer, or precise dismemberment?

There's a difference between free aiming and limb targeting, for example, Eternal Darkness has a limb targeting system, you can cut off the arms head and torso of foes, but no controlling what angle you swing like the other examples. Technically this counts more than Neverdead, as Neverdead has free aiming but slicing is cosmetic death animations. Only one boss has you target his arms and head once for each phase.

In Neverdead enemies being sliced apart is a cosmetic death animation that doesn't effect gameplay, only happens if you kill them with the sword. Only 2 enemies can block your sword, you can't bypass their guard by way of regular swings, so use charged super swings(an upgrade) or use the environment to kill them.

Afro Samurai the precision cuts are called focus strikes, once you slice an enemy they die. Ninja and androids can dodge your focus strikes, but you can just aim at them during their animations which is a joke anyway. Samurai can block your strikes but you can aim at their legs. There's no practical use for vertical swings for the most part, horizontal swings will hit more foes and is easier to aim. Also you can play a mini game called body part poker, you have to aim at either the head, leg or arm of a foe to get a hand, different enemies constitute different suits.

I found the vertical good for enemies that jump because they can't avoid vertical slashes in that state.

Let's go with the free sword aiming. Dismemberment can be an separate topic.

Doesn't look like there are many with this mechanic. I don't know of any others other than MGR, Afro, and Neverdead.

Then free aiming it is, it’s a rare feature but there are more, like Red Steel 2, Zelda Skyward Sword and Fruit Ninja technically as you aim at any angle to slice fruit. I’ll have to search for them, some might be a stretch with what constitutes free aiming, could be relegated to a binary vertical horizontal swings.

I think part of the confusion is that free aiming is usually proceeded by dismemberment, which is what MGR, Afro and Neverdead have. But Red Steel 2 doesn’t.