Critical hits/Parrying in action games

Let's discuss these mechanics. Post any you know of, how they work, whether or not they are done well in your opinion, rewards, etc. These do not have to do damage to qualify, and you can also include things like weapon deflection.

I'll start with TMNT Mutants in Manhattan. Despite being a very average action game, I found it's parrying mechanics quite unique. It also has two types.'

The first I've praised before here. When you block the turtle withdraws into their shell. When you release the block button they pop out. If you time this with the connection of an enemy attack, they will parry it. It's really cool how they did this.

The only problem is, there's never really any need to use it. I only ever used it because I wanted to. Shame because it's such a unique way to parry and fits the theme of the game perfectly.

The second method I would hesitate to call a critical or a parry because it blurs the lines. Basically, when you dodge at the last second, the turtle will do this dash in an arc around to the enemy's back, then jump onto their shoulders and start pounding the enemy with his fists. You mash the attack button here.

While in this state, the enemy will flail around allowing your team mates to get in free attacks. It's pretty much like a stun, because they can't attack until the duration has ended.

So at startup it's like a Bayo dodge, but then it becomes this special attack. See what I mean? I'm not sure if it truly qualifies.
What do you think?

In any case, the dodge one is actually useful, because you'll use the dodge often, and the reward is great. The parry does open the enemy to a follow up of your choosing, but you don't have anything better than the dodge reward.

Found a video.

Sorry, took a while for me to get to this topic.

I'm a bit inclear what this topic is about, mostly about parries? There's a ton of them haha. The ones that immediately come to mind for me are:

Fist of the North Star
Still Water Evasion
Very interesting mechanic. Basically you have a jump-state in this game where you are invulnerable and can do rapidkicks in the air coming down, very powerful. But you can only do them while in Devil Trigger which costs 7 orbs to activate. At the cost of 1 orb you can enter a parry-state in which Kenshiro waves his hands around all fancy and if he's hit the game will slow-down and he'll auto i.frame jump, even outside of DT. Allows for all sorts of fun things, and works on everything.

Metal Gear Rising
Non Yellow Parry
The term is becoming a meme at this point. But really cool mechanic. Works as you'd expect but has a lot of added layers. If you activate it it can parry anything, even grabs and bullets. Some attacks aren't Perfect Parryable but by parrying a bullet they fire during that attack you can still Perfect Parry it. It can be canceled with Blade Mode or dodges, lots of stuff doable with it.

Warrior Within
Counter
Just an average counter, but works well. You have a kick one (knocks down) and a sword one (damage). Game has parry-wars with bosses and nearly all melee attacks can be parried. This is basically as vanilla as it gets.

Killer is Dead
BloodRush & CounterStrike & CounterShot
BloodRush is a typical 'dodge at the last second' move where you can deal free damage with a cool animation. Nice detail is that on its highest setting this one drains massive resources, so it tends to be avoided. Fun fact is that if you do it with a projectile and you can't reach the foe via normal means you'll do a CounterShot which kills instantly. So one of the meta-games is to dodge a foe around a corner, shooting him through the wall since the Bloodrush is technically 'out of range'. CounterStrike is just a regular parry, press block at the right time and you can do an i.framed shockwave that launches foes.

Smash Ultimate
Parry
Had to mention this one since it is so weird. Basically to parry you drop your shield, and in the frames between letting the button go and being mobile again, if you are hit in those frames you will parry with some frame-advantage. Very weird mechanic.

God Hand
Counter QTE
Funny that this exists, but there are some Demons that if they are standing behind you and do a certain attack Gene will get a Counter QTE available.


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About the one from Turtles, I like the idea of going in your shell. Fun way of incorporating the serie's story and jokes into a mechanic, I like that :)

I'm a bit inclear what this topic is about, mostly about parries?
Yeah and criticals like Onimusha, but not counters as defined in the other topic.

parrying a bullet they fire during that attack you can still Perfect Parry it.
I once saw a video of the Blade Wolf DLC where the player used bullet parrying to score PP on the boss. He comes rushing toward you while firing and this guy timed it so he ran right into the PP.

Any other setups you know of?

So one of the meta-games is to dodge a foe around a corner, shooting him through the wall since the Bloodrush is technically 'out of range'.
Never knew about this.

Smash
This sounds almost the same as what TMNT is doing. When in their shells, this is the blocking state (and also one of the most unique blocking systems I've seen) and to parry you have to release the guard button to have them pop out. It's in that window as they're coming out that you get the parry. So it's very similar in that you have to drop your guard.

Fun way of incorporating the serie's story and jokes into a mechanic, I like that :)
Yeah and while I found on VH there are too many tough enemies at once to be worth it, it still works just fine and isn't one of those things that's useless and just looks like something or an idea taken from source material. Same goes for TFD.

> BulletParry
The most famous one is skipping the first two Ray fights on Revengeance. If you Parry his beak attack but time it so that it Perfect Parries a bullet you can OHKO him in both phases. But it requires a lot of setup and also some luck that everything aligns right. I did it once across my billion runes. It isn't easy. Another setup is using Blade Mode lure to force Monsoon to use his jump attack near a wall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfoGpmh6Uwc
You're not supposed to be able to Perfect Parry Monsoon. If you do he'll automattically dodge it with i.frames. And he'll never attack close to walls. But pressing Blade Mode triggers him doing that attack, even if near a wall, allowing for a PP. Fun for REV runs.

> cornershot KiD
The game had very little research done. All advanced tactics, as far as I know, were found by either me or that one leaderboard guy with the videos (forgot his name, fantastic player).
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/666508-killer-is-dead/67246001

If you Parry his beak attack but time it so that it Perfect Parries a bullet you can OHKO him in both phases.
Wow I NEED to see this. You're going to make it happen and record it? Awesome, thanks!

That Monsoon thing is excellent as well. I'll try that next time I play.

Found a quick video of the Blade Wolf bullet parry.


KiD
That topic is pure gold. You should add it to the tactical guide section.

The game had very little research done.
Trolls and cuhrayzees are most likely responsible for that. LC got the same treatment. I might be the only one who worked on it lol, though I remember you said you did an NUR.

Shit, that reminds me, I need to post all the notes I have even though they're incomplete.

Lollipop Chainsaw
Speaking of LC, it has a few things that might qualify for this topic.

You have weapon clash, but that's something that happens randomly with weapon using zombies. Seems to require a long weapon like guitars or baseball bats.

Chainsaw Dash can deflect certain projectiles. When you see the wind around Juliet, that's when stuff will bounce off. I've confirmed gunshots from police officers can be deflected, but not sure about others like baseballs. There's not that many projectiles in LC. I seem to remember something about CD going UNDER baseball throws because Juliet's position is lower during CD, but I could be wrong. Will have to find my notes.

Chaos Legion
Hatred's assist.
Hatred will appear in front of Sieg, and when the enemy's attack connects, Hatred will do some kind of wrestling move. The timing is pretty easy and Hatred hovers in front for a few seconds before vanishing. Not all enemy attacks can be grabbed.

Another is Avenger, a special move learned from Arrogance, though might be blurring the lines regarding definition, but you decide. What happens is after you've got this move, you press the attack button the second Sieg is hit. So, he actually has to be hit and take damage before you can do this. If timed right, he will do an Issen-like dashing slash, and you can press the attack button again to chain another dash attack.

There are rules. This attack causes an electricity effect that paralyzes and makes light enemies fall over (if you can launch it, that's means it will probably suffer this effect as well), and if an enemy is electrified, you cannot use Avenger on it again. This is to prevent infinitely comboing the same enemy I guess. As long as there is an untouched enemy within range, you can continue.

As I remember, it doesn't work on really heavy hits that would normally send Sieg flying.

> Critical bullet parry
https://youtu.be/5chcSQWnGqs?t=322
Took me ages to find this again haha.

> bullet parry bladewolf
Remember that one. It's a lot harder than it looks, I couldn't pull it off consistently. Also still remember that user. Fun guy.

> KiD
I'll be revisiting the game soon for a Stinger article, will probably collect notes and put it in the section.

I just remembered another mechanic that I don't see often. It's similar to a critical/parry in a way so I'm going to discuss it here instead of making a new topic.

It's named differently (if at all) in any game I've seen it in.

In Berserk on PS2, it's call a reversal. As soon as you take damage, you press the attack button to trigger a unique attack. So it's basically like Onimusha's issen, only you actually have to be hit. If timed right, you won't take the full damage and won't suffer any hit stun.

I never played with it much because I didn't like it, but it's not something you actually should try to do, it's more for if you mess up. Berserk also had a counter where you attack just before the enemy attack connects (again similar to Onimusha) so if you missed that you might get the reversal instead. That's how I remember it anyway.

Now that I think about it, the CL move I mentioned already, Avenger, is exactly like this.

I'm not sure if Berserk's reversal works on big attacks though, unlike CL where you can't do it against heavy hitting moves that send you flying. Unsure if in Berserk, you can reversal projectiles, which you can in CL (but not the explosive fireballs from cannons because those cause a launch).

Do you know of any action games that use this 'reversal' technique?

Bayonetta had a dodge that you used after getting hit, right? I think it gave health back.
Also yakuza zero, Kiryu has a move that activates after getting hit, gives you armor and can upgrade into more options, I believe.

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