Gaming, much like life, offers a range of responses to sticky situations, especially in action games. Whether it’s an boss slowly walking toward you or a fighting game rival ready to signal the choir to “somebody’s getting fucked,” players typically face three choices: freeze — staying locked in place eating shit until their foe drops a combo; flight — playing footsies, creating distance, and reassessing a smarter angle of attack; or fight, meeting the challenge head-on, pressing buttons, and praying you get a couple good hits in edgewise. But there’s a hidden fourth response — fawning, the art of appeasing stress to sidestep conflict, where you play the role of the immovable object to an unstoppable force. You don’t flinch, you don’t dodge, you don’t flee. You stand firm, nullifying attacks with pure precision, proving that you can see through your adversaries' nonsense and that countering it is light work for you. In my twisted mind, this response is the quintessential instinct behind parrying, the ultimate flex in video games.
Parrying is one, if not the, most satisfying mechanics in video games. Unlike its more reserved cousin, the block, parrying is the golden child of combat-oriented games—the one who earns a spot at the adults’ table at family get-togethers, gets their cheek lovingly pinched by grandma as she dotes on her favorite little pookie bear whenever it recounts moments where it took a high-risk gamble that paid off thanks to its uncanny ability to turn defence into dominance.
Parrying is my favorite thing in gaming. Although it may not be the safest option in battle, it yields the greatest reward by willingly putting yourself in harm's way and coming out the other end unscathed. The only thing dashed against the rocks in the wake of a well-timed parry is your opponent’s pride.
As the parry-er, the mechanic is one of the most empowering elements you can earn in gaming. It’s an art that proves your ability to get the proverbial camel through the eye of a needle, shutting down an enemy’s offense before it starts. In the most Pavlovian sense, games like Elden Ring reinforce a successful parry with a sharp, satisfying clang. This soundbite, like the high-pitch ding of a headshot in a shooter, is like the game patting you on the head for being the smartest (and most disrespectful) player in the room. Congrats, you just effortlessly batted that attack away like it’s nothing. Your dick is huge.
Games hold up their end of the deal by rewarding this mastery of fisticuffs. A well-timed parry can leave an opponent wide open for an all-out assault, like Tekken 8’s universal low parry. It can also signal fun times ahead, serving as a flashy preamble to bombastic games like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a great equalizer in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a damage multiplier in Sea of Stars, or even the only path to victory in games like Battle Fantasia.
Parries are so quintessential to an action game’s depth that they’ve become a staple across the genre. While not all parries are made the same, many have narrow timing windows, with high scrutiny for what counts as a parry. Some games introduce the elusive perfect parry, which completely dismantles an enemy with a devastating stun effect by countering at the very last second. Games like Hi-Fi Rush act as an ideal introduction to the killer mechanic, weaving parrying into its rhythmic gameplay to help players intuitively grasp the timing. This instinct naturally develops over time. Parrying is almost like using The Force, but instead of blindly firing into the Death Star, you’re tapping into the rhythm of an enemy’s attacks, finding the perfect beat to cut in, and executing a devastating counter, turning defence into a dominant dance of health-bar draining syncopation.
Witnessing a parry is just as hype as executing one. Case in point: Evo moment #37—the legendary fighting game showdown where Daigo pulled off an almost impossible comeback against Justin Wong in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Instead of holding back and blocking, which would have led to inevitable chip damage and defeat, Daigo parried every hit from Chun-Li’s super, Houyoku-Sen, with surgical precision. Fifteen strikes on the ground and mid-air nullified in the FGC’s most remarkable display of a player hard reading their opponent in the clutch, creating the perfect opening to punish and steal victory from the jaws of defeat.
One of my absolute favorite parries in games is Kiryu Kazuma’s Tiger Drop in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Tiger Drop is so absurdly powerful that the subsequent titles use it as the carrot on the stick as one of the final items in its skill tree, with flavor text that casually reminds players that it negates all damage. A fact made even funnier when you remember Kiryu patented it in a fight against two tigers.
And then there’s Dante’s royalguard, a technique that teeters between being a block and a parry (but we’ll count it). The Devil May Cry wahoo pizza man builds up negated damage with a calm, kung fu stance before detonating it straight back onto his enemies. In the manga, Dante himself admits to hating the move, saying its busted style robs him of the joy of testing out his flashy rolodex of weapons and fighting styles in his arsenal. But in battle, it’s the ultimate “nuh uh,” capable of ending a boss fight before it even begins.
Parrying is the ultimate risk-reward gamble, a mechanic that adds an irresistible layer of challenge to action games. It’s the moment where the player stops being the hunted, flips the script, standing ten toes down against the storm and seizing control. With perfect timing, the player orchestrates the flow of combat, shifting momentum in their favor like a benevolent hand tipping the scales of battle. Parrying is challenging to master, but then again, nothing as euphorically gratifying ever comes easy.
