Like it or not, parries are everywhere in games now. What was once the cornerstone of action games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has now become a popular mechanic, with even FPS games like Doom: The Dark Ages, Horror titles like Resident Evil 4's remake, and turn-based RPGs like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 having parrying be an essential part of their combat.
Speaking to Knowledge, Yacht Club Games co-founder Sean Velasco discusses the combat in the studio's upcoming Zelda-like adventure game, Mina the Hollower.
"There are limitations, but the limitations are what provide the fun," he says. Mina centers on three moves, jumping, burrowing, and your whip attack, with Velasco explaining that the combat is "about getting that neutral space and playing it like a Castlevania or a Bloodborne – games that don't have a block."
"There's such a great conversation with combat right now. All the game mechanics [are converging]," Velasco says, adding, "Every game has a parry now. I played that new Doom, and even Doom has Dark Souls stuff in it." Velasco then explains that "making combat was definitely [important]; I think we just had a lot to say about it. We didn't want to do something with a simple dodge-roll. We try to take something old and rejig it, do something interesting with it."
With Mina, Yacht Club "blew up the scope" because it didn't "have enough adventure-ness," but from the sounds of things, mechanically, the game is focused on what works. Part of what made Shovel Knight such an enduring and accessible title was how it stayed relatively simple, like the NES games it was based on, so that staying true to their long-awaited follow-up is likely a good sign.
