Sekiro was so influential, even the next big BioWare and Obsidian RPGs are adding parries and stagger meters

I don't know if we'll ever get another Sekiro game, but FromSoftware's 2019 ninja sim lives on in everybody cribbing off its notes. We've already seen fellow soulslikes Wo Long and Lies of P borrow its signature moves, and the Resident Evil 4 Remake used a Sekiro-style parry system to great effect. But it feels like a whole new frontier altogether to see RPG old guards BioWare and Obsidian spice up their upcoming games with some of Sekiro's signature moves.

For a quick rundown of what I'm talking about, I'd say Sekiro's big innovations over Dark Souls were its emphasis on parrying over dodging, and its stagger meter in parallel to player and enemy HP. The former lent this wonderfully crisp, satisfying cadence to the combat (and was critically more forgiving than Dark Souls' parries), while the latter rewarded aggression and precise timing, with a stagger break letting you wipe out one of your enemy's health bars.

Let's start with the Veilguard, which got an 11 minute-long combat showcase at Gamescom. We've known since Veilguard's first gameplay reveal that it would have a parry system, but this extended cut from later in the game gives us a better idea of how it works in practice. In addition to parries opening up enemies to «high-damage counterattacks,» the warrior in the gameplay video chose an upgrade to her build that grants a powerful fire damage buff to her attacks after each successful parry.

It'll all depend on how things feel in the hand, but a union of one of my favorite action game mechanics with BioWare's demonstrated affinity for buildcrafting has me even more excited for Veilguard. According to a preview from WccfTech, Warriors will have a less forgiving parry window in exchange for the ability to block attacks with a shield, while Rogues will get the opposite: No shield, but a more generous parry window.

While it doesn't look like Avowed will have timed blocks going off its 31 minute Gamescom demo, both of these games are embracing a stagger mechanic.