「Ｂｅｈｅｍｏｔｈ」

A design pattern that's become increasingly common in action games, especially soulslikes, and that I absolutely despise: the enemy that can only be interacted with through parries, forcing you to stand around waiting for it to attack you so you can parry it, do a minuscule amount of damage, go back to waiting, etc

I just think in an action game you should have a way to take action to progress a combat encounter

In Dark Souls, parries were a stylish thing that could shortcut enemies. They were very helpful, but not strictly necessary, for the final boss fight. Since then, they got a reputation for being the "most skillful" way to play the game. Don't even bother with a shield, just parry everything! It's the only realy way to play!

But parry-focused combat sucks ass, and I hate it. I don't want to be waiting around so I can counter-attack. It's so booooooooring. It is the gameplay equivalent of railroading in a tabletop game, or a tight corridor in a narrative RPG. You're not encouraging me to explore and try things, you're telling me there's one thing I gotta do and that's it.

Sekiro was the absolute worst* because it did give you a bunch of cool ninja tricks, but the bosses are just "parry one hundred times in a row or die". Makes me think the dynamism of the Souls series was an accident.

*: I am the world's #1 Sekiro hater, I know I'm wrong, don't worry about it.