Parries are trash.
If a game is going with reactive parry-based combat, then they should always look at God Hand for inspiration because its counter-hit (CH) system is so vastly better than what any Sekiro esque game does or can do. It's not even close. It's something games should learn from.
God Hand's CH rules are simple - if you hit an enemy while they're mid-attack state, you'll get a CH. You'll interrupt their attack, and instantly max out your move's properties. Moves have different properties - some launch enemies forward, some launch them into the air for juggles, some knock them down, some simply hit them really hard. On Lvl Die/Hard Mode, CH's are the only way to consistently get access to your moveset's special properties.
The reason why this mechanic is so good is because it, unlike parries, integrates every aspect of God Hand's combat into the CH. Parries are fairly one-sided - you have to figure out at which point in the enemy's attack animation you'll get hit, and respond accordingly (tho some games have parry startup animations). God Hand's CH's are highly variable - the viability of a counter-hit will depend on which attack the enemy's doing, which attack you're doing, when both of you started said attack, and even your proximity to each other on startup. Additionally, the attacks interact with the high/low properties attacks have in the game - you can use attacks that dodge high to essentially increase your counter-hit window because you won't be in danger of getting hit yourself.
That already elevates it above the average parry, but that alone wouldn't be enough. The follow up is where the real magic happens. Because a successful CH maxes out your move properties, you're heavily incentivized to change which attacks you use to score CH's based on situation. Do you simply interrupt an enemy with a single punch to build dizzy? Do you CH them with a kick to instantly launch them and stagger nearby enemies, potentially even locking them in a wall kick loop? Do you CH them using a move that launches enemies upwards so you can do crowd control? Everything is situational, and there's a lot of variety in here. The game doesn't become simplistic once you learn parry timings, it opens up and becomes more interesting.
This is why despite hating parries and the boring, one note, reactive gameplay they funnel players towards, I have a bit of a soft spot for God Hand's CH system. They may look and even feel similar at times, but they are fundamentally very different. It's a shame that parry games won't learn from GH's implementation, because the simplicity is the point. If it wasn't, we'd be living in a world where video game parries work more like actual parries, and as a consequence, closer to God Hand's CH system.
Cuz parries are trash.
Bonus Round
Not entirely related to the main point, but I think another interesting aspect of God Hand's gameplay is that it very heavily emphasizes move frame data. Counter-hits are an obvious way it does this, but even outside of that, enemy attacks and reactions to your attacks are really tightly tuned to where you have to be careful about what you follow up with and when (Demon block reversal thing, for example). It goes beyond the usual "don't use a slow attack against enemies with fast attacks" and comes down to actual frames, something you'll only get in high level optimization/comboing in most other CAG/bmup style games. It's so frame-data heavy that I'd argue it's a problem that it doesn't have built-in frame data information. Having that freely available would not only help the learning process, but also alleviate one of its big problems - the customizable moveset being filled with redundant crap.
