I wanted to complain, asking whether this game expects me to play Sekiro first or something, because I didn't really get what was going on with the bars, and the enemy has no gaps in his pattern, and my attacks seem to do no damage, and he can just knock down my block and knocking this guy down and using F does nothing and yadda yadda.
Well I didn't realize that it was a tutorial boss that you are not meant to beat by exhausting its health bar, but by using a finisher, and my finisher bugged out. Maybe because I did a normal swing at him first before doing the prompt. It did the animation and everything, hence my confusion.
So everything else makes a lot more sense now, and the movment is nice. It seemed like finding the moment of parry is not enough like in most games, but instead you need to find a spot a few seconds before that.
I feel like the enemies have this dickish trick to start their attack just a second after you started yours, and either their damage is four times bigger, or their healthbar is four times longer, likely some mix of the two.
I feel like somee of their attacks also completely miss me, like Louise's second greatsword or sword&shield swings, or the very least they don't connect with my block. Which throws me really off-guard. Is it intentional? Are they feinting?
Either way it seems like being better than them is not enough to win. You need to be absolutely superior to them, so you can four circles around them before they die, and after the first few fights, making the mistake in this marathon what does you in.
Still, really impressive action.