>>722860859
>The boss is about to smack you. How do you defend yourself without dodging and without parrying? Just plain old blocking?
You can literally define defensive mechanics in an infinite number of ways, but the primary groups that mechanics will fall into in hitbox oriented action games are player activated collisions, passive state changes, or collision avoidance.
Player activated collisions are when the player initiates an action that creates a new collision that is intended to interact with the enemy's hit box and produce an alternative reaction to the standard hit reaction. So things like i-framed dodges, supers, parries, clashing, faultless defense etc.
Passive state changes are defensive actions that alter the player's state such that the consequence of the next regular hit reaction is altered. Think passive stat increases, chance based evasion, shields etc.
Collision avoidance is self-explanatory. It means avoiding the hit box altogether by using movement, spacing, or other means.
Each and every defensive mechanic, regardless of its category, is nuanced and requires special considerations to be used effectively.
Rollslop is a term for a game that ignores those nuances by implementing all forms of defense as optional throw aways that can be completely ignored in favor of the all mighty dodge button. They're ass specifically because the standard fare 13 frame dodge roll is boring as fuck by itself and yet so many games nowadays can be beaten without taking any damage by doing nothing but dodge rolling 500 million times.
Fighting games, by comparison, require a mastery of all defensive mechanics, which leads to a much more diverse and interesting gameplay experience.
That should be the standard. But most gamers are fucking dipshits that get scared off by anything complex so we're stuck with baby tier action combat.
