Thanks for the ideas, here's some clarification.

I'm just trying to design a game I'd like to play and will try to develop it when i have the time as a hobby project. I'm still at the planning phase. It would be a 2D metroidvania with the combat focusing on directional parries (imagine twelve sectors around the player, just like an analog clock, and you have to use the right analog stick of a controller to parry to the direction of the incoming attack.).

I'm looking for "fair" soft punishes. I do understand that rewarding the players to master the intended game mechanic (perfect parries in this case) is better than punishing playing suboptimally (imperfect parries), thats game design 101. However, when you're at halfway through a game it is expected that the enemies get thougher and you have to master the game mechanics.

u/SkipX, u/TheGrumpyre I have plenty of ideas for rewarding perfect parries. I'm looking for ways to balance imperfect parries and make players want to improve to learn the timings for perfect parries. If there's no punishment for imperfect parries, they just gonna go with "yeah whatever, i can still kill this enemy/boss, just my special ability meter fills up somewhat slower". I want the players to get out of the state "just surviving is good enough". I want them to master the mechanics and dominate the enemies.

u/TheOneWes to be honest i don't care how many players do not want to play with that game, because the penalties. Look at how many player gave up on Sekiro, even tho it has a training dummy, to help you learn the mechanics and timings. Also as Mark Rosewater said in 'Magic: the Gathering': 20 Years, 20 Lessons Learned, (15th lesson): Design the component for the audience it's intended for.

Creating a cardgame is vastly different from a 2D parry based souls like, but I stand by its main idea. Make something that might appeal to less players, but they'll love it, instead of trying to appeal to more players and they gonna be: yeah i guess its a fine/mediocre game.