A lot of attacks will make a “shoonk” sound, and you’ll want to parry at the end of the sound. You can almost see it as counting to a metronome.
Also see the Lusters in Flying Waters. Their attack where they dash three times has them crossing their arms, during which you’ll see a flash. Press exactly at that moment.
The Abbests have a magic attack, where you’ll hear two rumbling sounds before the strike. Again, put it on a metronome, using the first two sounds as a guide.
Try playing without music for just a bit, or keep it down a little if you struggle to hear through it. Going by sound, and paying closer attention to the attacks (and not getting frustrated) eventually made some fights go from being a struggle to even get a single move in, to being completed extremely quickly with almost no damage. Headphones also seemingly got my success rate up. Just study the attacks, and start out with basic dodging.
I’m near the very end of the game, and combat feels like impulses in my brain–physical. It’s worked super well for me in most games.
I like parrying in RPGs. Forcing item use is stupid, since the item use is inevitable. It adds a layer of skill to combat, making it something other than menu with cursor. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are phenomenal examples. I do not like it in real-time games, unless it’s a core mechanic. The point is it should be a core mechanic, and not something thrown in because other games are doing it.
In my two examples, parrying is no different from blocking/dodging. The difference is simply tighter timing with a higher risk. This is fine, since this is the only thing that’s going on. If it’s real time, however, I now have this list of things to worry about–enemy positions, my own position, my health, the surrounding environment, being literally pelted with attacks. It’s fine in real life, but with a controller? Hell no.
Expedition 33 is great because it’s dead simple–a set of dodges and blocks, with a limited move set which just uses face buttons and the triggers, in contrast to Final Fantasy’s dozens and dozens of spells. The simpler a game is, the better. See Celeste. It has move, jump, climb, dash. VVVVVV is even simpler–move and flip. Tetris is move and rotate. Paper Mario is just timing with button prompts. Undertale is just a standard RPG, but you move a soul to collect friendliness pellets. Even Horizon is relatively straightforward, with basic movement, aiming, shooting, and a variety of weapons which utilise these mechanics in different ways.
Occam’s razor.