About

Parryslop is a slop slang term used to disparagingly refer to video games that prominently feature a parrying mechanic, including examples like Expedition 33, and soulslike games such as Dark Souls. The term was first used online as early as January 2025 to criticize Doom: The Dark Ages and Ninja Gaiden 4. It became increasingly popularized throughout 2025, leading into early 2026, as people debated whether or not parrying is an overused mechanic in modern video games.

Origin

On January 23rd, 2025, Bluesky^[1] user @celialicious posted a version of the I Hate the Antichrist meme in which a man labeled "FPS & action game fans" with a gun yells, "I hate parryslop!" while being chased by blue helmet wearing men labeled as Ninja Gaiden 4 and Doom: The Dark Ages yelling, "We've got you surrounded! Come stand perfectly still and press a button precisely on cue!" The post gained about 26 likes in a year. This is the earliest known meme to use the term.

The meme was reposted by X^[2] user @Evilagram on January 24th, garnering over 420 likes and 78,000 views in the same span of time.

Spread

The term "parryslop" spread steadily throughout 2025 as debates about parrying mechanics in video games also became more commonplace.

On January 25th, 2025, Redditor Resident-Peach-3668 made a post on the /r/ninjagaiden^[3] subreddit complaining about Ninja Gaiden 4 being deemed parryslop, inspiring over 95 upvotes and 85 comments in a year.

On May 14th, Bluesky^[4] user headfallsoff posted a meme about calling baseball parryslop, garnering over 1,500 reposts and 6,000 likes in eight months.

On May 27th, Aftermath^[5] published an article by writer Riley MacLeod titled, "Parrying Is The Worst Thing In Video Games."

On May 29th, 2025, the Second Wind YouTube^[6] channel uploaded a video on the topic titled, "Why Are Modern Games Obsessed With Parrying?" garnering over 289,000 views in the same span of time.

On December 16th, X^[7] user @DisquoVeriii made a post about the Expedition 33 AI controversy in which they call the game parryslop, garnering over 12,000 likes in a month.

On December 23rd, 2025, Gamespot^[8] published an article by Khee Hoon Chan titled, "I Hated Parrying, Until I Played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33."

On January 11th, 2026, X^[9] user @BillyBobboLOL posted images of the games Cuphead, Pizza Tower and Ultrakill, writing, "Genuinely whats up with all the 'Parryslop' indie games from the last decade, is it just me asking this?" garnering over 1,100 likes and 320 comments in three days.

On January 12th, the post was reposted to the /r/Ultrakill^[10] subreddit, along with a comment defending parrying in games as fun, gaining over 5,400 upvotes and 500 comments in two days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References