Yeah, I'm wondering if the same thing is happening when Sarah dodges back from the palm strike. Are they just holding the guard button here, and the animation tech decides a dodge will look better at this range, or is this a specific input with precise timing? Looks cool regardless!

It's always been a gripe of mine that fighting games lack those tightly choreographed parry / block sequences you see in the Matrix and other martial arts movies, except in canned throw animations. Don't know if we're quite there yet, but it's refreshing to see Sega move in this direction.

I love this sequence - I'm wondering if the guard button is programmed to contextually parry and dodge specific attack animations, or whether there's more going on here.