I think there should be a game in the large 3rd person single player action game sphere of dark souls/zelda/monster hunter/control/splatoon where the shielding mechanic(s) takes the aesthetic and mechanical direction of a fighting game: you can hold a defensive stance and just tank a hit at the cost of a non-HP resource or you can time the stance correctly to gain advantage for a counterhit. Which is Ideally a suplex. especially if what you are combating includes oversize enemies with oversize weapons and double especially if you can suplex a dragon.
I think that fighting games have really nailed how to make a parry feel good and I think it comes down to the sound and also it being one button you either tap or hold. But also it is absolutely the stance; there is something monstrously incredible about ryu and ken's power stance that makes it so much cooler than a squid roll or a shield bash thing. More modern fighting games leaning into this with camera angles, particle effects, and time slowing are only as spicy as they are because that stance is what is burning into your eyes at that moment.
Let me go fight a monster and brush off its massive attack by standing still, powerfully. Let me time it well and open up an opportunity to do something awesome on top of that awesome. It'll be great.
p.s.
I do think there is also something to the strictness of timing windows in fighting games that contributes towards the excitement factor but I also think that in a single player game the window for a perfect parry should be tweakable. I don't know whether this is a "3D spaces make it harder to judge when something needs to occur" issue or a "fighting games have a training room that makes practicing craft easy and you can often even analyze the hitboxes themselves" issue or a "fighting games have a certain expectation of skill because progressing and expressing skill is the game whereas in a single player game story progression is generally the meta motivator" or a combo of all of these but I think making parries easier or harder at will is a good thing.