I only skimmed the video but read the thread;
Jedi Knight II and Academy had wonderful combat, but the beauty of their combat (on PC) was the simplicity. The whole idea about the JK combat system was that you aimed with your lightsaber with your mouse, and that made it felt like that the lightsaber was actual energy that vaporized anything it touched(except for other lightsabers). It made everything feel like butter.
The Force Unleashed is the exact opposite - You strike a stormtrooper with a lightsaber, and you hit him 5-6 more time before he does. He is supposed to be dismembered in one swing. That is what it would have taken to make that combat feel powerful and inviting. Instead it became a wack a mole glowstick.
A.I is the big problem. Case in point: Ninja Gaiden.
I remember the outcries and frustrations from an entire playerbase who rushed to buy Ninja Gaiden only to be decimated by the first boss. A seriously yolked buff he-man with a pair of nunchucks.
No matter how aggressively you smashed your combos you would get trashed, even on the normal difficulty. (easy difficulty would only get unlocked after dying many times. "Dog difficulty" was something Itagaki made to supplement what he thought about players who couldn't handle it).
The key of course - the big "aha" was to learn to block. The boss is unable to do anything to you if you just pressed down the block button.
This didn't work on many enemies, and the trade off-is simple. You can't block and attack at the same time. There was a fine line here, and chose between defense or offense.
A more recent example was Bayonetta with its catwheel mechanic - A system that was also very simple and easy to use, but took a lot to master in timing at higher difficulties.
Assassins Creed also require timing, but unlike Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden, the AI is shit. It doesn't mean it can't be difficult. ACs has had some enemies that made it impossible to massacre. In Unity and Revelations you would have sniper enemies that would really be a thorn in your side, but that doesn't make for what I would call good A.I.
Good A.I is Halo. Halo, Far Cry and Crysis are games with amazing AIs that had so many different variables and unpredictable outcomes that they would do.
You have many modern games that, just do context sensitive action based combat like using QTEs, or just giving you so many options you forgive the flaws. I feel Sleeping Dogs was good at that. Was it a strong combat system? I want to say no. The shooting was supbar, but the grappling, combos, parkout, pickable melee weapons and violent enemy finisheres that interacted with the surroundings (context sensitivity) distracted the player for so long it didn't become boring.
Something something Bungies 30 seconds of fun gameplay philosophy.
Max Payne is another. Great simple bullet time mechanic. It's simplicity is the beauty. It's both an offensive and a defensive tool, and you knew that MP3 was not a better game for making use of things like cover. It didn't really add to the gameplay that much besides giving a visually stimulating cinematic splendor.
Guild Wars 2 also is a game that has a wonderful mechanic in a dodge roll. Due to latency of a MMORPG, it merries an action combat by letting you dodge out of harms way. Dodging renders you immune during the dodge. It's not perfect but it gives it that extra sense of action and awareness to keep you engaged, but it doesn't delute itself into spam territory like its Korean contemporaries like TERA, Blade&Soul and Black Desert who has flashy almost fighting game quality combo but who looses some of the strategic elements.
I want to say AI is the big culprit in most games. And I think its because its very hard for developers and publishers to convey to players and the media that the AI is so interesting and nuanced and unpredictable. You cant show that easily in screenshots and trailers. Its much easier to show flashy effects and moves.
But the satisfaction of beating an opponent is only as strong as the opponent your fighting.
Ninja Gaiden is legendary because the enemies was just not aggressive. They where damn near hyper aggressive and didnt want to give you any time to breath. Engaging enemies in NG felt like a real calling.
When you have games like Resident Evil 4 whose solution to the lack of tension was just fucking up the controls, you're dealing with a shitty combat system in my book. Resi 4 is basically what I hate the most about modern combat games because its based around making it frustrating instead of elevating the enemies to be truly gruesome.
Dark Souls is a perfect example of a game where the AI makes it all sing. Take away the AI and make it a passive Assasssins Creed AI and the game looses everything. There will never be any fun or satisfaction in beating enemies who are not the equal of the player.
TL;DR AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI
