I'm sure people have thought about this in the past, but I've never seen a thread about this. The idea with this is that you can press a button at any time to cancel an attack. Be it a sword, gun, or somehow, a bomb.
Once an attack is executed, you cannot feint to shorten a cooldown (Ex: You cannot feint to stop the cooldown from performing a Sealed Sword combo. However, if you are midway throw the second swing, you can feint).
If you feint with a gun, enemies that dodge will react, attempting to dodge a nonexistent bullet. I'm pretty sure the dodges have a cooldown, so this could potentially benefit the user.
Adding onto what is above, feinting with a sword could trigger shielded enemies (Mecha-Knights, Almirian Crusaders - No Trojans) to pull up their shields. Seeing as their shields have a cooldown too, this could work out.*
* - These enemies don't shield normally, unless attacked with a gun. This could be changed.
I think feinting also has limited use in Lockdown.
Clearly, there are some errors with this.
1.) I have no idea how bombers could benefit from this.
2.) Nearly no point in feinting with Antigua line weapons, as their bullets are fast enough to hit enemies before they can dodge.
This is just an idea, in no way does this thread look professional, but it's just an idea. Constructive criticism, links to older threads discussing this topic, additions to this idea, etc. are appreciated. Does stuff like this make the game too complex? Will it just not work out? Let me know what you think.
We have a way that's pretty close to feinting, and that's shield cancelling. While it does not feint with your weapon, it does do two things:
1. Resets your combo, allowing you to use the first hit over and over again, or you can stop shield-canceling mid-combo and you will still do the third strike, allowing for more damage while not being pushed forward by the second hit.
2. It makes you complete your attack faster. This goes for both swords and guns.
Shield cancelling is arguably more useful than feinting as it still cuts down the time it takes before you finish your attack, but can still potentially do damage. As is, we really don't have a need for feinting, it'd be something that's just kind of there that only a stark few people would use (looking at you, shield bash).