Yes I totally agree. The way shields work in video games in general is not ideal. I've always advocated that shields should work in the same way in melee as they currently work against ranged attacks in the game, that is they should always block attacks in their idle position if their hitbox happen to intercept an incoming attack, but active parries should be directional only. In this way, having a large shield equipped will always keep you safe from cuts coming from your left, and sometimes thrusts coming at you if you angled your character correctly, but to parry downward cuts and cuts from your right you still have to directional parry like you would when parrying with a weapon.
If I was the director of Taleworlds i'd also make attack and parry directions diagonal instead of up down left right, so you can throw left and right Oberhau and Unterhau, with an additional button for thrusts that work just like cuts, launched from the 4 diagonal directions in a point forward guard position (Left and right Ochs and Pflug). These point forward guard positions when held in place should also able to parry cuts attacking the same quadrant in medium distance, but not in face hugging distance. So for example your right Oberhau will be intercepted by my left Ochs guard. This would make thrusts sound OP, but cuts have their own advantages in that they have wider arc of attack so are more likely to hit something, whereas thrusts have to be aimed and get stuck when launched from face hugging distance.
Opposing cuts should clash, with the later launched cut defeating the earlier launched one. So in plain words my right Oberhau should be defeated by your right Oberhau if you launched yours a split second later than I launched mine. This is the basic principle behind Zornhau. Opposing thrusts should do the same, and this is known as Inquartarta in rapier fencing. You might have noticed the clash mechanic is already in the game in the form of chamber blocks, but the devs got it wrong and made it so that my left swing gets defeated by your right swing and vice versa, when in reality this almost never happens.
In addition thrust animations upon completion should stay in the extended longpoint position indefinitely, until the player clicks the attack or parry button to end the animation, this is to give the player time to walk a fully extended thrust into the opponent. This is called Flèche in epee, and is also used widely in hema tournaments. This will also make cataphract style two handed lance more viable than they currently are in the game. This position is also very vulnerable to being parried and when parried takes a long time to recover from.
Anyways I'm convinced we'll never get proper fencing mechanics in pc and console based video games because controller and mouse & keyboard control are both too limiting for the average player who simply won't have time to react to incoming attack using mouse and keyboard at the same speed they can react when physically holding a sword. But I've heard some of the VR games do have great sword fighting simulation, like Blade and Sorcery for example.
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