Skill gate
Also said as Skill check, Gatekeeper
A deliberate point you cannot pass until you can do a certain thing. It stops you moving ahead without a skill that everything later will demand.
Without one, a player can carry a bad habit deep into a game and meet a brutal wall where nothing explains the problem. A gate moves that lesson to where it is cheap to learn.
Say it
“Before the second boss, add a guard who takes no damage except after a parry. No text. If you get past him you can parry, and you will need it in the next room.”
Where you’ve seen it
Sekiro's early duel with Genichiro Ashina is hard to get through by dodging and hacking. It pushes you to learn to deflect, which the rest of the game is built on.
Not to be confused with difficulty spike
A spike is a sudden jump in difficulty. A skill gate tests one named skill the game has already taught you.