History Main / LagCancel

*** The first is the ability to perform a Super Combo and then, provided the player has enough meter, Super Cancel it into ''another'' Super Combo, something no other ''Street Fighter'' entry has allowed by default. [[note]]''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII Third Strike]]'' had unlockable dip switches in certain ports that allowed players to use all three of a character's Super Arts at once and be able to cancel Super Arts into other Super Arts.[[/note]] In the rare event a character is given infinite meter or the ability to hold more than three bars of super meter, they can even Super Cancel into a [[LimitBreak Meteor Combo]] [[ForMassiveDamage to lethal effect]]. This, along with the somewhat faster-than-usual rate of meter gain in the ''EX'' series, is why high-level play can feature [[DeathOfAThousandCuts rather drawn-out combos]], particularly in the second entry.

Compare KnockbackEvasion for {{Knockback}} cancelling and PerfectReloadCommand.

* ''VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide'' allowed long guns to be reloaded by canceling part of their recoil animation when firing from the hip. This was eventually patched out because the long guns started being used for DPS and wave-clear, especially with the correct weapon traits. Those were not at all their intended usage.

Compare KnockbackEvasion for {{Knockback}} cancelling.

** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' uses this rather extensively for an RPG. Auto attacks can be canceled by Artes, and Artes can be canceled by Blade Specials. Properly timing the cancel makes the following attack significantly more powerful.

** Most {{speedrun}}ners can tell you that ''Mega Man'' games that include [[VideoGameDashing dash commands]] are notorious for Dash Canceling, where you can maintain the fastest part of the dash command way longer than the dev team intended you to by constantly performing some other button press.

* In ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', any attack you use with your standard weapons can be canceled into your Self-Destruct command, which can be immediately stopped and allow you to follow up with another quick attack. This inevitably became an exploit that people who make combo videos use to juggle enemies indefinitely, but when used in tandem with some aerial attacks it allows you to do things like continually rise in the air, making it a useful technique to reach otherwise unreachable areas for {{speedrun}}ning.

* The original ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games have many different ways to cancel recovery times from different moves, and working out ways to fit them in using level geometry is one of the main parts of most {{speedrun}}s for them.

** In the {{Metroidvania}}-style games, there are a few methods of canceling, the most universal being the back dash and landing. Many of the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'' souls and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' subweapons are '''amazing''' when canceled (Killer Clown, Dart, etc.), making them key for {{Boss Rush}}es. ''Dawn of Sorrow'' also has the Succubus cancel, which, when combined with a special dagger that temporarily moves you forward, [[SequenceBreaking lets you teleport though walls]].

** ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'' embraces this as part of an effort to ease several issues that plagued the first game -- whereas ''[=KF1=]'' reloads had specific frames in their animation they had to reach [[AllOrNothingReloads before the game would acknowledge your attempts to switch weapons]], ''[=KF2=]'' has an "active reload" exploit, where you can melee or switch to a different weapon/gear at any point during any reloading animation, making it good for both cancelling a reload once the ammo counter updates and cancelling out of an inconveniently-timed reload if you still have ammo left. Reload cancels might not always save that much time, but you can throw a punch in the middle of your reload, which is great when fleeing while trying to reload and you get grabbed by a clot. And then, for good measure, once you've cancelled the reloading animation by a punch, that punch can itself be cancelled by shooting. A patch made this significantly less effective with dual pistols, as your ammo counter only goes up when ''both'' magazines are loaded, not just one, but most of the rest of the guns still benefit from the technique.

** A more specific example comes from the [[DropTheHammer hammer]] weapon. The weakest level of charge attack can be chained into the weapon's basic attack combo. You can cancel the basic attack combo before the third hit into a charge attack. Put two and two together, and you have what's supposed to be a weapon that does more damage in fewer hits at a time having the hit rate, and much more DPS as a result, of some of the faster weapons. This was nerfed in ''3 Ultimate''.

** All firearms have their ammo count updated before the animation ends, so it's usually interrupted with a melee attack, weapon switch (especially the fast-switching pistols), or even just sprinting for a split second from ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare CoD4]]'' onward. Especially valuable for notably longer empty-reload animations, like those of the light machine guns, which usually have their ammo counts updated right around when your character actually puts in the new belt and lets you skip the next three seconds of slowly bringing it back to bear; there are some weapons in some games where taking advantage of this even obsoletes (or [[GameBreaker completely breaks]]) the game's method of speeding up reloads, like the SCAR-H in ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops II]]'' which already has a pretty quick animation, but updates its ammo count almost as soon as you drop the old mag, or the [[GunsAkimbo dual]] [[SawedOffShotgun Rangers]] in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'' which have a very ''slow'' animation, but update their ammo count in about a second.

** In the {{Metroidvania}}-style games, there are a few methods of canceling, the most universal being the back dash and landing. Many of the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'' souls and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' subweapons are '''amazing''' when canceled (Killer Clown, Dart, etc.), key for {{Boss Rush}}es. ''Dawn of Sorrow'' also has the Succubus cancel, which, when combined with a special dagger that temporarily moves you forward, [[SequenceBreaking lets you teleport though walls]].
** This started in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', where your backdash move had no lag. The designers wised up and added lag or animation time to it in subsequent games, but often a backdash still gives you a net gain, and landing still lag cancels in every game.

** One of the more well-known examples outside of {{Fighting Game}}s. Most, if not all, snipers cancel the animation that plays after each shot for bolt-action rifles by double tapping the "switch to previous weapon" button. Sadly, this was eventually changed in Global Offensive, forcing AWP-wielding players to wait for the amount of time the animation would have taken before being able to fire again.
** ''Global Offensive'' made it so players slowing to a stop, [[DoNotRunWithAGun and thus regaining weapon accuracy]], take a fraction of a second after the arrow keys are released, whereas in previous games it happened instantaneously. However, pressing the arrow for opposite direction increases acceleration in that direction, thus if you tap that key just after stopping you regain full accuracy almost instantly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Gorf}}'', like many other [[ShootEmUp shmups]] from the late 70's and early 80's, only lets you fire OneBulletAtATime, so if you fire a shot and miss, you have to wait a bit before firing the next shot. However, ''Gorf'' allows you to cancel your current shot and immediately fire your next one, simply by firing when you have a shot on the screen.
* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' is a rare (and rather bizarre) RPG example. The game has relatively standard [[TurnBasedCombat turn-based]] RPG combat, but there are real-time elements such as many debuffs having durations in minutes rather than turns, and the need to race against other players in raids to secure MVP and blue chest rewards. As soon as you press the "Attack" button, all of the damage of your party and the enemy is calculated immediately server-side, and then you watch the animations play out. You can outright cancel the entire turn's worth of animations by... simply pressing the refresh button on your browser[[note]]or pressing the refresh hotkey, F5[[/note]]. Upon reload, you will be at the beginning of the next turn immediately (though some actions like [[LimitBreak Charge Attacks]] will enforce a waiting period before you can act again). High-level ''Granblue'' play generally involves you hammering the hell out of the Attack and Refresh buttons like a madman to rack up your Honors score in a raid, up until a certain point where you have the highest reward chance. Rinse and repeat for the next raid.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'':
** Some units in ''Warcraft III'' (notably the Archmage) have spellcasting animations that last longer than the spell's effect. Here, it's a simple matter of telling the unit to cast, making sure the spell ''gets'' cast, then issuing a stop/hold position/attack order so it gets back to fighting instead of waving a magic stick.
** Some classes in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' can obtain a kind of passive cancel. One example is the Elemental-spec Shaman's Lava Surge talent. The damage ticks of Flame Shock, a damage-over-time spell, have a 10% or 20% chance (depending on the rank of the talent) to immediately end the cooldown on your Lava Burst spell. Since Lava Burst is guaranteed to land a nasty CriticalHit on a target suffering Flame Shock damage, this talent will provide huge boosts to your damage output when it's feeling generous.

** ''Franchise/GuiltyGear'':

** ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'':
*** The series' unique version of trope is called a Roman Cancel, introduced in ''X''. Roman Cancels can be used to cancel almost any attack in the game, which has many tactical benefits. They're very costly (half of a full Tension Gauge) and only work when an attack hits, but in the ''XX'' games each character has at least one move that can be cancelled at a very specific point with only 25% Tension bar and regardless of whether or not it hits; this special technique is called a "Force" ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS sometimes localized as False]]) Roman Cancel. Later entries like ''Xrd'' and ''-STRIVE-'' altered these mechanics slightly; in addition to a new version of Force Roman Cancel, attacks can now be Roman Cancelled if they miss, and successful use temporarily [[BulletTime slows down the rest of the game]] (with the exact duration of slowdown dependent on the Roman Cancel's color).

** "Jump Cancel", wherein you perform an aerial move, use [[GoombaSpringboard Enemy Step]] to bounce off an enemy while both of you are airborne in order to reset your aerial state, repeat the move that can normally only be done once in a single jump, and then jump off the enemy again. Done right, you stay airborne until your enemy dies and rack up [[GameplayGrading Style Points]] very quickly. This is technically "unofficial" (since Enemy Step is really meant as a tool to change your direction in the air when near an enemy) but Capcom has never removed it (back when it was originally known by fans as "Shotgun Hiking" in the first game), ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry'' [[AscendedGlitch made it official]] via some loading screen animations that briefly demonstrate it, and by ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4: Special Edition'', Capcom is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9J4hYTT4ZM actively acknowledging its existence]] for the first time on their official Website/YouTube channel.
** Quick movements can also cancel an attack's animation, allowing the player to input another move earlier than intended. For example in the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 first game]], moving just a fraction while using the Shotgun cancels its reloading time, and jumping or rolling cancels the (longer) reload time on the Grenadegun. In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'' and onwards, cancelling short hops and rolls into the guarding animation of the Royalguard [[StanceSystem Style]] is a very effective defensive tactic. In ''Devil May Cry 3'', you can also cancel the after-shot lag of the Spiral rifle and Kalina Ann rocket launcher by either switching to Ebony & Ivory immediately afterwards or properly timing the Royalguard Style's Block skill.
** The long cooldown at the end of many of Vergil's attacks (specifically, ones where he sheathes his sword) in ''Devil May Cry 4: [[UpdatedRerelease Special Edition]]'' can be cancelled with a Summoned Swords teleport, with the downside of also cancelling the Concentration Gauge boost that occurs when the sword clicks fully into the sheath at the end of the animation.

* Before ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' came out, most shooters [[AllOrNothingReloads didn't let players interrupt animations like reloading and attacking]] at all. Of course, even it forgot to let you cancel the ContextSensitiveButton[=s=] making you slowly clamber into nearby vehicles, though the animation is made a lot quicker in later ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games.

** ''Franchise/BlazBlue'', ''Guilty Gear''[='s=] SpiritualSuccessor, has Rapid Cancel, which is effectively the same mechanic as Roman Cancel but without the ability to Force Roman Cancel. Additionally, Hakumen's specials can be freely canceled into one another, but only as long as his Magatama gauge holds out.

*** The second, introduced in ''[=EX2=]'', is the Cancel Break: the ability to sacrifice a bar of the Super Combo Gauge during a special move or Super Combo in order to cancel into a [[UnblockableAttack Guard Break]]. As with several of the mechanics introduced in ''EX'', this likely served as a precursor to the Focus Attacks of ''IV''.

* Some fighting games take this one step further with a [[UpToEleven jump cancel cancel]]. You do a move, cancel it into a jump, then cancel the jump into another move before you leave the ground. It's easier than it sounds, you do the directional input for the attack, then input "up", then press the attack button before the game forgets the input. For example, to JCC an attack into a move with a quarter circle forward motion,[[note]]down, diagonally down-forward, forward in one smooth motion[[/note]] you simply extend it so that you end with a diagonal up-forward input before you input the attack button for the second attack.

* Melee attacks in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', for both slow firing weapons (but not {{Sniper Rifle}}s since you need to aim) and reloading (as soon as the magazine/clip is inserted).

* Similar to the ''[[VideoGame/GundamVsSeries Gundam Vs.]]'' games (see the Fighting Games tab above), everything except SP attacks is cancellable in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam'' by dashing in any direction. It does however cost more on the heat gauge than regular dashing. On mobility-focused machines, however, this makes them more than able to stand their ground against tougher ones. What ''isn't'' cancellable is, as stated above, [[LimitBreak SP attacks]] and [[CycleOfHurting stumbling due to being hit]].

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', being a spectacle fighter developed by Creator/PlatinumGames, naturally boasts a lot of this. There are three types of animation-cancelling. The first and most important is parrying, which can interrupt any of Raiden's attacks. The second is dodging, which doesn't work during the recovery animations for some of the more powerful moves but boasts invincibility frames and the ability to maintain your place in your combo. The last is known as "blade-cancelling," in which the player taps the Blade Mode button to make Raiden enter and immediately exit Blade Mode. This cancels the recovery animation for more attacks than dodge-cancelling and is much quicker, but [[DevelopersForesight this is an intentional mechanic rather than a developer oversight, so there are still a few moves it doesn't work on]].
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', it was possible to cancel missile lag by firing your Power Beam, allowing you to fire missiles at a much faster rate than normal.

** The first game had Charge Cancelling. Most of the cast (with the exception of Axl, Testament, and Justice) have one special move that can be charged by inputting the move with the Respect button instead of the usual button input. The charging animation can be canceled into like any other special move, can be dropped at any point by releasing the Respect button, and has no endlag, allowing it to be used as a sort of proto-Roman Cancel.

** Moving just a fraction while using the shotgun cancels its reloading time, and jumping or rolling cancels the (longer) reload time on the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 Grenade Launcher]].
** From ''[[VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening 3]]'' onward, cancelling short hops and rolls into the guarding animation of the Royal Guard [[StanceSystem Style]] is a very effective defensive tactic and makes the Difficult part of its DifficultButAwesome status slightly less so. You can also cancel the after-shot lag of the Spiral rifle and Kalina Ann rocket launcher by either switching to Ebony & Ivory immediately afterwards or timing a use of Royal Guard properly.
** There's also jump cancelling, which is an unofficial technique (though ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry'' [[AscendedGlitch made it official]] via some load screen combos that show the technique in action) wherein you execute an aerial move then perform an Enemy Hike (jumping off an enemy), which then resets your aerial state and you can repeat the same move and then jump off them again. Done right, you stay airborne until your enemy dies and rack up [[GameplayGrading Style Points]] very quickly.

* Most {{speedrun}}ners can tell you that ''Mega Man'' games that include [[VideoGameDashing dash commands]] are notorious for Dash Canceling, where you can maintain the fastest part of the dash command way longer than the dev team intended you to by constantly performing some other button press.
** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'' and ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'', you can cancel Zero's Z-Saber with a dash, and a dash with the saber. With fast ButtonMashing, this becomes a GameBreaker because not only can you swing the saber much faster, but most bosses are designed only to activate their MercyInvincibility on the third swing of Zero's three-hit combo. By never using that third swing, bosses can be killed in mere seconds. ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' {{nerf|ed}} this by forcibly adding lag after a certain amount of cancels and it's ''still'' a viable tactic. Funnily enough, this ''actually'' got in as one of Zero's attacks in ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone''!

* [[StealthBasedGame An unusual genre for this]], ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has the "Quick Reload" technique. Normally when you exhaust a magazine you have to reload normally, which actually does take about two seconds; in a boss fight this is often about 1.9 more seconds than you have to spare. By unequipping and reequipping a weapon, it automatically reloads for you. On top of that, the manuals actually tell you about this technique. After the penultimate boss of ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'' was made into a complete joke by abusing this technique (since it requires use of a single-shot RPG launcher that normally requires multiple seconds to replace the warhead... or a quarter of a second to double-tap R2), every ''Metal Gear'' since then has forced the player to take the time to let a reloading animation play out as part of the gameplay overhaul bringing the series more in-line with a ThirdPersonShooter.

* In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile2Silmeria'', you can cancel your R1 dash into your attack. Attacks themselves can be canceled into the next attack in your sequence. Then there's [[BreakMeter Break Mode]], [[SpamAttack which encourages canceling completely]].