Aside from its over-the-top aesthetic and flashy fast-paced gameplay,Guilty Gear Striveis known for reviving theGuilty Gearfranchise for modern console generations. Unlike more fluid fighting games of today’s time,Guilty Gear Strivereturns to doing what madeGuilty Gearquite an iconic franchise: give players multiple mechanics that can allow them to manipulate almost any aspect of the game.
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One such iconicGuilty Gearfeature comes in the form of theRoman Cancel. A derivative of the traditional “move cancel” that stops an ongoing move from happening, the Roman Cancel inGuilty Geartransforms this into an actual mechanic. When a circle flash appears for a split second, a Roman Cancel can do various things - from extending combos to applying pressure. However, just how exactly does Roman Canceling work for players?
History Of The Roman Cancel
Fans of fighting games might hear of the term “teching” while dishing out combos in most hit franchises, such asStreet Fighteror evenTekken. At its core, this simply means “skipping” the ending frames of a particular motion through timed button presses. In the community, this is referred to as “cancelling” a move, and this applies to all situations where a timed press of a button mid-motion “skips” frames entirely in favor of the new motion.
Interestingly,Guilty Geartakes this concept and makes it into a separate mechanic, now known asRoman Cancels. InGuilty Gearspeak, a Roman Cancel works as a teching move, albeit formalized.
The Basics: What Is A Roman Cancel?
TheRoman Cancel literally cancels the ending motion of an attack in order to perform more moves, be it running away, applying pressure, or dishing out more combos. Colors denote the kind of Roman Cancel that players perform, which appear depending on the circumstances surrounding the move’s activation. Here is a summary of the important elements of a Roman Cancel:
The Roman Cancel Mechanic
Unlike in other games where players have to press specific buttons to dish out specific cancels,Guilty Gear Strivehas a straightforward combo notation to be able to perform a Roman Cancel successfully. Theoretically, doing thisallowsGuilty Gearplayers to perform both defensively and offensively, with little room for error.
At its core, players simply need topress three attack buttonsat the same time in order to successfully perform a Roman Cancel. The Dust button isn’t counted in these presses, however. Players know they’ve performed a proper Roman Cancel once a colored circle flashes around their character, as well as players noticing the game immediately allowing their character to move normally unlike the usual movement associated with their action.
Red Roman Cancel
WhenGuilty Gear Striveplayers dish out a successful throw or a hit against an opponent, they can perform aRed Roman Cancelright away. Its window for slowdown is even larger when performing this during Counter Hits. At its core, the shockwave this releases will be launching the enemy faraway, even causing a knockdown.
Due to the stagger and knockdown effect, theRed Roman Cancel becomes perfect for extending combosor securing the pressure on foes. Characters with intense juggling mechanics such as Giovanna or Nagoriyuki may be able to benefit from Red Roman Cancels due to this juggle-prone move.
Purple Roman Cancel
In the momentGuilty Gear Striveplayers try to perform an attack that doesn’t hit or when they dish out a Roman Cancel during the latter stages of a combo, the variant becomes aPurple Roman Cancelinstead of Red. Similar to the Red Roman Cancel, the Purple variant will still release shockwaves. However, instead of hitting opponents outright, this simply slows them down.
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Despite this rather limited nature, the Purple Roman Cancel is a great way to ensure opponents don’t have room to punish players during long combo stretches. This is useful forcombo specialists like Giovannawho don’t deal as much damage but need a lot of room to juggle opponents. However, players need to take note that certain attacks with invincibility frames may not be able to work with the Purple Roman Cancel.
Blue Roman Cancel
When players perform theBlue Roman Cancel, they have to do so during either normal movement or in a neutral state. Players ofGuilty Gear Strivecannot be engaging the opponent in any way, as the point of this cancellation is to serve as a startup for more complex combos while punishing the opponent’s actions. This ishelpful for the likes of Nagoriyukiwho can still reach opponents with deadly attacks even when faraway.
Technically-speaking, the blue shockwave this releases will be slowing down opponents who aren’t blocking. Since this has the longest slowdown among the RC types, this move doesn’t end when opponents perform a block or when they get hit. This makes it the best RC move to punish long-distance attackers and those who try to do other forms of actions from afar.
Yellow Roman Cancel
When players become the receiving end of hits from the opponent inGuilty Gear Strive, theYellow Roman Cancelis a great way to initiate a counter-offensive. Activated only when players are in a blockstun, the Yellow Roman Cancel gives players invincibility until the end of the super freeze state. Not only that, but players may be able to dish out Counter Hits during this recovery stage. This is helpfulwhen using the likes of slow Potemkinwho may need the extra defensive support.
Enemies on the receiving end of a Yellow Roman Cancel suffer the effects of a Guard Crush, albeit with no damage. However, this still ensures that opponents are left vulnerable at a state where players can still dish out brutal counters.
Special Mechanics
Players who want tomaster their movement with the Roman Cancelmay also be able to input particular mobility patterns in order to maximize their usage of the technique inGuilty Gear Strive. This is particularly helpful in situations where players may need to jump the gun on an opponent or if they need to lure the opponent into a trap. Here are some advanced mechanics involving the Roman Cancel mechanic:
Dash Roman Cancels
Except with Yellow Roman Cancels, players may actually be able to dash towards the opponents before performing a Roman Cancel. This theoretically gives them an edge in terms of distance, as they close the gap with the opponent to get better room when dishing out combos.
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Roman Cancel Cancels
Despite the double negative, it is totally possible tocancel the Roman Cancel inputwithin the right timing. Again, this is possible for any Roman Cancel input except Yellow Roman Cancels. This is extremely helpful when luring opponents into a false sense of security, similar to thegameplay of confusing Faust.
On The Tension Gauge
One of the most fundamental components ofGuilty Gear Strivemechanics is itsTension Gauge, which essentially acts as the game’s overall resource gauge. All of the game’s more technical components cost Tension Gauge, which means players need to take note whether using a Roman Cancel is more worthwhile compared to these uses:
Regaining Tension
Thankfully, players who do have to use any of the moves above but want to reserve a Roman Cancel can explore a multitude of ways of regaining their Tension, especiallydepending on whichGulty Gearcharacterthey use. When done properly, a player may be able to quickly regain the Tension they’ve used up to spam Roman Cancels in quick succession, allowing them to dish out more moves. Here are moves players may want to string with their Roman Cancels to allow RCs to pave the way for a Tension refill:
Guilty Gear Striveis available for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S.
