You helplessly observe your character is being beaten up between sequences because of too long movements that make him vulnerable.

Well, there is a way of escape, but it requires some skills to master an animation cancel.

What is animation canceling?

Animation cancel speaks for itself – it’s nothing but canceling an animation. To be more precise, it gives you an advantage over your opponent by interrupting the animated movement of your avatar to perform an action much earlier. Let’s explore this skill through some game examples.

League of Legends

Since there are a lot of characters to choose from in LoL, some of them have specific mechanics for canceling an animation, while the majority have universal ones. One of the Summoner Spell used by almost everyone is Flash. The ”windup time” is a longer slot of time when you have to wait till the activation of your spell is done. You can cut down the time of the whole animation. By using an ability and Flash, it’s wise to focus on casting an ability and then to immediately use the Flash.

Devil May Cry

For this game, we’ll explain the topic with two simple examples: Block Cancel and Jump Cancel. The first technique comes from the third and fourth instalments in the series. By using the powerful Royalguard block, you can attack the enemy with extremely rapid, almost supersonic attacks – just use the block right before an attack is about to land. This will interrupt the animation and allow you to make the next move faster. The Jump Cancel is about jumping off an enemy at the precise moment of contact, typically using abilities like Enemy Step or Leap. That’s the Devil May Cry 5 core.

Monster Hunter

Monster Hunter – here, the mechanic is the same – while you can’t cancel an attack, you can reduce the length of the post-attack animation by performing a dodge. Some weapons in the Monster Hunter series have unique “advanced cancels.” For example, the Great Sword can perform a special cancel that removes the startup for the next swing, letting you reel off hits almost instantly.

To wrap it up

All in all, animation cancelling is one of those mechanics that can look like a bug but feel like a feature. It adds depth, skill expression, and sometimes a bit of chaos to gameplay.