Free Canceling?

[Valhalla]

Soo.. I've been playing DoA for a bit casually. Recently I've been watching streams of higher level play and want to get more into it. I have a question that is confusing me a bit and that is: Is free canceling legit? I watch a high level DoA player who's always complaining about it, but then I hear two other high level players saying that it's legit. Can someone please explain to me how it is not legit and how it could be.. am I making any sense here?

 

[KasumiLover]

Soo.. I've been playing DoA for a bit casually. Recently I've been watching streams of higher level play and want to get more into it. I have a question that is confusing me a bit and that is: Is free canceling legit? I watch a high level DoA player who's always complaining about it, but then I hear two other high level players saying that it's legit. Can someone please explain to me how it is not legit and how it could be.. am I making any sense here?

It's legit. It's stopping a string or static string before you finish it completely to go for something else to further mix up and confuse your opponent. It's like if I'm Kasumi and instead of doing P6PP in a stun, I'd do P6P and then 3K since it can throw off opponents who thought you were gonna finish it with a mid punch, the mid kick will likely throw them offf.

It's also useful for baiting a hold so you can get an easy hi counter throw. It's a legit tactic, the aim of DOA is really to be as unpredictable as possible

 

[Valhalla]

Thanks, I know what free canceling is, and I do it everytime I play DoA.. I'm just confused as to why some high level players say things like "Free canceling on my block" or "Are you really free canceling?" etc.

 

[Force_of_Nature]

Offline free cancelling is 100% legitimate and is a viable and encouraged tactic (I.e. There's a command to perform a free cancel in the form of "H". the guard button). Kasumilover pretty much stated the jist of it. Online however, free cancelling can feel like bullshit because people will do stuff like Hitomi's 6PK on block, which is quite negative, then mash something else right after because reacting to free cancels online is inconsistent. If you're watching higher level tournament play, it's completely on the player to call out & react to a free cancel.

 

[Lulu]

DoA is a remarkably well balanced game.... EVERYTHING IS LEGIT !!!

Play however you want.

 

[WAZAAAAA]

Free cancelling is just pressing H during strings to more easily prevent executing the followup, who in fuck would complain about it? It's not even necessary to learn lol