Okay, it's finally time for me to write this. I've been floating this idea around while half-sober to some friends and everytime they ask me to elaborate I always say "well it would take literally hours for me to tell you so I'll just write a post and link it to you later," so here it is! I'm writing that post now. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go read this post, it'll explain all of the background you need. This post is more FGC oriented, so I'm going to use terms and ideas I won't bother to explain. If you really need to look something up, use the Fighting Game Glossary to figure this stuff out.
I'm not really the best Xrd player, nor do I claim to be. I enjoy playing the game, don't get me wrong, but I was thinking about what I would change to make the game more enjoyable while keeping some of the design intentions and mechanics in place.
This was originally a whole section explaining each of them and my particular issues with them. I found it reductive and honestly, too long for my tastes upon review. So here is what my mission statement is: encourage intelligent routing and aggressiveness, bring back skill based FRC style uses of meter, while discouraging defensive use of RC while still allowing it, but not allowing it to monopolize gameplay.
It's easier to imagine this game as a blank slate, without ever having Roman Cancels. Just pretend they don't exist, and then we build up from there. If in your mind you're thinking "WHAT ABOUT THIS INCREDIBLE TACTIC THAT WOULD BECOME REALLY STRONG WITH THIS???" then don't worry, because I would simply balance the game better. /s
To start with, the most obvious one, Red Roman Cancels. On hit or on block, during the active frames of an attack, you can spend 50% Tension to cancel your attack and return to neutral. There's a short screen freeze that allows both players to recognize this tactic has been done, and then another short slowdown that effects the other player following immediately after. There's a slight combo scaling applied to the rest of your combo if you had one going. The startup of a RRC is only a few frames (exact number pending. Hey, I'm spitballing here, give me some credit).
So what happens if you whiff your attack? Don't worry, you can also spend 50% Tension to do the exact same thing, a Purple Roman Cancel. The screen freeze is still present, but there's no slowdown attached to it. The startup of the PRC is roughly 2/3 frames longer. You're spending a lot of bar on a defensive tactic, but you don't get the entire reward. You WHIFFED your attack, you messed up, you don't get to put your opponent in too heavy of a disadvantage. But you did spend 50 bar on it, so you can cancel the attack.
Are you able to RC in neutral for the time slowdown? Nope! You can't do that at all. Play footsies if you want, but you don't get to put your opponent into disadvantage without tossing out an attack and putting yourself into counterhit state and exposing yourself to danger.
Where does the skill come in? I'm still thinking on this, but I think an interesting methodology for this would be similar to the way YRC was implemented. Instead of being able to spend 25 bar for cancelling the startup of an attack, you can spend 25% tension to cancel the LAST QUARTER of an attacks recovery, on hit only via a Blue Roman Cancel. Or a smaller amount, I'm not sure. Finding a balance that is tough to land consistently at a medium competency while also being accessible at most levels of play is difficult. There's no screen freeze, and there's no slowdown, you just exit the animation and return to neutral after a frame or two.
Since it's only accessible on hit, you can use it to very cheaply extend your combos (it still scales, so it's not like you get to do a full strength combo for 25%), and it OS's to RRC/PRC based on mistiming/block/whiff. If you want the slowdown and freeform combos of modern GG, you get that with RRC. If you want the pre-planned routing and expressive freedom of FRCs, you can also get that with BRC. If you want the safety at your own expense of removing offensive options, you get that with PRC. I think it would be a fascinating mechanic to lab out. Is it more efficient to go for an RRC combo that you're able to land more consistently? Or do you want to spend the bar for a BRC and try to keep up with the mechanical complexity needed (albeit scaling very heavily).
Basically, I just want moves to be more commital, and I want to reward aggressive gameplay. This is all still a rough draft in my head that can still be improved. If you have ideas, let me know.