This is a type of gameplay technique which :
- Doesn't come with any negative tradeoffs or risks - it's always good to perform it.
- Requires a very minor time investment to learn, or is obscure enough that it isn't immediately apparent.
Essentially, it's a mechanic whose entire purpose for existing is to be quickly discovered and fade into the background once the player learns it's there & quickly works it into their muscle memory.
For a pure example of this, imagine a beat 'em up where you do a 3 hit combo by pressing punch, the final hit would have 20 recovery frames. Now imagine if, tapping down/up at any point of the combo would cut down the final hit's recovery frames to about 10. This is trivial to do, and there's never a reason not to do it once you've discovered it. It's a pre-requisite for decent gameplay.
While pure examples of this are hard to find, similar mechanics with a higher execution barrier, or very minor tradeoffs are everywhere. Bayonetta's Dodge Offset, Smash Melee's L Canceling, Resident Evil 6's weapon swapping, hell even Double Dragon Gaiden's dashes are kinda like this, but more demanding/a bit less universal.
It's worth pointing out that this is not the same as good stuff gated behind a high execution barrier, though. Difficulty in execution is meant to always factor into your decision making to some extent - are you consistent enough to go for a tight dodge or parry, or will you move out of range? Are you going to go for a high damage combo, or an easier one? The low execution barrier of these mechanics is, to a large extent, the whole point.
Making the mechanic granular also, IMO, justifies it because it creates a range of optimization. The player can work on improving it in the long term instead of the mechanic being "solved" and fading into the background after a few hours. Sure you can cancel your move at any point, but can you cancel it on frame 1 consistently? Didn't think so!
All of this is completely arbitrary, of course. You have to figure out how easy is too easy, how discrete is too discrete, and how few tradeoffs are too few.
From a designer's perspective, these mechanics can be used in three ways :
- As a kinaesthetic element - sometimes performing inputs just feels nice, even if it's completely redundant.
- As a way to add a depth signifier in to trick people into feeling like a game's more complicated than it is. Any existing mechanic can serve as Bigness fodder when viewed this way.
- As a "softer" version of a tutorial shop where you buy moves.
The last one is particularly interesting from a Staging perspective. Similar to shops, the goal of adding this tech can be to highlight certain other, more meaningful aspects of a game. The player might think - if I missed this cancel, then what other cancels did I miss? They can think, if I can carry over my string through dodges, maybe the goal is to finish the strings? Giving it a name and maybe even having some nice VFX when the player successfully performs it can help even more!
NGL though, I hate these mechanics due to their highly manipulative nature and wish games did the exact opposite - giving attacks tradeoffs or automating them and letting players override them manually if the moves serve a purpose in very niche cases. But it is what it is.
