Guilty Gear Strive Roman Cancel guide: How to use, types, and more

Guilty Gear Strive, Arc Systems Works' latest title in their long-standing anime fighter franchise is finally here, bringing stunning visuals, engaging gameplay, and incredible rollback netcode with it.

Despite being toned down from previous entries in terms of mechanics, Guilty Gear Strive still features the staple Roman Cancel system for which the system is famously known within the FGC.

If you're a beginner, this might be a daunting system to wrap your head around, so we'll break down how to trigger each type of RC and how to use it to your advantage.

Guilty Gear Strive - How to use Roman Cancel

Red Roman Cancel

The red RC activates when you're hitting an opponent, whether they're blocking or not, giving you opportunities to create mixups or to extend combos to score massive amounts of damage.

Yellow RC can be punished if the opponent smells it coming, but if it lands, they'll have such a disadvantageous position that you can frametrap them and get your own offense started.

Blue Roman Cancel

The blue RC activates on the neutral, which means when you're not pressing any buttons and you're not at a disadvantageous position (i.e forced to block a string or getting comboed).

This isn't exclusive to blue RC, however, you might find yourself using this next tip paired alongside it more, and that's the fact that you can move while performing a Roman Cancel.

To do so, tap your stick or d-pad twice in any cardinal direction (left, right, up, and down) while performing an RC, and your character will move in the direction of your choosing.

• Read more: Guilty Gear Strive: Best button layout

It can be extremely helpful to either get some distance between you and your opponent or viceversa.

Purple Roman Cancel

The purple RC comes into effect when you RC after doing a move. It can either be a normal or a special move, some characters can even purple RC supers like Ramlethal. 

This can be used as a defensive mechanic to cancel the recovery of slow moves in case of a whiff.

Yellow Roman Cancel

The yellow RC is a purely defensive tool, you can activate it while blocking the opponent's offensive and it'll stop them for a brief moment allowing you to reset the situation, and in some cases, get the upper hand.

With the yellow RC, you can easily set frametraps (making your opponent think they can hit a button before you) setting up a nice counteroffensive, just be careful not to overuse it, as it's highly punishable if the opponent baits it and blocks it.

So there you have it! Stay tuned for more Guilty Gear Strive coverage coming.