What is Jump Canceling – The Basics
 

The tutorial covers the basics of jump canceling and the overall advantages it will provide the player once mastered. The whole concept of a Jump Cancel (JC/JCing for short) is the cancellation of an aerial technique with a jump.

For the sake of instruction, take Cerberus’ aerial attack which is called Swing. If you can successfully hit an enemy in mid-air with Swing, there is a moment in time where Dante is actually touching the enemy. A simple press of the jump button during this moment of contact causes Dante to jump off the enemy back into the air. Once back into the air, you can attack with Swing a second time if the jump does not send you too high, and you press the attack button quickly. Once perfected, a skilled player can continuously stay in the air using nothing but aerial attacks and jump cancels.  

Download Broly's Jump Cancel Video Tutorial (93.1 MB)

Aerial Juggling using Jump Canceling
 

What can be jump canceled and what can’t be?
 

Every single aerial move in the game and all ground attacks where Dante’s and Vergil’s feet leave the ground, except rising attacks, i.e. High Time (Rebellion), Whirlwind (A&R), and Beast Uppercut (Beowulf). However, there are three exceptions to this rule; Vergil’s Beowulf Launcher, Rising Sun, which has two kicks, the first of which can be jump canceled. The second and third are Rising Dragon levels 2 and 3, which are activated by charging up Beast Uppercut.

As for the aerial attacks, every single one, and I mean, EVERY SINGLE ONE can be jump cancelled:  Aerial Rave, Helm Breaker, Swing, Aerial Cross, Air Flicker, Sky Dance, Air Slash, Hammer, Tornado (the spin kick which follows Beowulf’s Real Impact), even Vortex, which is the spin move Dante does during Nevan’s Air Raid can be canceled out of.

Good places to practice?
 

The Hell Vanguard is probably one of the most effective targets to practice new sequences of jump cancels on due to his hulking size; simply put, there’s just a lot of room to jump off of. The Chess pieces, namely Pawns and Bishops, also make excellent targets.  

Any of the slower moving Seven Hells, i.e. Sloths (the targets of almost all combo videos because of their size and health), Prides are slow moving and can also be useful, as well as Greeds and Envys. Abyss enemies are also good as they have even more health than a Sloth, but they are rarely alone and their fireballs can be dangerous even in mid-air. Anyway, any of the places containing these enemies are perfect for practice.

How to practice – Mastering the Timing
 

The idea to mastering jump canceling is to be able to perform any cancel with any attack in any situation with a single button press, whether it is an air to ground move like Helm Breaker, or an Aerial Combo attack like Swing or Sky Dance. For beginners, I would recommend starting with Beowulf’s Killer Bee. What you want to do is jump toward a given enemy, making sure to attain the maximum height of the jump, enable the attack, and start mashing the jump button. If you mash fast enough, this will work 9 times out of 10, and will give you a better idea as to how jump canceling actually works.

Once you can perform the first step, try lowering the time you spend mashing the button, i.e. instead of mashing as soon as you hit attack to initiate Killer Bee, try waiting until the moment before impact. This will give you a better idea of the timing of when to press the attack button. Next, trying lowering the mashing to a single button press, so you don’t mash at all. When you can do it in a single button press, try doing combinations of multiple attacks, so Killer Bee [Jump] Killer Bee [Jump]…etc. Then once you can do that and use it in any situation you have mastered the timing. These instructions are also repeated in the tutorial.

Timing and Rhythm
 

If you’ve ever studied music, you’ll eventually notice that performing a prolonged sequence of any aerial attack is much like playing a musical instrument. Its not about how fast you push the buttons, it’s about timing and rhythm. Timing, as mentioned above, is knowing exactly when to push the jump button and the attack button again to maintain the proper distance so the sequence can continue; you obviously cant perform a prolonged combination of Swings if you jump too high, because the enemy will fall to the ground and the sequence will fail.

The rhythm is knowing the time you have to wait in between each jump cancel, so when performing a combination of Swings, there is a pause in between each cancel, so you're not mashing Jump-Attack, Jump-Attack, but rather Jump-Attack [pause] Jump-Attack [pause] etc.

What is Ultimate Tempest?
 

If you’ve seen Xarugas’ Wildfire video or other TrueStyle tournament entries of Swordmaster, you have probably seen Ultimate Tempest in action without even realizing it. At first glance it is easy to miss, because it looks the exact same as Tempest (A&R Swordmaster Ultimate) except the fire stops surrounding Dante and he continues to spin the swords around. Well, it may not look it, but that small extension does twice, if not three of four times more damage than Tempest does, and is actually one of the most powerful moves in the game.

Download Broly's Ultimate Tempest Tutorial Video (23.5 MB)

How to perform Ultimate Tempest
 

Well, its actually very simple. Perform a Tempest by mashing the style button during a Twister (R1+Back+Style). You’ll notice that when Twister cancels into Tempest, there is a small flash of light. In order to perform Ultimate Tempest, all you need to do is mash the Attack button (yes, the Attack, not Style) when you see that flash, and that is all since the style button does not need to be pushed once the cancel occurs.

Application
 

Anything large that doesn’t move around a lot, i.e. the Hell Vanguard gets owned by UT, but it can backfire as you’re vulnerable while still performing the attack. Other good targets include the Chess Pieces, Spiders (although its easy to miss them since they move around so much) and Greeds. You can use it on smaller demons as well, but most of them will be sent flying away by the sheer power of the attack.

What is Sword Hanging?
 

Sword Hanging (individually referred to as Sword Hangers) is a technique that has been used in several combo videos by various players, but has never really been tapped into or fully explored. The actual term Sword Hanger refers to the use of a single Summoned Sword to manipulate and control an enemy as it travels though the air. So far, I have discovered two things I am able to do with a single Sword Hanger:  negate rising attacks a.k.a. Rising Negation, and momentarily stop an enemy’s descent to the ground, a.k.a. a Sword Hang.  

Download Broly's Sword Hanging Tutorial Video (84.5 MB)

Technique #1 - Rising Negation
 

The tutorial explains and demonstrates this much more effectively, but Rising Negation can basically be used to control how far an enemy travels into the air by shooting a Summoned Sword before/during/after any given rising attack. In the video, I use Force Edge’s High Time (R1+Back+Attack) to launch the enemy into the air, but before the attack even connects, I shoot a single summoned sword.

The result is that the enemy is sent only a small distance into the air before the Sword connects which causes the enemy to fall back down to the ground. The height that the enemy travels upward can be changed as desired by merely altering when the Sword is fired.

Technique #2 - Sword Hanging
 

When a single Summoned Sword connects with an airborne enemy, they are momentarily stopped in whatever position they are in at the moment of impact. Although the effect a single sword will have on an enemy’s plummet to the ground is small, Sword Hanging offers the player a vast increase in possible moves for almost any situation. For example, firing a Sword Hanger after a rising attack, i.e. Yamatto’s Upper Slash (R1+Back+Attack), can give the player a chance to Air Trick (style button, no direction) upward and continue attacking with Aerial Rave or even Starfall. Although Upper Slash and Air Trick can be combined without the use of a Sword Hanger, as demonstrated in Ethereal’s Azure Macabre, it is inconsistent and thus difficult to pull off 100% of the time.  

The same goes for the Upper Slash – Rising Sun combination, which is even harder to follow up with aerial attacks due to the degree of timing required in order to execute the combination properly.  

However, in both of the above circumstances, the firing and correct timing of a Sword Hanger can substantially boost the chances of success, increasing both reliability and consistency. Also, by continuing to hold the “Shoot” button when firing the Sword Hanger, the overall damage output will also increase as the Spiral Swords will have activated by the time the Air Trick has finished and the combo continues with aerial attacks.

Fusing Land with Air: The Ultimate Sword Hanger Ability
 

Sword Hangers reach their maximum effectiveness when used in combination with Aerial Combos and Beowulf’s Starfall attack. During an Aerial Combo, say a sequence of jump cancelled Aerial Raves, if Starfall is performed without a cancel and followed by a Sword Hanger, Vergil will go right through the enemy (if high enough off the ground) and will have enough time to land and continue the attack before the enemy lands. Once back on the ground, any attack can be used to continue the combo: ground combos, Lunar Phase, or another Rising Attack, etc. It may be difficult to picture now, but after watching the tutorial, it will make perfect sense.

When can Sword Hanging be used?
 

Anywhere really, but their uses are limited to enemies that can be juggled into the air. An enemy such as a chess piece, Greed, or Envy will be immune to Sword Hangers since it is impossible to lift them off the ground. However, Lusts, Gluttonies, Prides, Sloths, and Abyss for example, are perfect targets for Sword Hangers.