It’s also worth noting you can do gameplay timing mechanics without locking behind animations. Many fighting games feature characters with charge archetypal control schemes where you need to hold certain inputs for a time but they don’t necessarily have any visible effect on the character while they’re held.
But on the other hand some start up lag can make a game feel very tense which can be great.
Elden ring subtly does this thing where bosses react to taking damage, so if you hit them with a light attack it will appear as though their attack patterns have no openings because they respond quickly. But in reality many of them are open for a good few seconds if you just wait and charge up a satisfying blow.
Not many good examples of start up jumping lag… maybe… SSX Tricky comes to mind?
I think the biggest thing with start up lag on animations is that it has to be communicated very clearly to the player that it's happening, and have a reason to happen. Otherwise people will blame it on the input device, or their system hardware, or just plain think it's a buggy or poorly designed game.
I think that winds up making it a lot harder to pull off.
It’s also worth noting you can do gameplay timing mechanics without locking behind animations. Many fighting games feature characters with charge archetypal control schemes where you need to hold certain inputs for a time but they don’t necessarily have any visible effect on the character while they’re held.
But on the other hand some start up lag can make a game feel very tense which can be great.
Elden ring subtly does this thing where bosses react to taking damage, so if you hit them with a light attack it will appear as though their attack patterns have no openings because they respond quickly. But in reality many of them are open for a good few seconds if you just wait and charge up a satisfying blow.
Not many good examples of start up jumping lag… maybe… SSX Tricky comes to mind?