u/TheGaxkang

You sometimes may have noticed when you connected with a jump in or cross up how you couldn't then combo. or perhaps your attack was blocked, but you cannot press buttons for pressure as you lack advantage.

like, i once had a crossup blocked and i was immediately thrown while i was hitting my lights.

in the above video my jump in connected so hit my lights as per usual, but bam i was hit with an invincible reversal. it wasn't a matter of spacing as i was right point blank. but you can see i connected quite high, on the head of the opponent. and that was the prob really i suppose.

it's also like if you're trying to combo a heavy jump in into a heavy, how that might seem finicky. truth is you're supposed to hit your attack more in the stomach/crotch area than the head.

this all can be a key thing because it means a lost combo, lost pressure etc, and the opponent actually can gain advantage or momentum in the fight even tho they by all accounts failed.

because COTW is practically speaking so much on aggression, offense and rushdown, mixed with two touch gameplay, this again shows how such an interaction can be costly.

in the flurry of things you may not be keeping track of something so minute, so for many players it will feel like rolling dice. but it's something to remember.

this all is without considering braking or feinting in gameplay.

So as per usual he loses his command normals, including his unique overhead (which can at times combo).

i still believe they could let Smart use unique overheads by using some input. but i dunno if they ever will. until then Smart is often like playing Terry, who has no unique overhead anyways!

so you just got the universal overhead which isn't super useful. if you're feeling dicey you can use it just for vibes/pressure on someone, since hitting with it has minimal value.

his standing heavy punch while it advances him some, is stubby and generally dangerous to use except up close.

the move you will instead use a lot of is his crouching heavy punch.

standing heavy kick can be used in neutral as a neutral keep away button or hopeful counter or whiff punish. you can also try that with crouching heavy punch.

but careful in neutral since if you get counter or whiff comboed instead, you lose.

his Smart combo does standard enough damage and also will leave opponent in the starry state, or the Activated Channel Points debuff. however at no portion can be a super be tacked onto the Smart combo it seems.

a custom combo in smart you can do is heavy punch, EX Celestial Destruction/followup, EX DP, EX Seven Stars and air REV blow if available, and then Super 2 or Super 3.

this can net you like 484 or 602 damage, with REV blow in it.

with this combo depending on how EX Seven Star hits, using Super 2 will leave opponent in the stunned state and you can get additional damage then. just depends!

you can actually use more EX moves, like the finger snap, but it hurts the scaling it seems.

his Super 1 doesn't hit airborne opponents.

the rest of his supers do not have great anti-air ability unless it's a really square hit.

his gimmicks include heavy or EX finger snap due to its cross up, and his hundred kick special can be used at a distance in neutral to harass or annoy, and the spacing negating how punishable it is.

he's not as gimmicky as some in the game, really.

his projectile reflect is trickier to use than Mr Karate's. and Karate can easily just nullify projectiles.

you can use heavy or EX Celestial Destruction to be +2 on block.

hitting an opponent in starry state with like a REV blow will cause a wall bounce effect, tho i haven't found much use for it beyond landing a DP on it sometimes, if they are not in the corner. it's an odd wall bounce effect because not much seems to connect with it and i tried all sorts of moves.

overall how i feel about Kenshiro is he is a two touch character with stubbiness and some limited gimmicks, tho the damage will come out all the more in Arcade style. 601 was the most i could get with him in damage in Smart, but perhaps more advanced offense would bring more out, but i am not sure.

so generally since everybody else does two touch stuff, and the game is very aggressive and on offense a lot, Kenshiro wants to aim for the same and getting those two touches, and mostly winning a round or simply winning off that. if you can make it happen.

mixups are limited in general in the game, and damage mainly will come from counter or whiff combos. if you cannot get those, you will have a hard time winning. and if opponent get a couple instead, you can put the controller down while waiting.

here was one combo i saw in Smart on Youtube right now:

Smart Style Kenshiro Combos Are FIRE! #fatalfury #cotw

'Dead or Alive 6: Last Round' Producer Yosuke Hayashi Reveals Process for Adding 'Ninja Gaiden' Characters, Future of the Series, and More. - Men's Journal

from the interview with Hayashi yah it's like a slightly updated game, with more planned for the future. but yah, same features, same menus, etc. but a photo mode added.

the online will be the same, he said.

core balance is the same.

they do plan on adding a new character called Minato.

when he speaks of stages, he only refers to stages being updated with Oboro. so right now i wouldn't expect actual new stages.

but there will be more characters.

and new costumes. but question is...what kinda costumes?

overall it can still feel like they started work on this when it was announced.

LR would have been better if releasing with Oboro on all stages, and with Minato. they shoulda also included some degree of DLC packs too i suppose.

The above is at .25 speed.

here is the normal speed version:

https://imgur.com/a/2JTmjRr

mechanically it's impossible of course, a standing block cannot block a low, but visually what ended up here is what it looked like.

you see the Ken make a very very brief crouch before transitioning to standing. the interaction looks better at the slow speed, tho still not beautiful. while the normal speed version is more illusionary.

so one way or another the game processed the sweep being blocked by that blink of an eye crouch, but visually ended up with a standing block animation blocking a low.

either purely game mechanic related, or online related, i couldn't say myself.

but of course in the thick of a fight the visual isn't heartening to see. XD

So I fight Platinum's, Diamonds, the occasional Legendary Wolf, and of course have fought Golds that were clearly of a higher rank.

but these are observations and tips i could offer (some of which is my opinion).

1. a big thing to remember is that in this game unless you are busting out guard cancels, it basically is all rushdown and offense. it is extremely aggressive. and can get so aggressive it can even look mindless, even tho it has some thought behind it. but nevertheless it works for people.

everybody plays rushdown. i've even seen rushdown Tizoc.

on defense not much is punishable on block and even getting a turn back can be an uncommon thing.

blockstrings are long and are either safe, plus, or set up plus situations due to spacing. you as the defender could end up in overheat while the attacker probably won't. and unless you REV guarding, you taking some chip damage too.

i consider the most dangerous times in the game is being on defense, and then when you try to go on offense afterwards.

and you have to visualize how to win 2-3 rounds without ever punishing anything on block. because those kind of fights will happen. and then do it again!

2. the game flow.

with some exceptions of course a lot of what you will see is people doing safe or plus on block moves or blockstrings etc back and forth until someone gets a counter hit or whiff punish combo. then they will do a quarter or half life combo. combos will almost always be cash out's, lots of moves, and capped with a super.

the high damage of combos mean people don't have to do much to win. and you don't have to make big mistakes...a small one or a bad guess and you will take heavy damage. you'll watch the big combo much like say, this:

[DDR 3rdMIX] BUTTERFLY(UPSWING MIX)(EDP) 97995xx 305-16-0-0-0-2 206 A 2016.06.14 - YouTube

(tho i suppose this takes more doing XD )

but yeah you take a couple of them and the round is probably over. unless you manage to swing it all the way back.

one combo also will typically take you to the corner or close to. while much of the time you can roll, this doesn't mean you are out of danger.

because so little is punishable on block, most damage comes from counter hits or whiffs. if you cannot get those, you likely will not win.

3. neutral.

IMO i increasingly think there isn't really a neutral in COTW. or not much of one. it's skipped so much and often with so little risk but big reward. and a game where you have to be in an almost permanent delay tech when on defense doesn't seem like much neutral.

people can win fights off of blind neutral skip and getting a counter hit combo.

that said there can be times where you can check say, running rushdown with say a low light kick. it won't scare them tho, they will keep trying since they only have to connect once or twice.

you could try a heavy punch too, but...i'm wary of creating a possible whiff or counter. it could be more touchy.

4. now you may think you can fall back on mixup's to make up for something else. you could try a character with some more mixup's built into them, and some characters do have a unique overhead.

otherwise there isn't so much mixup to do. people usually crouch block because of a lack of an overhead threat....instead just low or throw.

the universal overhead doesn't have much use. if you hit with it congrats you made a nice read, but then you gotta hold that block button hard. so not much gained for the risk involved.

so with limited mixup's, not much punishable on block...and needing counters or whiffs to get damage, you can see how tough it can be if you don't get those.

5. i still consider REV blow to be kinda overpowered. your two main solutions is universal anti-air or throw....but you gotta time stuff a lot stricter than the attacker does. hitting anti-air when you see the REV blow flash usually means you aren't getting anything, or worse, you gonna be counter hit comboed.

6. weirdnesses. i have seen weird things for sure...some may just be game things, or are online things.

crossup's that don't combo, or which don't hit even tho they look like they do. or jump kicks that do the same...almost like they pass thru the opponent.

i was fighting a Dong Hwan and he did his universal overhead. it's -2 on block, so it's safe. he mashed throw however, while i was hitting jab. mechanically the jab should beat it but i suddenly was thrown.

only way that happens is if the spacing is quite far which i don't think it was. if it wasn't that far, i suppose it was an online thing.

but yeah i've also seen blocks just stop, or swear i blocked a crossup or a jump or i've seen invincible reversals refuse to come out sometimes.

weird things that can turn fights for sure!

on a side note, i still usually lose any mid-air interaction.

7. this relates back to the "neutral" as it were, but it's what i like to call the *Urien heavy punche*. way back when in SFV a running joke was about Urien's heavy punch, as the advice was to "mash it out", as it had little downsides but big upsides as to getting crush counters in that game.

what neutral one might think is in COTW, i think amounts to people throwing heavy punches or kicks out like that, and seeing what happens. since after all, if it combos that means huge damage.

it certainly seems to work for people.

so first of all the things he loses:

from what i can tell he loses his wall jump and associated moves.

he loses his command normals.

since Smart style cannot taunt, he loses that taunt that raises opponent REV meter. i could not find a combination to trigger it.

he does lose his standing close heavy kick, which if you're fighting Arcade Karate, you will be seeing that move a million times, especially on your wakeup's. it cannot really be challenged except with an invincible reversal.

does not have close heavy punch, which you will see in some Arcade combo routes. but then you'd have to be doing feint stuff anyways.

going over some of what he has:

he can use the move to lower his REV meter. but it must be used carefully in a rushdown heavy game.

he has his far stand light kick, which you will use as a keep away button. it is not cancellable, and no additional move comes out when pressing Special or Smart Combo on hit or block.

in neutral you wanna throw out his standing heavy punch (make that safer on block with another move if need be), and his standing heavy kick.

his specials are intact except Drago Supremo does not have EX version. and you use motion to do Drago Supremo.

so you gotta work with just 5 frame startup instead of 3. lack of EX also restricts some combo routes.

with Drago Supremo he still has his overhead. can still nullify projectiles or reflect them.

this move (the parry) does take good timing or reads since you aren't gonna just break it out really under rushdown. and if you mess up, you lose the fight.

he does have useful and unique defensive moves that are effective when properly used, but the name of the game is still gonna be rushdown, lots of offense, and two touchy comboing. which Mr. Karate also plays of course.

there is some touchiness when it comes to his Smart Combo and tacking a super onto it.

you need to use Dragon Burst to tack super on, and in Smart Combo it's Ryuuko Rembo versions 1 and 2 that can be used with that.

https://youtu.be/0H-ebdYkULY?t=313

his projectile super will not hit in the sequence.

but the timing of Dragon Burst into super can feel inconsistent. you may sometimes not get the super to happen. doing the level 2 version seems to connect better than level 1.

you can also do your super 3 in this sequence.

if you are connecting then you will be getting 392, 417, and 493.

now if you just do heavy punch, then you can connect with his projectile super, you will do less damage but you will connect every time.

you'll be doing 304, 385, and 471 (super 3).

outside of Smart Combo, longish or longer combos you can experiment with will require feinting or braking really, i think. especially for including a super.

look how many bottles he gathered up out of his concern about chemically treated hair.

very thoughtful. XD

You won't see him often, but you will remember the awkwardness and the off balance feeling of fighting him. Salvatore is also a character a trollish player will make use of.

he has 3 crossups.

his jumping heavy kick move (bicycling looking move) is unorthodox enough, but it's the jumping heavy punch (the spinning move) that they will constantly throw out. visually ambiguous, plus on block, crosses up, and if it hits your lifebar gets deleted.

in my experience universal anti-air is not really useful against it, and it seems to win all mid-air interactions. Krauser's anti-air special does seem to work good on it, if you can use it.

if you end up having to block his stuff, it's going to feel like he is plus everywhere (which he is i suppose), including with his overhead mixup stuff. and any touch, poof goes your lifebar.

he certainly fits to a T the game being about offense and rushdown so much.

on Youtube there isn't like a guide on how to beat him.

one can see on here a while back people complaining about his jumping heavy punch.

How to beat Salvatore's j.C : r/fatalfury

i for one, did not find jab to be useful.

but you can watch the highest rank people...

FF COTW ▰ RINO (#2 Ranked Mr. Big) vs ZATANOTAS (#1 Ranked Salvatore Ganacci) ▰ High Level Gameplay

FF:CotW 🐺 ZATANOTAS (Salvatore Ganacci) vs SCOOBY (Krauser)⭐Replay Match - FATAL FURY: CotW - 5/26

FF COTW ▰ MINILORD (#1 Ranked Salvatore Ganacci) vs DARK ANGEL (Preecha) ▰ High Level Gameplay

but yah even at that rank Salvatores will do jumping heavy punch over and over.

so what's something you could punish on block? his sliding kick out of his stance sometimes is. other than that, i would shrug.

the times i have beaten Salvatore was just brute forcing, and offense and otherwise trying to stay away from him. which in the above videos kinda feels similar, offense/rush him down before he does to you.

which is a strategy that goes beyond dealing with Salvatore.

of course if someone has tips, feel free to share!