Capcom vs SNK 2/Kyosuke

Introduction

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Matchups

Health (at Ratio 2)
13600	Low
Stun
60	Low
Dash Length
15 Frames	Short
Dash Type
Slide	Corpse Hop=No, Proj. Hop=No
Run Speed
8.5	Above Average
Roll Distance
120 pixels	Medium
Roll Duration
26f	Average
Wakeup Speed compared to Ryu
0f	Average

Story

Kyosuke Kagami is a teenager enrolled in Taiyo Gaiden high school. He's calm and level headed, and can calculate a plan even in a dire situation. When his friend Batsu's mom gets kidnapped, Kyosuke agrees to help find her. It turns out, a bunch of people in their city are being kidnapped. Together with their friend Hinata, Batsu and Kyosuke fight with the other schools to find out whats going on. Eventually, they find out that an elite school called Justice High is behind all the kidnappings. The three fight the principal, Raizo Iwamano, to free all the kidnapped citizens. The true fight isn't over yet, as the principal wasn't the true mastermind. It was actually Kyosuke's twin brother, Hyo Imawano, who wanted to create a utopian society in the town. Kyosuke is revealed to have been also behind all of the kidnappings, but had since changed his ways during his adventure with Batsu and Hinata, and had redeemed himself. Together, the three of them defeated Kyosuke's brother and saved the town.

Gameplay

Kyosuke is widely considered to be the worst character in CvS2. Depending on who you ask, he's either better or worse than Dan, but regardless he's bottom 2. He sadly has very little going for him, between his low health, relatively useless specials, and situational combos. What he does have is a few good pokes and flashy air combos. Kyosuke has a unique mechanic where he can launch the opponent into the air and continue his combo by cancelling air normals into eachother. These are both flashy and damaging, and make for a very unique and fun style of combos. Sadly, he only has two ways to start these: a weak launcher command normal and a super. This makes it so he can't consistently do his air combos, and without them, his damage is very weak.

Kyosuke is a character with plenty of flaws, but if his air combos truly speak to you, or you just really like Rival Schools, don't feel too afraid to play him. Just make sure your other two characters are top tiers, and be ready to play with mostly them usually.

Groove Selection

Best - K/C: K-Kyosuke gets access to run, hop, and Rage. Rage makes his air combo potential a lot scarier, as he can confirm into a level 3 launcher super or end his damaging air combos with a level 3 air super for big damage. JD allows him to punish a bit more often with his 3HK launcher, and overall the mobility aids his rushdown a lot. C-Kyosuke sacrifices the movement for more ways to combo into his launcher super, stabilizing his air combos a lot. He can also launch with launcher super and end with air super, and still have a bar left when he lands. Alpha Counters and rolls do assist a lot as well, and roll cancelling his 214K specials makes them much better as anti-airs.

Useful - N: N-Kyosuke gets a bit of both K and C. He gets the movement of K, and the super usage of C. Infinite level 1 launcher super makes his combos a lot more stable, and generally helps his damage game. Rolls also give him RC Kick, which is a much better anti-air. He still struggles in most situations, but he can at least use his supers more often.

Worst - P/S/A: P-Kyosuke would be useful on paper, but 3HK has pretty pitiful range, and never having a super to launch with means P-Kyosuke has a horrible time off of parries. S-Kyosuke has a similar issue, and while infinite level 1's help, being at that low health with a character this fragile means you won't get to play with them for long. A-Kyosuke is very bad, his Custom Combos are very low damage compared to the rest despite being very flashy. Kyosuke would rather spend the meter on a launcher super or an air super than Custom Combo anyway.

Kyosuke is a unique air-combo character who struggles with most aspects of the game, having weak neutral, a bad projectile, poor anti-airs, and situational combos. His flashy air combos are damaging and cool, and he has some decent supers to use, but is overall one of the weakest characters in the game. Kyosuke is best in K-Groove or C-Groove.
Pros	Cons
Air Combos: Kyosuke's unique launchers that lead into his cancellable air normals give him flashy and freeform combos that deal good damage Supers: Between his launcher super and his air supers, Kyosuke has a few good ways to utilize his meter Normals: Kyosuke actually has a few good pokes, like 2MK, 2MP, and 5HK Air Specials: His j.236P hops him in the air and is good for baiting anti-airs or ending air combos, and his j.236K halts his air momentum which can be used to bait uppercuts or laggy anti-airs	Low Health: Kyosuke is very low health, and is in the lowest stun bracket, meaning he can die with a few good hits Neutral: With a pitiful fireball, no invincible anti-air without roll cancel and a mediocre one when RC'd, and no real way to approach safely at all, Kyosuke struggles a lot to win neutral Situational Combos: His air combos are the core part of his character, but he can only start them from his 3HK which has very short range, or his 214214P super which costs meter Poor Defense: With no reversal outside of RC specials, and poor, low reward mashing normals, Kyosuke can struggle a lot when put on the backfoot Weak Mixup: While his air combos do end with a strong knockdown, Kyosuke needs hop to have any threat of a fast overhead present, and his hop combo is pretty weak. Even with hop, he only has high/low, and a somewhat ambiguous crossup.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Jab - LP

Strong - MP

Fierce - HP

Short - LK

Forward - MK

Roundhouse - HK

Command Moves

+

• Kyosuke twists and extends his leg diagonally upwards. The opponent will be launched when hit and will be open to mid-air combos (see Advanced Strategy Section). This attack launches fairly fast but has slow recovery and lacks some horizontal range. It also cannot be comboed from normal attacks except jump-ins. Recommended only when the opponent is open or as a possible anti-air.

Special Moves

Cross Cutter - +

• Kyosuke launches two small projectiles, each arching upwards and downwards respectively and converge at the middle in a certain distance. Button used determines the height and distance of the projectiles; LP launches the highest and closest while HP launches the shortest and furthest. Neither buttons can reach full screen. If the projectiles haven't converged yet, they are considered as two projectiles and either one can negate a non-super projectile while the other still passes through. When the projectiles converge, it becomes considered as one projectile only and can be treated like any other projectile. The move has some start-up delay as well as recovery delay. Because of this, it is not recommended against projectile battles. Use especially for zoning and pressuring opponents.

Lightning Upper - +

• Kyosuke swipes his hand upwards while lightning strikes from the ground up. Button used determines the distance of the attack; LP launches the closest while HP launches the furthest. The attack launches the opponents in mid-air and can combo into the Shadow Cut Kick or, in the corner, the Double Shadow Cut Kick. It launches fairly quickly but has low priority, usually trading hits from a jump-in attack. Recommended for combos only.

Shadow Wave - (Air Only) +

• Kyosuke creates a short blade of energy diagonally downwards in front of him while in mid-air. Button used determines the damage of the attack. The move launches quickly and has a fairly high priority which makes it a good mid-air combo finisher and anti-air. However, it has some recovery delay and can be punished if it whiffs or blocked.

Shadow Breaker - +

• Kyosuke leaps fairly high then slams his opponent with energies from his hand. Button used determines the move's range and damage. It is an overhead attack that cannot be recovered from when hit. Though a good mix-up, Kyosuke once again lacks speed and can be punished if used out in the open. Also, the attack has a tendency to leap over crouching opponents if done too close.

Shadow Cut Kick - + (Useable In Air)

• Kyosuke does a somersault kick. Button used determines the strength and height of the attack. On the ground, it has excellent speed but, in spite of that, has poor priority. This makes the attack a great combo finisher but a bad anti-air. On the air, however, its priority somehow increases and will usually win in air battles. This attack can combo after Lightning Upper and Double Shadow Cut Kick.

Super Moves

Super Cross Cutter - + +

• Kyosuke launches several projectiles, which acts similar to Cross Cutter. Level 1 launches four projectiles while Level 2 and 3 launches five projectiles. Use like a normal Cross Cutter.

Super Lightning Upper - + +

• Kyosuke launches lightning from the ground up which is similar to Lightning Upper except has a taller height and can be followed into an air chain combo. Level determines how many hits the lightning does.

Double Shadow Cut Kick - + + (Useable In Air)

• Kyosuke kicks similar to his far standing MK, followed by a Shadow Cut Kick and a multiple-hitting Shadow Wave which can follow-up into a regular Shadow Cut Kick. Like Shadow Cut Kick, the move has little priority and can lose against some attacks. Use in combos only.

Final Symphony Remix - Max Gauge LVL 3 + +

• Kyosuke launches a far standing HP. If it hits, Batsu and Hinata from Rival Schools will appear and beat up the opponent launch them into the air and all three characters will deliver their final blow. Has high priority, does massive damage and makes a great combo finisher but is open to punishment when it whiffs or is blocked.

The Basics

Pokes

In order from best to worst.

• c.mk (most priority; super cancelable)
• s.hk
• s.hp (special/super cancelable)
• c.hk (longest but slowest normal; cannot punish as much as above)

Anti-Airs

Best to worst.

• s.mk (fast; good vertical range)
• c.hp (won't catch opponents that jump too high; special/super cancelable; I tend to follow this with a lp cross cutter)
• dp + P (it will either trade or get beaten; the hp version rises about a character-length away from Kyosuke, so you can catch far away arial opponents)
• qcf + K (NEVER USE THIS, unless it's RCed. I don't think it can hit air-blockers though)
• df + hk (very short ranged; use only when the opponent is open)

Cross-up

• j.hp (good cross-up though tends to knock down jumping opponents)
• j.hk (good cross-up though tends to knock down jumping opponents)
• j.mk (not too good because of its mostly vertical range; may often miss)

Advanced Strategy

Air Chain Combos

Kyosuke has the ability to chain multiple normal moves up in the air. However, it requires either of two launchers for startup. The df + HK command move is the easiest executable launcher but it lacks range and can cause Kyosuke to be open for punishment. The other, and often better, launcher is his Super Lightning Upper. A level 3 Super Lightning Upper is the trickiest, however, since it does more hits, leaving Kyosuke to delay a bit before jumping.

Once the opponent is launched in the air and starts to fall down, immediately jump towards the opponent (or jump up if the opponent is in the corner) then press LP. During this time, Kyosuke is now able to chain normals from light attacks to medium attacks to hard attacks. Sometimes, Kyosuke can do a special or the Double Shadow Cut Kick though the player has to execute it fast. Some of the best chains would be:

• LP > LK > MP > HP > HK (HP may miss if the opponent is too high up)
• LP > LK > MP > qcf + punch/kick
• LP > qcf, qcf + kick

Match-ups

Trivia

• In A-Groove, it is possible to chain combo multiple Shadow Cut Kicks in the corner and ending with a Double Shadow Cut Kick. Doing so will cause both Kyosuke and the opponent go off-screen making Kyosuke the sole character who could attack the highest away from the ground in the game.

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