JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future/Kakyoin/Matchups

Avdol

While still in your favor, this can be a tough matchup due to Avdol's strong normals, incredibly fast wakeup paired with a dangerous reversal super, and overall solid defense. You will need to space yourself very well in order to beat out Avdol's options, as at some ranges you will not be able to counterpoke certain moves at all. Remote mode can be annoying, however Kakyoin possesses good options to deal with it with a good GC, strong normals, and nets. (d.)2c>236aa is also a cheeky anti-remote option that can bag huge damage. You will have to condition the Avdol player VERY HARD with baiting reversals (as most Avdol's love to mash 236aa on wakeup) before you can safely oki, he gets up way faster than you'll expect and the risk of getting hit by 236aa is huge due to the initial hit stunning. If he uses ankh heavily, play an extreme runaway game and don't let him get lifelead AT ANY COST.

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

5-5 -Pathetic.

6-4 -Acute Angle

7-3 -Sereja

6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas

6-4 -Mewtastic

Alessi

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

4-6 -Pathetic.

8-2 -Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

8-2 -Mewtastic

Black Polnareff

Black Polnareff may rely on whiff punishes, but you never have to give him the chance to strike. Proper blocking and spacing alone can wall him out completely with no hope. Just watch out for his 2B and its dashing variant, it can meaty your landing really easily and is a good low. Passive stand and 0 fullscreen game means even at life deficit you are winning through meterbuild and chip. Circle-camping makes the matchup cruelly and completely unwinnable.

6-4 -Pathetic.

9-1 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas

10-0 -Mewtastic

Chaka

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

9-1 -Pathetic.

7-3 -Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

7-3 Light-Speed Lucas

7-3 -Mewtastic

Devo

When Crouching you literally cant combo this man.

7-3 -Pathetic.

8-2 -Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas

7.5-2.5 -Mewtastic

DIO

If you put down a web and he tries teleporting into you you can get a free combo. Otherwise this matchup is basic.

9-1 -Pathetic.

7-3 -Acute Angle

7-3 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

8-2 -Mewtastic

Hol Horse

WIP

9-1 -Pathetic.

8-2 -Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas

8-2 -Mewtastic

Hol & Boingo

WIP

7-3 -Pathetic.

9-1 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas

8-2 -Mewtastic

Iggy

Cant Combo at all, probably your hardest matchup if you like doing fancy things. Resort to S.2C because Iggy cant do anything about it. Iggy cannot catch you if you run away (smartly), fullstop.

3-7 -Pathetic.

9-1 Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

9-1 -Mewtastic

Look. It's 3:7 because 7/10 times i end up saying fuck this and playing a different game when I play against iggy 3:7 is how it FEELS to play against iggy Remember that one time i perfected aleph null 3 times in a row? -Pathetic 2020
Probably something like 7-3 instead but I just exclusively circlecamp in this MU because fuck this character. -Mewtastic

Joseph

Old Joseph really struggles to deal with your pressure, or strong patient play. Most of his openings will come from you disrespecting in the midrange and getting caught by a Hermit Grab or some starter, so simply wait for the option and punish or approach from the air.

9-1 -Pathetic.

8-2 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas

8-2 -Mewtastic

Jotaro

Jotaro is very dangerous and will prey on your impatience. He gets a fucking stupid amount of iframes from his roll if he doesn't cross you up with it, so don't even THINK about pressing anything, because he has a 1 frame normal to whiff punish you with. He also possesses a lightning fast, highly damaging reversal super to tag you for bad pokes or projectiles, gross damage with stand crash combos, and a dangerous 50/50 oki. The good things to note are he lacks options at full screen past the reach of star breaker, he usually has to get a read to punish your pokes (if you somehow can't tandem on reaction), and your crouching hurtbox ducks his S.5a. 2b will also duck it, and can counterpoke him which is useful. At the end of the day, Jotaro will usually be the one approaching you whether he likes it or not, so simply wait for your opportunity to safely punish him.

(Note: Kakyoin's crouching hurtbox is very short, and this makes him hard to IOH. Obviously you should not downback every oki, but it's worth testing the waters to see how well your opponent is at doing them.)

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

6-4 -Pathetic.

7-3 -Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

7-3 -Mewtastic

Kakyoin

Cant tandem while crouching, be careful about using s.d.6b and s.d.2c, 20 Meter Emerald Splash is good for punishing dashes.

Khan

Khan is a "strange" matchup. Some of your good moves will whiff on him even standing, but Khan sucks so it's just a minor annoyance. This can make up close "scramble" scenarios hard to poke out of, so just focus on blocking and returning to neutral where you dominate if he gets in your face. He lacks a good reversal and struggles to deal with your pressure, so the Khan player will usually have to play out of his mind to make back the life deficit. Also, unlike other low tiers literally every single move Khan has will break nets, so take note of that.

Always use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

9-1 -Pathetic.

9-1 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas

8.5-1.5 -Mewtastic

Mariah

One of the meanest matchups in the game, Mariah can do next to nothing against Kakyoin. s.2c, s.6b, s.236x, s.236aa all catch her trying to set up from long ranges, and she has ZERO OPTIONS to break nets aside from hitting you directly. Unless she manages to hit you with 214aa any damage she gets on you will be pretty pitiful, but be careful giving her free levels or else it might turn into a headache. Small stages are even easier for you, giving her less breathing room. If she places the outlet on the floor, it's best to just go around it rather than try to break it.

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

9-1 -Pathetic.

9-1 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas

9-1 -Mewtastic

Midler

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem

7-3 -Pathetic.

8-2 -Acute Angle

7-3 -Sereja

6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas

7-3 -Mewtastic

New Kakyoin

WIP

7-3 -Pathetic.

7-3 -Acute Angle

7-3 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

6-4 -Mewtastic

Petshop

Cant tandem while crouching, play the range game in this matchup. Kill on your first confirm so he can't rob the round from you.

5-5 -Pathetic.

6-4 -Acute Angle

6-4 -Sereja

4-6 -Light-Speed Lucas

4-6 -Mewtastic

Polnareff

Polnareff is one of the more even matchups, as you both possess very oppressive normals, deadly mixups, and strong uses for meter. If the opponent likes to play in stand off, focus on not letting him pin you down. 2c and j.b are strong, but Pol is fairly linear in stand off so outmaneuvering and outpoking his approach is not that difficult. If he does get in however, I hope you're good at blocking. GC is generally your best bet out of SS since the mixups keep you in such heavy blockstun and Pol will usually be in your face, however this requires GC'ing while blocking correctly during one of the strongest mixes in the game. You can also just git gud and block the mixup with pushblocks to put him out of range for more pressure. C net can pre-emptively scare Pol from using SS outside of pressure. If you can find a gap, tandem is your best reversal if only to give yourself a second to breathe. With it, either use an empty one and jump/roll/counterpoke out of the pressure, or input a low chain if anything. 5c is still a good panic button here, but it requires Pol to stay close. If the opponent prefers stand on, BE WARY OF JUMPING NORMALS. They have incredible priority, and more range and hitstun then you think. Pol S.j.b is one of the few tools that can take on s.5b, with its disjointed range. s.j.a can also be difficult to stop reliably. And if either of these hit at just about any range, the Polnareff can convert into tandem and SS resets. s.665c and s.4b have HUGE horizontal disjoint, making them very difficult to contest. If the opponent gets too aggressive with them, you can low profile and counterpoke in s.off. These normals can eat up your approach, so if they're strangling you at mid-long range, try and stop them with s.236x (and a net for safety), conditioning the opponent to use them more sparingly.

5-5 -Pathetic.

6-4 -Acute Angle

6-4 -Sereja

6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas

6-4 -Mewtastic

Shadow Dio

S.5a hits while S.DIO is crouching if he's been hit in the combo before, but doesn't hit if its the first hit for some reason.

8-2 -Pathetic.

8-2 -Acute Angle

8-2 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

7-3 -Mewtastic

Rubber Soul

Cant tandem while crouching, super fast wakeup and counter makes your wakeup game mostly mindgames against him.

5-5 -Pathetic.

7-3 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas

7-3 -Mewtastic

Vanilla Ice

When Crouching use 6A 6B 6C in tandem, uber fast wakeup makes wakeup game almost impossible other than IAD.

5-5 -Pathetic.

6-4 -Acute Angle

7-3 -Sereja

6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas

5-5 -Mewtastic

Young Joseph

Probably your easiest matchup in the entire game. Young Joseph is worse in basically every way and loses at any screen position. Slow wakeup, poor reversals, and awful GC make pressure strong in general. Meanwhile, slow projectile options, lack of stand, and no ways to break nets means he crumbles against your turtling. (He does actually do decent stand damage, compared to other bottom tiers). s.236x beats his clackers on reaction, unless they're already close to you which they shouldn't really ever be considering how you can dominate the playing field. (Even then s.2c probably works on reaction at that point)

9-1 -Pathetic.

9-1 -Acute Angle

9-1 -Sereja

8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas

9-1 -Mewtastic