Hokuto no Ken/Kenshiro

Introduction

Kenshiro's play-style is quite standard, as one might expect from the main character of a fighting game. He has good normals, well-balanced specials, and his bread and butter combos are very easy to master. His mixup abilities are very good as well thanks to his extremely fast instant air dash B, and he is capable of applying a lot of pressure in the corner. On the defense he is not lacking either, having both an invincible uppercut and Musou Tensei that he can use to get out of bad spots. Overall Kenshiro is a very solid character, and great choice for players of any level. That being said, let us start this section off by listing Kenshiro's main strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

• His great mixup in the corner combined with his Chikuseki combos create a devastating combination
• Great star reducing ability
• Practical 4 and even 5-star FKO combos
• Both Musou Tensei and his dragon punch are great defensive tools

Weaknesses:

• Bad matchups against Toki and Juda
• Has a huge hitbox, which makes him very easy to combo

Before diving right into the combos be sure to familiarize yourself with Kenshiro's special/super moves and important normals.

Normal Moves

See Normal Moves section.

Special Moves

See Special Moves section.

Combos

See Combos section.

Matchups

Kenshiro

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Raoh

While Raoh is at the advantage, this is still a very close match. Raoh can and will kill you from pretty much any hit, so it is important to not give away rounds by making overly risky plays. On the other hand, Raoh is hands down the easiest character for Kenshiro to dribble, so you will want to practice until you can do it consistently. At round start your best bet is usually just guarding and seeing what Raoh does. From starting distance your far D will beat pretty much anything your opponent does, but most Raoh users know this and will just wait to see if you do it, then hit you with a crouching 2D while you are recovering. This of course will result in your death if he has Aura, so you should be especially cautious in such situations. As far as normals go, you are at the advantage at far D range, but at closer distances Raoh can beat out most of your attacks. You can get guaranteed hits with far D when Raoh misses with most of his moves, such as Grave Shoot, Kohou(powerup move), crouch D etc, but in many cases you are not able to capitalize on opportunities because you always have to be wary of Insatsu. You also want to be careful to avoid careless air dashing as Raoh's far B, far D, and jump A are all extremely effective against low jumping opponents and can easily be chained into 100% combos. Guard Cancels are guaranteed off of all of Raoh's moves, both specials and normals, but you still need to pick your spots carefully or you will end up eating a counter hit chop. You especially want to avoid doing a Guard Cancel off of Raoh's close or far D as most Raoh users will buffer a chop here every time. Some players also like to bait your Guard Cancel with Raretsuken(rushing punch move), then Boost cancel it into a chop, so this is also not necessarily a safe spot to Guard Cancel when your opponent has meter. This is a good matchup that can go either way, so you will want to make sure your combos are well practiced and you don't take unnecessary risks.

Toki

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Shin

A very even match, which is quite fitting for these two rivals! Since Shin has you a strong mixup game, you will want to activate Musou as soon as possible. If you get knocked down and think you are going to get crossed up with Shin's jump B, you can do 4 > 6 > neutral on wakeup, which will get you an Agility Guard or Musou, depending on which direction you are hit from. Musou forces Shin to be very cautious with his zoning moves, especially his far C, which becomes an easy Musou target. Far C will also miss you if you are crouching, after which you can hit him during the recovery with a far D. You must also be wary of Shin's 2B, which is effective especially against your air dash attacks. Depending on the positioning, Shin can just mash 2B when you air dash, avoid your attack, and hit you when you land. You can bait a reversal super from Shin with your 2B, as long as you time it right and aren't too close to him. To punish use 236D, which will counter hit and net you a free star. Shin can also do the exact same thing to you with his 2B, so reversal uppercuts are not advisable unless you have Boost. If you guard a Gokutoken, you can get a guaranteed hit with 623A or close D and follow up with a Hebi combo. Another thing to keep in mind is that you have a guard bar against Shina. Shin is very lacking in ways to deal with Guard Cancels, so if you have the Aura, don't be afraid to use one to escape a Guard Crush string. Failing that your best bet is to Aura Guard and try to jump away when he gets pushed back far enough. This is one a the few matchups where you might actually mistake Hokuto for a 'normal' fighting game. Rarely will you see a dribble combo, and both sides have an even chance of winning.

Rei

Kenshiro's best matchup out of the top 4 characters. Rei is considered to have a very slight advantage, but generally speaking this matchup is quite even, especially by Hokuto standards. While not quite on the same level as Raoh, who you can use the same combo in every situation, Rei is very easy for Kenshiro to dribble. At the very least if you master the Basic High Jump Dribble and Boost Jump D Dribble, you will be able kill him from most locations on the screen. Rei's corner lockdown is down right ridiculous thanks to his ability to Jump Cancel many of his normals, but luckily Kenshiro has quite a few ways of getting out of pressure. If your opponent does a close D or 2D > air dash jump B > jump D, you can Agility Guard the jump B and get a guaranteed hit with 623A and follow up with a big air combo or even a dribble. The same thing applies if your opponent goes for air dash jump B > 2A. However if they do air dash jump B > 2B your uppercut will not hit and you will probably die - in this case you can beat his 2B with 2A instead, which will net you a ground hit and allow you to go for a dribble easily. Doing Agility Guard > 623C will beat out all of Rei's options, but costs more meter to follow up with after. 2B > air dash jump B can be beaten by 2A before the jump A hits. 623C can also be used anywhere in Rei's attack pattern that is not a continuous guard string, but can be quite risky. Also, 2B > 2D does not combo on guard, and thus is a very effective spot to punish with a Musou or 623C. Knowing this, you can easily punish Rei-users who are too predictable with their attack strings. If Rei tries to close the distance on you from mid-range with an air dash jump B, you can punish him with far B or D. If the moves 'clash,' quickly follow up far B with far D, and far D with a Grave Strike. You can also try out other options to punish Rei's air dash attacks such as 214A and 6B. Due to his long crouching recovery, when you score a hit on Rei while he is crouching, far C, 2C, and close D will all combo into 236D or a Banishing Strike. Overall this is a very even matchup - if you practice your dribble combos and countering Rei's rush down, you should be able to come out on top more often than not.

Juda

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Thouther

Thouther's biggest strength lies in his all-out style of constant attacking and hard-to-see wakeup patterns. As Kenshiro is equipped with a variety of moves that help him deal with Thouther's pressure, he is considered to have a very big advantage in this matchup. Your far D is extremely effective against Thouther, and really shines in a variety of situations. It allows you to prevent Thouther from dashing in, and can beat low air fireballs before they are able to execute. Far D is also good for catching Thouther when he tries to jump away from you. As Thouther has no real way of dealing with it, you can use far D much more freely than in other matchups. If your opponent tries to combat your far D with Hikanu!(the rushing jab move), you can bait him by canceling the recovery into 6B, which has Super Armor and will cause wall bounce on Counter Hit. Thouther has a guard bar against you, which means he is always under pressure to escape when defending. Kenshiro's 2B will beat two of his main normals, 2B and 2C, which makes simply doing dash 2B over and over a very effective way of locking him down. If your opponent guards you can go for an air dash jump B, and you can pick off any attempt to jump away with far D. Getting too close to Thouther can be dangerous, as his close B is his fastest normal, having a 4 frame startup. Back dash close B is especially effective against careless wakeup attacks, so you will want to be cautious in such situations. You want to avoid guarding Thouther's fireballs as much as possible, as this will allow him to close the distance and put the pressure on you. Low air fireballs can be combated with far D, whereas 214A is effective against fireballs done higher in the air. You can even Boost after you reflect the projectile, which often will catch Thouther off guard and allow you to go for a big combo. 623B and air dash jump D are also very good for preventing fireballs done at a distance, and 623C can be used against fireballs of any height as long as you are in range. 236236A can be used to net huge damage and 2 stars if your opponent is shooting off fireballs from long range. Finally, if you are unable to combat his fireballs in any of the above ways, just high jump away and look for a better opportunity Once you get knocked down in the corner Thouther's mixup is very deadly, so you always want to make sure you active Musou as quickly as possible. This allows you to effectively deny some of his setups, and forces your opponent to approach you differently. If you are forced to block, using Aura Guard is a good way to push back your opponent, and will often allow you to jump away and escape. All in all Kenshiro's ability to combat many of Thouther's strong points give him a significant advantage in this matchup.

Jagi

Although somewhat hard to combo, at 7:3 Jagi is one Kenshiro's easiest matchups. Kenshiro is superior to Jagi in almost all aspects, and Musou makes most of Jagi's zoning and mixup options unsafe. When Jagi takes a hit while crouching he recovers extremely fast(think the opposite of Rei), and because of this 2B > far D will not combo. In the event you do hit him while he is crouching you will want to connect 2B to 2D and follow up with a (Boost) Grave Shoot or 623B. If your opponent is capable of using Jagi's magical Basuke combo then you will want to avoid getting thrown or hit with his overhead near the corner when he has more than 2 boost. Jagi has two combo enders that can be a pain if you don't know how to get out of them. The first is "Gas Hame" which is done by ending a Banishing combo in the corner with a thrown match and then dashing in and dropping gas barrels over and over, causing the match to ignite and continuously knock you down. This can be escaped using Musou, a Guard Cancel, or a reversal uppercut. The other, know as 'Misora-shiki,' is likewise done by ending a banishing combo with a match, but then using his gas super with a slight delay so it goes off after you fall down. This results in the gas igniting in a huge fire when you get up, and will net Jagi a bit over a full bar of Boost if you guard it. This is generally followed up by a Heavy Strike or other mixup, which using the boost gained from the gas allows Jagi to reset into another Banishing combo. This however is extremely easy to counter. If you have Musou on, you can just Musou it, otherwise it is safe to simply not guard and take a small amount of damage from the fire. If you are low in health without Musou and can't afford to take the hit you can also guard cancel just before the Heavy hits, although the fire still hits sometimes anyways. That said, Kenshiro has a big advantage in this match and you should be able to win here most of the time.

Mr. Heart

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Mamiya

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