Introduction
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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
| Raoh has the advantage here, but it is still a very close match, especially by Hokuto standards. 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
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Juda
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Thouther
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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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