Introduction
Makoto, a tomboyish Japanese teenager, seeks to restore her father's dojo to its former glory. She is one of the new characters introduced in SF III: 3rd Strike, based around a more traditional concept of Japanese Karate compared to Ryu/Ken's more supernaturally-flavored Ansatsuken.
Makoto is the first female Street Fighter to be tough and hard-hitting with just as much stamina as the average males (like Ryu and Ken), instead of being a "glass cannon" archetype. Although her normal walk speed is incredibly sluggish, she has the fastest dash in the game, as well as quick feints and overheads. Perhaps her best tool is the Karakusa, a unique command grab which can be comboed from, making way for devastating damage and stun. Put all of this together and you have a character who can survive long sets until her highly explosive fighting style can win with a single opening.
Super Arts
SA I (Seichuusen Godanzuki)
Highly recommended for beginners. Use this for the faster characters, including Yun, Yang, and Ibuki, who tend to be harder to grab with Karakusa. It does excellent damage and has numerous hit-confirms, in addition to the guaranteed Karakusa ones. It is especially good if you can confirm it after Hayate and Oroshi. Weaknesses include lack of range and bad anti-air, but the first shouldn't be an issue if you combo into it, and the second isn't a big deal, as she has plenty of good anti-air normals. It also confers no positional advantage after hit, as your opponent is sent across the screen and often recovers before you will (some characters can even get a free punish if you hit them with it in the corner). Some top players use this super exclusively against all characters as it allows for fast punishes and is universally easy to connect with.
SA II: (Abare Tosanami)
High execution, high reward Super. Typically used for slower characters including the shotos, Urien, Hugo, etc. A lot of its usefulness depends on your ability to land Karakusa (or the threat thereof), especially on your half of the screen, as it can be comboed into with HP after the Karakusa (or simply with HP to catch your opponent trying to jump away out of Karakusa reach. It is potentially the most powerful super in the game and can lead to 100% kill combos from full health using the Double Fukiage technique. For the most damage, you can use early MK Tsurugi, Fukiage, jump Fierce, but for the most reliable combo, use MK Tsurugi, Hayate, Hayate.
Makoto has 100% stun setups from Karakusa on almost everyone except the 5 characters with the longest stun bar (Alex, Q, Hugo, Oro, and Dudley) using the "Double Fukiage" (W-Fukiage in Japan) followup, but they involve an advanced kara-cancel technique on at least the first Fukiage (using neutral HK), and even more advanced methods against Oro, Ibuki, and Chun-Li (the Telesniper technique). Akuma and Remy, having the shortest stun bars, have the easiest 100% stun combo (the "Fukiage, HP" follow-up to the super), and can also be fully stunned with even a raw SAII using the Double Fukiage follow-up. Timing before the first Fukiage also varies greatly by character (Necro, Urien, Dudley, and Hugo very slowly, Shotos tend to fall moderately fast, and Yun, Yang, and Alex fall extremely quickly, for example). Also, it can 100% stun every character in the game if comboed into from jump HP, though this is highly situational.
The main downside (aside from its usefulness being mostly tied to your ability to land Karakusa on your side of the screen) is that it has huge startup time and no actual invulnerability on startup, unlike her other two supers. However, it can be used to counter fireballs from full screen, and counter meaty low attacks and throws even on wakeup (if you are actually unhinged enough to do this).
SA III: (Tanden Renki)
Obviously the last super of choice, this is more a "fun" super than a practical one. If you can get your opponent on the back foot and guessing wrong once or twice, you can get insane damage by the time the meter runs out. However, if you're on the back foot against an experienced player, you're pretty much screwed. It does confer temporary invulnerability upon startup with zero recovery time (and is the only super in the game to do so), so it's possible to use this as a one-time Get Out of Jail Free card, but it's likely to take you out of the frying pan and directly into the fire.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
|
|