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
| One of the better mirror matches, Kenshiro versus Kenshiro play comes down to who has the better grasp of the character. Zoning is very important, and you will want to be familiar with how to use and combat Kenshiro's main normals, which are far C, far D, 2B, 2D, and air dash jump B.
Although you need to memorize quite a few combo variations to be able to dribble Kenshiro from any location on the screen, if you are capable of doing so and your opponent is not you will be at a significant advantage, so it is definitely something worth practicing. Unlike a Raoh mirror match, luck is not much of a factor here, and generally the better player will come out ahead most of the time. |
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
X
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 win 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
| While Kenshiro is considered to have a huge advantage, the way you must approach this matchup is unique, and playing against Heart as you would any other character is a recipe for disaster. If you go into this match not knowing how to deal with Heart's unique style of play, you will probably lose before you even figure out what is going on. If at all possible you want to take the Player 2 side to secure an even bigger advantage - Mr. Heart is unique in that when he is sitting in the Player 2 position some of his combos become easier to perform, and he gains access to combos that will not work when he is Player 1.
For half a bar of Aura Heart is capable of using a special Guard Cancel that allows him to follow up into a combo on hit. It basically functions in the same way as Baiken's counter moves do in Guilty Gear, with the main difference being that Baiken can't kill you in one combo. This makes it very hard to pressure Heart in the conventional means, as your usual attack strings will be quickly countered if he has meter. Another important point is that Heart can store up the Super Armor from his jump C by charging the move and then landing before it executes. This makes it so he can absorb a hit if you attack him while he is performing any normal or special move, which really lets him get in your face. Once he has stored the armor you can get rid of it by either hitting him with any attack or normal throw, or making him guard a move that does chip damage(all special moves). However, he is able to guard special moves without losing his armor charge by making use of Aura Guard. At the very beginning of the round and when your opponent has no meter, you can go all out on the attack. Once Heart builds up 50% Aura however, your general strategy should be to stay at around mid range and pressure him with far B and 2B. When he tries to jump back an apply armor you can punish him with 623B, and if he high jumps towards you you can knock him out of the air with 623A. If he does manage to store up an armor charge, use 236A repeatedly just outside of B Earthcrush(the rock projectile) range, which forces him to choose between saving his armor or conserving Aura. If you guard a B Earthcrush you can hit him with far D if he does not have armor, or 623B if he does. D Earthcrush is harder to punish, but it you Musou it you can usually get a guaranteed hit with 236D. This is another matchup where Kenshiro is at a big advantage, but it is necessary to make significant adjustments to your general strategy. |
Mamiya
| Mamiya is considered to be at a 6:4 advantage in this matchup. Add to that the fact that you have probably never practiced any combos on Mamiya because no one uses her, and you are probably going to be at a serious disadvantage if you ever actually come across a competent Mamiya user.
With her great mobility, crazy projectiles, and unblockable wakeups, Mamiya poses a real threat if you let her take the initiative. Once on the defense however, she drops extremely quickly. Because she possesses a guard gauge against Kenshiro, Chikuseki high jump combos are extremely effective on Mamiya, and one combo is often enough to take the whole round. Against Mamiya you really want to take the fight to her right away and keep the pressure up the whole time. As long as you don't let her build momentum you should be able to come out on top in this fight. |