Your take on Makoto leaves her even more helpless on knockdown than she is in USF4.
There are no mentions of invincible reversals or “get off me” specials. Her V-Skill only gives her projectile invincibility, and there is no mention of invincibility on Makoto’s EX Oroshi like she has in USF4 right now.
While she never had perfect wake-up options in SSF4/USF4 to begin with, she still had armor on EX Karakusa to blow through option selects and the aforementioned EX Oroshi, which is only strike invincible for the first 12 frames of start up (EX Oroshi is not active until frame 18). Nothing else she has outside of Super/U1 has complete invincibility through to the active frames, both of which are incredibly predictable once she has meter since Makoto has nothing else to rely on as far as reversals go.
In addition to the notes above, backdashes in SFV no longer have invincibility frames. The most advantageous backdashes in SFV will be those that cover the most space and move the fastest (both of which you nerfed on your version of Makoto). Even then, any sufficiently meaty attack will stuff a backdash entirely on wake up now. What we’re left with is a Makoto in SFV whose literally only option on wake up is to block. Blocking is a great skill to learn, but Makoto players will have to deal with a constant string of pressure that she has no way of escaping as soon as she is knocked down. Nothing on her wake up makes her even a little bit scary, she’ll be absolutely free.
Now the trade off for having some of the shittiest defensive options in SSF4/USF4 is that she’s an absolute monster on offense. Makoto easily has the most damage and stun output in the entire game. Her normals also leave her at a ton of advantage, which creates a massive amount of frame trap opportunities. The point of frame traps is to make the other person afraid to hit buttons or risk taking counter hit damage/combos. This is Makoto’s entire game plan. Once the opponent is too afraid to hit buttons and starts patiently blocking, she can Karakusa to grab them and open them up. That’s exactly what it’s there for.
What you’ve given us instead is a Makoto that has extremely safe pressure in the neutral game but no way to open up the opponent once they are scared. You’ve given us Dictator. Any player that is incredibly patient and has astounding defense will stonewall Makoto whenever she is not in V-Trigger.
You seem to think that Karakusa is overpowered for some reason. It is a very good command grab, all things considered, sure. It leads to a whole bevy of damage, set ups, and reset options when it’s landed. To balance that out, however, Karakusa is incredibly slow, has absolutely abysmal range without kara cancels (which makes it even slower), and massive recovery on whiff. It has no form of invincibility outside of armored EX Karakusa. What this means is that Karakusa is the reward you deserve if your offense is so oppressive that they have no other option but to block. You just can’t throw it out there. Any opponent who has downloaded and committed to memory your tick Karakusas and set ups can easily throw/jab/jump out of the start up frames, which leads to punish combos, momentum shifts, and, in most cases, a lost round for Makoto.
By limiting Karakusa access to V-Trigger only, you’ve essentially given the opponent a big, red, and obvious sign of when she wants to command grab you, which entirely defeats the purpose of why it exists in the first place. Sure, you could use the V-Trigger as a mind game to scare them with the threat of it, but that’ll only last until your meter runs out and then what have you got? A wasted 15 seconds of even more safe pressure and block strings just to scare them with the possibility of a grab that will presumably be just as slow, short ranged, and punishable as it is in USF4.
Karakusa is amazing when its landed specifically because it’s so easy to stop and so easy to punish when read properly. Restricting it even further makes it damn near pointless, you might as well take it away from her entirely at this point.
