I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s you refusing to change, but more so that you can’t help it because of the nature of the character, and how that influenced your overall play style over the course of time. Most of Makoto’s moves are unsafe outside of her godlike air-to-air game, so it’s only natural that you learned how to play her safe to find a sweet spot to operate from (the pokes and neutral jumps).
Playing aggressive requires more in the way of tic-hits and pressure with your normals, but not in a random sense, per se. A lot of it comes down to knowing when the other guy is pissed, genuinely surprising them with an ace card, and knowing when to tell yourself “stop!”. Agitating your opponent, understanding their intent based upon situations, identifying the “neutral” pace to know when it’s time to play footsies or a mix-up game (Don’s pacing, for example, grinds to a halt at mid-close if you so much as threaten his game, forcing everything into neutral so he can offset aggression), scare tactics – all that comes from finding the rhythm set by the aggressor, which normally occurs after a hard/soft knock down or block-string series. You already have some idea how to do so with Makoto’s meaty strong into karakusa on hard knockdown, and even though I’m not the best Makoto player out there, I think you could create even more situations off of stuff as simple as standing jab or her standing strong for counter hitting, if you wanted to.
Finding strong block-strings to work off of is a good way to establish that “what can I do after X normal” or “is this enough pressure to cause my opponent to mash out a reversal” thinking. Despite the fact that block-string is generally unsafe in 3s, it’s still important to have something since you can fundamentally dissemble the string for very specific uses and situations (you have bits and pieces of a solid block-string game, passive as it is). My Ibuki, for example, has 10 setups off of standing jab as an anti-air and many more on the ground, all leading into situations I can control or identify. However, if, say, I tested you earlier with a standing short or TC series to see if you’re the type to react to every little thing, I may not commit to the mix-ups later that require risky strings off of that jab unless I know you’re intimidated in some form. Best way to identify this is by looking at a player’s movement patterns: if they’re walking back or dashing back a lot, then they’re uncomfortable (GO IN!); if they’re jumping in, looking for hits, then they’re anxious to get anything going (focus on a punishment game, then transition into a mix-up game to create confusion and frustration in the other player); poking? they’re thinking (play mix-up); if you see someone walking without any form of deviance, then they’re in full control and know what they need to do (this commonly happens a lot when players want to grab you from short ranges, actually, so respect that or commit to the “dp everything” mentality as a mix-up option to throw them off, occasionally).
The moment you can grasp the flow of the game from these sort of situations and the player specific ones, I can ‘almost’ promise you that you’ll feel a lot more comfortable doing things you normally wouldn’t do with your Makoto, offensively, and notice holes in your game you didn’t see before. And~~~ this is where I shut up because I’m giving away too much of my tech! >=(
Don’t forget Ibuki! D:
2012 seems to allow a larger array of combos now. I was never big on the game, but I can still find enjoyment in playing Rose. I used to play Viper a little bit, but that was long before I even knew how to SJC consistently. =/
