Ok, here is the Kenshiro write-up. Here we go. Gonna go real in-depth here. Entire movelist analysis, overall strategy, tips and advanced stuff as well. Plz read on.
Kenshiro - Savior of the the post-apocalyptic world
Pros
- One of the best level 3 signature moves in the game
- Several unblockable signature moves
- Has a true infinite that doesn’t require an enemy to be in meridian/spirit shock
- Great throw game
- SSTT combo has great crowd control
- Good special move
- Has a ground loop for mob control
Cons
- Extremely meter dependent.
- Damage output overall is low.
- Basic combos tend to be lacking in damage and/or crowd control
Movelist Analysis
Charge Attack Level 1
Ken does a backfist. Standard stuff here. Good chance to put someone in meridian shock and does ok damage. Can set-up for juggles when canceled into from his weak,strong,strong combo. No reason to ever really do this raw. Do it in combos for flash, but never any other time.
Charge Attack Level 2
Ken charges up and does a more powerful backfist releasing an energy ball from his fist when he does so. The ball will travel a short distance before it disappears. Same as before. No real reason to ever do this since you have to charge up for it and the effect isn’t really worth it.
Jumping Weak Attack
A flying side kick. Ken’s guard break. It’s decent. Ken tends to overshoot his opponent though and land behind them even when it hits so you need to quickly turn around and combo them to make the guardbreak count. Not all that safe since he flies right at his opponent with his body though. It’s pretty fast though so that’s good.
Jumping Strong Attack
Ken leaps into the air and smashes the ground with his fist causing AoE damage and launching any enemies around him into the air. Can cancel this moves recovery frames and then do it repeatedly for his ground pound loop. More on that latter. Solid move overall though.
Normal Combo
Ken’s basic combo. A straight right punch, low body left punch, right roundhouse kick, left roundhouse kick, rapid punches, and then ended with a spinning hook kick. When fully upgraded the rapid punches have a much better chance of causing meridian shock, but cause less hitstun then in their un-upgraded incarnation. So he can’t do rapid punch loops when he upgrades this part of his combo. Grab infinite makes up for that though. As far as normal combos go, his is meh. It’s the worst overall out of the Hokuto chars.
Strong Combo 1
Straight punch, high kick, double front kick. Ken’s launcher combo. Can combo bosses and officers after this if they are in meridian shock. Nice if you like flashy combos and juggles. Does good damage.
Strong Combo 2 variations
All hokuto users have two variations of their strong combos. First variation is Straight punch, left body shot, jumping roundhouse. The last hit will release a horizontal energy wave that will knockdown enemies on contact and do decent damage. The energy will travel a bit and dissipate. Covers about 180 degrees in front on Kenshiro but only goes a very short distance. Second varation ou have to press strong same as all second variations of strong combos. So Ken will do Straight punch, left body shot, front kick, and finish with a powered-up jumping roundhouse. The front kick will kick up stone and cause good hitstun on anyone caught by it and also has a decent AoE. The jump roundhouse releases a 360 degree radial energy wave that knocks down. One of the best crowd control combos in the game. Only problem is that it’s rather weak. It will take usually around 2 or 3 of these to kill a grunt on the highest difficulty on any final stage.
Strong Combo 3 Variations
First variation is Straight punch, left body shot, right roundhouse, then jumping sidekick. The sidekick will send out a weak energy projectile that has strong knockback and can send enemies into walls/obstacles. Second variation is straight punch, left body shot, right roundhouse, rapid kicks, then powered up jumping sidekick. This one does alot of damage. It’s multi hitting and the last hit is very strong. Solid crowd control with the last hit because it sends out a strong projectile that travels a decent distance. Only problem is that it takes a bit for the whole combo to finish.
Throw
After Ken grabs someone if you do nothing he will slam them into the ground. Good crowd control because the slam has an AoE.
Strong Throw
Ken sidekicks his enemy in the chest. Good damage, and can send an enemy into other enemies or objects and off cliffs too. Main component of his infinite.
Grab Attack
Standard stuff. Ken rapid punches his enemy in the chest. High chance of causing meridian shock because of all the hits.
Running Grab
Ken can run with his enemy while using them as a ramming tool. He is completely invincible while he does this. Amazing crowd control tool and great for building meter as well.
Special move - Dream Pathway
Good special. He has two versions. One is a roll and the other is a backstep. He can cancel the backstep into a dashing hook punch by pressing weak attack. Backstep goes a pretty good distance and the roll goes about twice that if not a bit more. Tons of invincibility frames and recovers fast. Cancel into this from any normal that ken does. A jump attack, a combo, a juggle, a charge attack, etc.
Signature Move Analysis
Hokut? Hyakuretsu Ken (Hokuto Hundred Crack Fist)
The trademark tech of Hokuto Shinken. Power rating of 2 and costs one spirit gauge. Does good damage and demolishes guard. Good as a combo ender and just a solid all around signature.
Kanzan Ry?zan Ha (Boulder Splitting Wave)
Ken releases his energy as he chops his enemy down the middle. Releases an energy wave along the ground that travels quite far. So it’s good for mob control in front of Ken. Costs 1 bar, but has a power rating of 1 so the damage is meh. Still it’s power lies in it’s crowd controlling abilities not it’s brute force. Decent considering it’s a level 1.
Hokut? Juha Zan (Hokuto Softness Ripping Slash)
Kenshiro leaps into the air and performs a series of hovering kicks before landing with a decisive thrust with his palm outstretched. Costs 2 bars with a power rating of 1. Ugh. But honestly the power rating seems to be a bit misleading on this one. This sig demolishes groups of enemies with no trouble. Not to mention the AoE is pretty large and even hits behind Kenshiro as well. I consider this sig a must in any Kenshiro build.
Hokuto Shichi Shiseiten (North Star Seven Stars of Death)
Kenshiro punches at specific vital points that forms the shape of the Big Dipper. Costs 1 bar and is unblockable. Power rating of 2. Looking at the cost, the power and the fact that’s it’s unblockable you can’t deny that it’s a pretty damn good sig.
Seieiko (Awakening of the Senses)
Kenshiro sends a fierce uppercut to his enemy then jumps back and follows up with a charging punch that sends the enemy flying. Puts any enemy it hits into meridian shock. Assuming they survive of course. Power rating of 2 and costs 2 bars. Lots of range in front of Ken. Stronger then Softness Ripping Slash, but only if both hits connect. A solid sig though.
Hokuto Goretsu Ha (Hokuto Steel Shredding Grip)
Kenshiro strikes forth a sphere of ki forward with his right hand, before using the might of his very fingers to crush and unleash a mighty blast around him. Unblockable. 2 bars. Power of 3. Range is ok. Hits a little in front and off to the sides of him. Another solid signature. Good power behind it as well.
Tenha Kassatsu (Heavenly Destruction)
Kenshiro hops into the air and concentrates his power to erupt seven pillars of energy on the field below him, forming the shape of the big dipper. He finishes the move with a final blast. Ridiculous. Ridiculous range. Ridiculous power. Ridiculous crowd control. Also unblockable. Costs 3 bars , but it should. One of the best level 3’s in the game if not THE best. A must have for Kenshiro.
Mus? Tensei (Unconscious Transmigration of Souls)
Kenshiro powers up and is temporary invulnerable to any attack. Lasts about 30 seconds. 3 bars. Don’t ever use this except for the final fight vs Raoh. You wanna kill stuff fast and this doesn’t let you do that. It’s badass, but not efficient and not worth a slot.
Skills to Equip
Mainly you want to cover Kenshiro’s weakness of relying on Sigs/meter. So right off the jump you want Impact which increases the damage that signatures do and you also want Concentration which increases the rate at which you attain spirit power. You could also throw on Meditation which builds up your spirit slowly over time. This is a basic effective set-up that helps Ken with his weaknesses and Impact turns an over reliance on meter into less of a hindrance thanks to the power boost that sigs receive. you don’t need to worry so much about Meridian shock skill set-ups because thanks to Ken’s grab infinite, bosses/officers can be quickly dispatched.
Advanced Gameplay/Tips
Ken has a few advanced things he can do. For him it’s really the difference between being the worst in the game and a decent char. First things is his combo loop. Those are easy. If any enemy is in meridian shock, you can jump cancel out of your combo, land and then keep comboing them. Simple stuff and just about everyone can do it. But that’s only in meridian shock. Kenshiro though is one of the two chars in the game with a true infinite and it doesn’t need meridian shock. It’s also very easy to do. Just grab an enemy, grab attack them, then do strong attack, but cancel into a backstep before it hits. Then backstep attack and cancel into a grab. Rinse repeat till death. Easy and effective. This turns every boss fight into a braindead encounter. Ken makes mincemeat of anyone thanks to this infinite.
Kenshiro also has an effective ground pound loop for breaking up mobs and getting in the fray. Jump strong attack and hold the button. Release when you touch the ground to cancel into backfist. Immediately jump cancel before the backfist even starts and rinse repeat. Might take a few tries to get it down since this cancel is slightly more advanced, but it shouldn’t take more then a moment or two to get it down perfect. This is good for just gettin into the middle of the mob and establishing dominance quickly. So ground pound loop then roll cancel (Special move cancel) and do weak,weak, strong, strong to keep the pressure on and maintain control while building a ton of meter.
Before I mentioned that Ken could do running grab. This is pivotal for good crowd control. Ken can handle mobs fairly easily if he gets his mitts on someone. Just grab and run with them into a crowd and then strong attack cancel to re-grab rinse repeat. A very basic and powerful strategy.
In general Ken should always be cancelling into something else. 90% of the time it will be a roll unless you are going for a grab or ground pound loop. Ken has some solid mobility once you master canceling. Without it he is slow and clunky.
His best combos overall are
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wws is a nice one to throw out often. Quick with decent crowd control and can set-up easy grab nonsense.
My personal Kenshiro Build
Skills
Impact
Concentration
Meditation
Signatures
Hokuto Hundred Crack fist
Boulder Splitting Wave
Hokuto Softness Ripping Slash
Heavenly Destruction
This is just a solid all around build, that I feel mitigates Ken’s weaknesses and makes him a more solid char in general. Impact means that his level 1’s become a really efficient usage of meter and the high level sigs are more powerful as well. Meditation and Concentration soften his weakness of relying on meter. Now I have less issues building it especially when you take into account ground pound loops and grab mob control. As far as sigs go, Heavenly Destruction and Hokuto Softness Ripping Slash are both must haves IMO. They are both just really really good effective crowd control. Hokuto Hundred Crack Fist is very damaging for a level 1 and is decent mob control for smaller mobs. It also demolishes guarding enemies. Boulder Splitting Wave gets better with Impact and offers some longer range crowd control at a low cost. But that can be switched to any sig of your choice dep[ending on your play style. For me the big 3 are Heavenly Destruction, Softness Ripping Slash, and Hundred Crack Fist.Those 3 give him good crowd control and a low cost sig with good power that’s perfect for bosses/officers. You can get creative with builds especially with all the Skills that effect meridian shock but I find it unnecessary since he has the grab infinite and alot of unblockable sigs as well.
My Final Thoughts
Meh. Sorry, but compared to the others he just feels underwhelming. He isn’t as fun as as cool as they are IMO. He is the worst char in the game IMO not counting DLC chars. Now once the grab infinite was discovered people couldn’t just write him off. Same thing with the grab shenanigans. So ok fine once you fully master him he is effective and he has some pretty cheap/cool things. But he still feels kinda…boring. He just seems to lack something that the others have. Especially the Nanto chars. Mainly his damage is just low. It’s his main weakness and really one of his few, but it’s noticeable. His normal combos are kinda crappy too. Either weak or not enough crowd control or both. His w,w,s,s combo for example while having great crowd control is also pretty weak considering it’s his strong combo 2. He seems a bit too balanced in a game that’s all about being broken. I mean he’s still broken but no on the same level as the others. Still when he is mastered and you learn how to move with him and abuse his strong points as well as mask his weaknesses he becomes very effective.
Whew. That took me awhile. Thoughts anyone? Anything I missed?