Learn to Push block a lil more throw the ground fireball then RGC into a crouching normal or the command overhead for mixups. Never throw the fireball out unless there more than 3/4 screen away or after a block standing b/c cant remember which. Also when you knockdown try to make use of the 50/50 with the trap (dont know the official name) has one hit of super armor and they cant escape unless they 1 stock burst on wakeup, but you got a pretty decent sak. Dont forget to learn the unscale! 
Push block/Guard Cancel. When you fight Kirei you don’t want him to put you in the corner AT ALL, because from there he can put all his retarded frame traps on you that he can’t do mid-screen, and getting hit by any option (even a regular throw) can cost you 50%+ of your life. Avoid this by push blocking more mid-screen, or rushing him down first. Who you’re using plays a big part as well because alot of characters can’t compete with some of his pokes at close range. Push blocking at certain points can cause him to whiff pokes in his rush down strings, so try push blocking at certain points in rush strings. Ex:
2a, 5c, 214b, 214c, 214a
This is a commonly used kirei rush string because the elbow at the end of a rekka string gives him lots of block advantage. Push blocking after 2a will cause his 5c to whiff, allowing you to punish with whatever you want. This will only work midscreen however. If you’re in the corner, push blocking won’t save you and you’ll have to GC/burst out.
From what I’ve learned using Kirei, push block kills his midscreen strings pretty handily. He could use 2a 2b but that’s not the optimal damage he can get since he can’t properly go into his rekka string. If you get cornered and the opponent likes to use 421b, do whatever and it’ll counter hit him out of the air and you can do whatever you want. He has many other options at his disposal so your best bet is to avoid getting cornered in the first place.
Also, the PSP release is the 18th of this month. Anyone wanna play it at Evo? :V I just wanna use those extra costumes.
I may go to evo this year. Not sure on that though yet.
If I do, I’ll likely just be bringing my PS2 version along. Don’t have a psp right now.
So how’d the matches at MWC go? Vids?
Speaking of which A-cho has some new ones up w/ a ton of lancers, a rin, and a kickass rider
This will be played at Devastation? I’ll be looking for it then. PSP release this week, also the weekend of Devastation. :V
Played the PSP port for a while already. TK cancels are definitely still in the game, but they are really weird to do unless you’re trying 228 cancels. The new motions work fairly well overall. Graphics-wise there tends to be alot of slowdown at times which sometimes it feels like it messes up combos. For combos, basic parts of combos that were like dead simple on PS2 feel really fucked up on PSP. Like for Shirou, doing j.ABC wouldn’t work like 90% of the time.
I’ll try it later today. I’m curious to see how these new motions feel during gameplay.
Other general info:
- Characters are unlocked the same way as the PS2 version on the wiki
- Unlocking the extra costumes for a character just requires you to beat arcade mode. There’s only one color for the extra ones.
- Mission mode is changed around somewhat. Most of the combo and damage missions seem to be different from the PS2 version (maybe they took out the TK cancel combos?)
Tried Dark Saber after unlocking her; she’s pretty much completely the same as the PS2 version minus TKs and such, but you can still do big damage combos easily. The only weird thing I noticed was that I couldn’t do 5b2b6b5c46a j.a j.b j.66a at the start because it always goes invalid if you do the j.a. Otherwise it works the same as the PS2.
Lancer got nerfed pretty hard. Can’t cancel 2C into 6C, 6C is not jc-able, can’t combo with 2A, among other stuff.
The system had some big changes. Supers don’t decay anymore, some combos are out (from a bit that I tried out, Lancer have no combos lol, Kirei doesn’t have 623 loops anymore, Gil doesn’t have infinites, can’t do Rin JB 236A but it seems possible just way harder than the PS2/Arcade) and EX Supers do 7000 dmg (lol)
Refrect Shield is almost useless now because it doesn’t works as RC anymore, Reflect Dash replaced it, which is basically the same thing, except you go forward, stop projectiles and uses 1/3 of mana instead of around 1/6 like Reflect Shield used to.
Overall, I didn’t like the changes but oh well.
Are you playing on an old 1001 series PSP? The later models actually have more ram so that would help(plus better d-pads). Also there’s a homebrew program to up the memory usage on your ram for games to make them faster. Drains more battery, but it’s still worth it.
Ok I’m finally playing the port. lol Lancer has like NO combos. Not being able to combo from 2A, let alone 2C > 6C no longer working? His 6C is no longer jump cancelable either. So it looks like TK cancels still work with the new motions. But this really changes the game a lot. Time to start unlocking a whole lot of stuff. <.>
All custom firmwares allow you to change the CPU / Ram Bus Speed. Try maximizing these both and see if things improve.
ah I wasn’t aware it was universal
Still trying to get used to the controls. It just feels so awkward. When I want to run up and do 5A, I end up getting a 66A special. I can foresee this becoming a HUGE problem. :\
EDIT:
And yes, what is Lancer supposed to do for combos now? 66BBBBB…6D etc? The reflect dash costs WAY too much. As much as a super? Why?
For Rin’s bnb, after 46a, I do j.ab j.66a (falling) j.b. Finishing the rest of the combo is another story though. :\
I’m also assuming that TK cancels aren’t the most effective methods of comboing anymore?
For Rin you should be able to do j.b land 5b 46a assuming it works the same as PS2. And yea unless there’s some easy way of doing 669 469 on the shitty PSP dpad/analog, TK cancels don’t really seem that viable anymore. Reflect dash seems more like the universal anti-Gilgamesh move more than something you should actually use in combos, because RC/activate still works better. At least now I don’t have to feel bad only being able to do like 3k Rider combos because it’s pretty much standard 
Yeah it feels like “scrub” combos are much more common/recommended now due to TK cancels being impractical on the psp pad. Hell, in mission mode, the UBW combo is stupid easy and doesn’t compare to the one on the PS2. For the 46 TK, I actually just press 49 and it actually works. And lol Lancer, I STILL can’t find a useful combo for him. I still can’t use the old RC to extend combos. Maybe I’m just too slow.
What I also noticed, is that some moves that launch, tend to launch higher now. Dark Saber 66C launches them really high making it ridiculously hard or impossible to combo after it. Kirei 623b doesn’t launch higher but has enough recovery so that it’s impossible to loop it in the corner. Either that or the opponent can just tech out sooner.
Other changes I noticed:
-4a+b is a new universal throw that switches positions with the opponent?
-Rapid sound effects seem to have been cut out. eg. Hold left or right on the character select screen. The sound effect skips. Same with Kirei’s 236236b super. It hits 25 times but it only register sound effects for 5 of the hits.
how execution heavy is this game compared to something more guilty geary? Im pretty scrubby with guilty gear and arcana heart right now but this game looks badass
This is the most execution heavy game you will play.
I’m guessing i should give it a go later down the road