K took Gouken to the training mode after talking with a good friend and came up with about all the mixups I can for Gouken.
- Gouken’s Demonflip Kick IS an overhead unlike Akuma’s so you can get added mixup off this.
- Gouken’s Demonflip Kick has almost 0% chance of crossing up outside the corner
- Gouken’s Divekick if done properly on wake-up will safe-jump or beat every reversal in the game (more on that later).
- Gouken’s crossup game is udder dogshit except for a couple ok setups in the corner.
- Gouken outside of the corner has no viable frametraps except corner Fireball Traps.
K just like Akuma after an untechable knockdown Gouken has safe oki pressure against any character in the game. Unfortunately is just isn’t as potent cuz his crossup game sucks.
Sweep (max range)
This at max range (the range you should hit it anyways) allows for a awesome divekick setup.
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IMMEDIATELY do MK demon>kick as fast as possible against sagat and cammy this will give you a safe jump that will beat all their wake-up options and so much divekick hit stun you can actually do a st. FP and not be interrupted.
Against non-Sagat and cammy you have to press it slower almost unnoticeably so, but isn’t difficult at all.
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Non-safe jumpable reversals (Shoto 3-frame Dp’s) luckily they have crappy hit box’s so what you do is do a very slight delay than go for a RH Demonflip into a late demon flip kick. Now the kick should hit MEATY if they don’t do a dp it will look like you hit in their knees, but if they reversal you either beat them or go under them. This one takes a few times of practice but once you realize how to do it, is pretty easy.
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Meaty a hadouken and than do jab rushpalm ASAP this will frametrap most responses and leave you far enough away that only Sagat TU and very long range/fast super can punish you.
EX Palm>Dash forward> Sweep
This combo actually sets up an even easier version of the above.
Above options still work but on the shoto DP’s the timing is much easier.
Gouken Resets
Personally I don’t like Gouken’s resets as unless someone mashes it rarely does any good. Also it doesn’t seem possible to do any truly safe setup against reversals with them like above.
Corner resets, however, are another story.
- Standard fireballs into st. FP>demonflip is solid in the corner and honestly probably his only “great” reset
- Another one he has is after the EX Palm do a jumping LK and you hold whatever direction you want to end up on and can actually meaty a cr. FP either way if you want very ambiguous if used right.
Back Throw
Generally if you have Ultra you want to do that but if you want to keep momentum and not do a RH Tatsu you have some good options.
My recommended followups are either Sweep or if you have the skills j. MP(1 hit)>Sweep.
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With this distance take a step forward and go for a j. MK this sets up a hella ambiguous crossup and can often beat some DP’s because of how you are right on top of them. This is probably the most likely mixup on wakeup to net you damage after you’ve trained someone to block on oki from safe divekicks.
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MK>safejump divekick still works
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RH against DP’s DOES NOT WORK you are to close to get this mixup to work without them being able to dash forward to get under or do a cr. DP to beat you.
Forward Throw
Dash Forward than the MK or RH demonflip options off sweep work HOWEVER the RH option is much tighter but after some practice still doable it seems you might have to walk forward a step or so and it makes it easier but need to work on it more to tell exactly what makes it work.
Some important strats I feel are important that i’ve found with Gouken
- cr. LK > RH Tatsu hits Sagat standing or crouching for 1 hit. This allows a hit confirmable cr. LK>RH Tatsu>FADC>ULTRA on Sagat that is much easier than vs other characters since you don’t have to confirm standing.
2.MP Palm is amazing vs cr. Tigershots, Ryu, Akuma, Ken and Seth. In a fireball war just pause and see if they throw one this move makes winning fireball wars much easier just learn how to do it on REACTION not on anticipation (best used at range where shoto’s can make jumping hard to do on reaction FP is sometimes easier especially against fireballs with greater recovery like Ken/Seth)
- Some do this some don’t but anti-air counter FADC>Jab shoryu is a very good combo.
- st. MK is a good ground-ground poke against shoto’s when you are outside their cr. MK range. 1. They can’t advance into a low at this range without getting clogged and it is VERY fast recovery. 2. Beats any attempted fireballs or sweeps. 3. Did i mention it recovers insanely fast? Has some properties like Sagat st. RH but not to the same retarded extend.
Corner pressure with Gouken is amazing and essential for winning with him.
His fireball is +2 frame advantage so generally the corner game begins with a corner knockdown. You generally want to start off with a meaty fireball for safety. You than can pressure with a cr. MP, cr. MP>fireball>walk up cr. FP>fireball to reset the trap> or many other things. The guessing game here should be for him to try and jump a plain fireball, or reversal your normal>fireball. You should understand he’s looking to get out and implement plenty of baits to make sure escaping is hard to do. This is general knowledge I assume but throwing it out there.
Edit: Found out after doing EX Palm> FP Palm from within half screen of corner if you do a immediate RH Demonflip>into delayed divekick it beats all DP reversals (Akuma, Ken, Ryu, and Sagat) They have to quickstand for this to work and if they don’t do an early divekick instead to land outside of the corner.
Edit2: To original poster saying perfect timing doesn’t “always happen” no it doesn’t but generally most “good” setups leave enough room for error that any hope you have of him messing up are generally 0%. If your hitting Akuma out of shit good for you, go play a better Akuma. These setups with Gouken are all easy and not maining Gouken I hit them 99% of the time, but of course counting on those 1% of me messing up is worth you reversaling my safe jump setup … people like you who don’t respect the power of consistency are the people I can do the same safe shit 15 times and win cuz you think the consequence of Dp’ing and getting beat the last 14 times was “luck”.
Edit3: Guys name I play with is Ultimate Faust and he plays a lot of good players here in the midwest and does better than any other Gouken i’ve seen. Sanford’s Gouken is good cause Sanford is good but he let’s a lot of shit go since he just isn’t familiar enough with the character, but from things i’ve seen (again I haven’t seen all the Gouken’s in the US so i don’t know) no other player works Gouken’s tools to the fullest like this guy. Gouken unfortunately is lower-mid to mid-tier so against good ryu’s your going to have a nightmare of a match though these setups I found might make some of that change.
