I need Sakura tips

[LGT_Apple]

I am new to SSF4AE and i wanted to learn Sakura and I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips. Thanks for anyone that helps me.

[BPDark_Knight21]

Welcome I’m pretty new to Sakura as well so you can share some of my notes, but fair warning this character demands pretty high level execution.

Some of the BnBs that I (try) to use are:

Hit confirms

cr.lk > cr.lp > cr.hp xx ex tatsu/shouken
cr.lk > cr.lp > cr.mk xx hp shouken

And punish combos would be

cl.hp xx lk tatsu > st.lk xx ex tatsu -> otoshi/reset
cl.hp xx lk tatsu > st.lk xx mp/hp shouken
cl.hp xx lk tatsu > cr.hp xx lk tatsu > st.lk xx ex tatsu/shouken

Ultra combos

cl.hp xx lk tatsu > cr.hp xx ex tatsu > dash Ultra 1
cl.hp xx lk tatsu > cr.hp xx ex tatsu > Ultra 2

The Basic Idea is to use mix ups and damaging combos to get the dizzy which usually leads to the win.

Here is a quick video on her mix ups
[media=youtube]qZfkBpBaYN0[/media]

Have Fun and Practice hard

[Fergus2k8]

You just have to play her and get a feel. You can find combos in the forums, or figuring out what works on your own isn’t difficult.

As far as a general “how to,” that’s going to vary depending on the matchup and probably depending on who you ask, just as with any other character.

That being said, my 2 cents that I would give to someone picking up Sak:

IMO Sakura is a footsies character who has great post knockdown offensive potential. Your momentum will start with a footsies victory -most likely a cr. Fwd xx dp, but it could be from a whiff punishing sweep, a throw, a crouch tech that hits and you confirm from, or whatever.
Once you get a knockdown you have the potential do a large amount of damage in a way that will put you in another pos knockdown situation with the same potential. It is quite possible to end the round very quickly after one knockdown, or at least gain a sizable life lead.

If you don’t immediately net damage from a post knockdown setup, you’re still left in an offensive position with a lot of options. It is scary to press buttons when Sak is in your face, and even from a throw you will be able to continue your offensive pressure.

However, from the start of a round or any neutral situation during a round, you are playing footsies. Get that knockdown if you can, but you also need to play a strong defensive game at the same time. As Sakura, you really don’t want to be pushed into the corner, so hold your positioning. This means being on point with anti airs, not being careless with fireballs and slow normals, and not allowing your opponent to bully you into walking backwards ( IMO to play Sakura, you NEED to be able to whiff punish. Don’t let your opponent get away with throwing out poke after poke by just walking backwards. You being able to punish their whiffed normals will keep them from being overly aggressive and will help you get knockdowns -I.e with a cr. Fwd xx dp.)

So, given all that…

Anti airs: all dps exuding ex, different strengths for different ranges of jumps

Crouching fierce, for when their jump is coming down on top of you / just a little bit in front of you.

Close standing fierce, for cross ups and other jumps that are right above your head. Good for stuffing non meaty ambiguous jump ins and what not.

St. Hk, st. Mk, st. Mp, st. Lp. Can all have utility as anti airs in certain circumstances as well.

As for footsies:

St. Hk for far range poking. Slow start up but good hit boxes. Isn’t going to lead to a combo or knockdown, but good for holding positioning and keeping distance between you and the opponent. Absolutely necessary for Gief matchup.

Cr. Mk is godlike. It has deceptively long range, 5 frame start up, and combos into dp. Buffer dp into cr. Mk done just outside the range that it will hit to catch opponent pressing buttons or walking forward. If it whiffs, dp won’t come out obviously. This is kind of the basic Sakura footsie game IMO, but you can’t just do it all day because a decent player will sweep you every time you whiff a cr. Mk

You can also buffer dps into st. Lp, st. Lk, and cr. Lk. All have different utility for this purpose and you’ll just have to get a feel for it. They’re all 3 frame normals and are also good for punishing moves that are unsafe on block (balrog’s jab straight can be punished on block with a st. Lk xx dp if it’s not spaced well.)

Sweep, along with cr. Mk xx dp, can be used to whiff punish.

That’s all I feel like writing at the moment. Hope some of it’s useful.

A good post by Deebs for anyone starting out with Sakura.

[0renzokuken0]

One thing i’ll say first is DON’T rely on her resets, that used to work day 1 but now most players can see it comming and just mash dp. I’m not saying not to use it, but for a new Sakura player it’s really hard (but still possible) to win with her just using her resets against strong players. Sakura hits like a truck but you have to earn the damage through consistently landing her shunpuu loops. Practice her bread and butters and her safejumps/ setups. IMO scoring a knockdown is essential to Sakura’s game so I really mean it when I say learn her safejumps and setups. Eventually you’ll learn about her hard blockable setups in the corner that are character specific. I’d say her oki and b&b’s first. Then you can practice her shunpuu loops and hardblockables. Footsies is another thing but you can’t really practice it, it usually comes with time and experience. It helps however to know the range of your moves.

[Javed_Patel]

Yeah, I found that once I learned resets and mixups they worked really well for a week or two but then it seemed like everyone caught on and its now really obvious what I’m going to do… so instead I finish the combo into a hard knockdown and position myself for a very ambiguous cross up!
Its crafty the way I do it because even if I do decide to hit from the front and they do a shoryuken to punish it STILL misses me
If I cross over I’ll do j mk, st mk, tatsu, st lk, shuoken/ex tatsu.
If I hit from the front I’ll do j hp, mk, tatsu, st hp, tatsu, st lk, shuoken/ex tatsu.
I know I should be doing cr hp instead of st lk but I’m too lazy to take the time out to learn to plink >_<