Recently, I have phased Ken out of my team. It used to be Terry then Rock/Ken and R2 Geese. I’d usually use Ken instead of Rock. Now I phased him out for a Kyo. I unserstand that Kyo is really good in K, but that’s not the reason I got rid of Ken. Something didn’t feel right. I felt more or less “tied to the boundries of Shotokan”…Maybe he’d do better in C. I got raped by a C-groove Ken MONSTER the other day. Maybe he’s just not good in K? Or am I correct in my Shoto assumption?
Shotos aren’t very good in this game(average tiered characters) but K- Ken is decent.
C Groove is obviously his best groove, then probably followed by A but K is definetly useable.
Ken has good recovery on his normals and specials, so he can set up JD’s really well. He also has really good guard crush strings to eat up your opponents guard meter when raged…
I have to dissagree with totally about ken being better that ryu in k. A groove does ken way more justice IMO. The only reason I say Ryu is better is because everytime a k groove ryu hit you with any kind of poke half your life goes away. Kens norms do not create enough block stun for them not to attack before you come out of your roll, this aint Alpha 2. the guys your playing are just freezing up at bad times.
I do think that ken is better than ryu in this game but not in K groove. I think ken really needs RC’s to compete with RCing top tiers. In K your JDing would have to be better than you ken all together to beat people like Sakura, E.Honda, Blanka, Sagat and Bison. Especially E.honda, I fucking hate that shit, turtle for days. Yuske (liquid metal) still does that shit but his friend Hayato beat it with K groove ken, ryu, cammy. Ken got wiped out but ryu ate him up. thats just my two cents
hehe; i said i just started toying with k-groove ken. i like him in some aspects…and then in some aspects i don’t. i don’t use the roll a lot, just seldom situations…such as i throw them into the corner, come down with a fp, c.fp, manual jab roll…not to unsafe. your right 'bout pokes, ken is lacking what i love with ryu. ryu’s standing fp and standing rh are GREAT…whereas ken has a sub-par poke in s.rh and his MAIN anti-air should be a well timed dp or that shitty c.fp. one thing i can say about ken though is the amount of guard meter he can take off on one blocked crossup is crazy. that, along with small jump, leading to more guard damage is enough IMO to say he is average in k-groove.
Sakura - haha; ken AND ryu gun have trouble against her
E.Honda - one thing i can say is that k-groove puts a damper on one of honda’s deadliest weapons, that damn rc headbutt…even matchup for ryu n ken though imo.
Sagat - ryu fairs better against sagat bigtime IMO
Bison - ehh…i don’t know…probably another even toss up, I think this one might even go to ken.
Blanka - This one definately goes to ryu again.
Thats just my opinion. And I agree with you also…A-groove benefits ken much more than k-groove does, and i’d say C-groove does too probably.