Played a lot of Kensou today. I’m not so sure that he’s actually a good character though because a lot of his normals have such shitty range, he can’t fight at long-range distances AT ALL… and there isn’t much variety in how you can play him. If he gets in he’s got some neat combos, though.
I figured out what the deal is with his dp+P (the rapid punch-em-in-the-crotch move). If you do a regular dp+P and don’t mash, you’ll get 4 hits. Mash a little and you’ll get 8 hits. Mash a little more and you’ll get 12 hits, and this is when you have the chance to do the finisher. If you mash past 12, Kensou will slow down his punches and run out of breath after the 16th punch, essentially opening him up to a free combo of the opponent’s choice. What you want to do is mash enough for the 12-hit version, and immediately when you’re at 9 or 10 hits, do hcb+P. You can do the finisher motion early on the 9th hit or so and it will automatically activate when he gets the 12th hit. The finisher doesn’t really do much damage but it sends them flying backwards. (Hmm… maybe you can juggle after the finisher if you do it in the corner? I honestly didn’t think to try it until now because I was too predisposed with trying CD chain juggles in the corner. Dammit)
I’m not sure if there’s any difference between dp+A and dp+C… distance he runs forward, maybe?
His crouching C is an upward punch that I guess is supposed to be used as anti-air. It has shitty horizontal range so it’s not good for combos, I think standing D is his best for combos starting with a hard attack.
DM is kinda shitty because if he gets hit in the startup the projectile never comes out, and it has quite a bit of startup. It’s so slow it won’t combo off hard attacks that don’t cause counterhit stagger. There were times I tried to use is anti-air but I was too slow and they kicked me right before it came out. He doesn’t really benefit from meter that much so I’d recommend sticking him in the 1st slot on your teams.
Midscreen combos (add a hop/jump attack if you wish):
cr. B, cr. B, s. A xx qcb+A -> qcb+C -> dp+D
s. D xx dp+P (mash for first 8 hits and then do hcb+P after 9th hit)
s. D -> CD xx qcb+K (seems to be the only thing that connects off his CD chain, such pathetic damage…)
Corner combos:
s. D -> CD xx qcbx2+P (DM)
s. D -> CD xx dp+P (8 hits, don’t go for any more), qcb+A -> dp+D
He probably has a better corner combo than that. Was trying to do qcb+A -> qcb+C after the dp+P but the qcb+C whiffs. It might be possible with correct timing (do it later?) but I didn’t really get to figure it out. 8-hit dp+P + qcb+A + dp+D is pretty beefy damage anyway.