Makoto Q&A

Probably my favorite combos in the game. They really do come with feel. The jab, short, hayate combo is rather rapid while the strong, short, hayate combo is more about precision. I practiced with lp, lp, lk because the timing of the taps to combo lp is the same as the transition from lp to lk. Key is to not mash it but give it two quick taps then transfer that timing and being able to cancel short to hayate is a breeze.

Hi Guys,

Recently I played someone who likes to do jump in attacks. His jumps are not predictable (e.g. he’s baiting air to air punishes like Makoto’s j. hk), so I can’t get a good read on him. Since he’s jumping in with attacks, Makoto’s standing mp, and hp gets beat most of the time. He also varies the timing so I might eat a jump in combo if I miss the parry. I’ve been doing dash under & sweep, but the damage is too low to discourage him. I’ve been also trying to do kara lp fukiage on reaction (but getting the right spacing a little difficult), then combo into mp hayate juggle for knockdown and positioning. Of course, since we’re baiting each other to jump, sometimes I do next level yomi move and just dash in karakusa. Does anyone have some better ways to deal with this situation?

Thanks for the help. Sincerely,
Cong

Never worry about the damage not being enough. If he keeps on, he’ll learn it’s more than he thinks. The AA game isn’t one Makoto is good at so it’s beneficial to play either the Air-to-air or avoid relying on anti-air all together w/ dash under.
You should never focus on landing lp kara fukiage. You’re better off looking for moments to EX fukiage because it’s much more reliable and a lot faster.
Dash in karakusa is your best friend and if they start neutral jumping, you can dash in EX fukiage for that next next level bacon strips.
All in all, Makoto’s all about keeping your opponent on the ground. Discourage their jumps by popping them out early w/ mp, or hp. Those are good tools if your opponent is jump itchy.

Hello Everyone,

I’ve been trying to do double fukiage. I do the generic version (kara off of standing RH) on Ryu. After the kara fukiage, I can’t seem to dash in time to get to the right positioning for the last fukiage–I just stay in place most of the time. What could be causing this?

Thanks for the help. Sincerely,
Cong

You have to dash early out of SA2. It’s kind of funky at first but you can dash quite early out of the end of SA2. Took me a long while to notice it but that’s how you can land the kara fuki meaty. After that, you actually have quite a window of opportunity to dash and land the second. Just making sure you hit the kara fuki meaty is probably the solution…
It’s something you just get a feel for with more practice. Dash early> meaty fukiage> ender fukiage.
I figured this out over a plate of candied yams and top loin steak with a glass of white whine and a bitch on my left arm.

As araider08 said, you can buffer the first dash VERY early, but you can also buffer the second dash too.

For the first dash, try hitting the second towards right after Makoto plants her feet, which is right before the final hit of SA2.

For the second one, don’t rush it, you can input the forwards fairly slow and the dash will still come out. Try to hit the second towards when Ryu is almost at the apex of his bounce.

I’m assuming you’re using Jab Fukiages, right? One of the things that plagued me when I was first learning was trying to input everything very fast. Also, since I wasn’t very consistent even hitting the Kara Fukiage, I’d slightly panic when it finally connected, which is never a good thing. Being calm and smooth is a large part of landing this combo.

Tominaga and Mimora use their pinky to kara with RH they said, I use my ring finger but its all personal preference I suppose.

And yes staying clam throughout the process helps keep your inputs very clean and reliable, Tominaga even yawns while he does it sometimes here haha.

I’ve been talking to tominaga while he’s been doing the double.

Anybody use the cr.RH~karakusa? It’s hard to do it 100% of the time but it seems really useful.

Occasionally I will actually go for it, cr.RH~Short or Forward Karakusa. It doesn’t add much too range and is either equal in frames or one less than RH Karakusa. Though it is funny when you get a cr.RH~RH Karakusa with negative edge, the added range to it seems like a good thing, but if you mess up… That’s a easy punish for your opponent. You’d probably be better off with sticking with non-kara Karakusa’s.

It has uses and personally I use cr rh kara’ed fwd karakusa in some situations

for example

-on my own wake-up (generally against people that try to stand just outside of regular karakusa trying to bait it/something.
-in some empty jump anti air parry situations
-of course the classic point blank st fp hayate cancel into it for style points

I agree on the the messing up it can be your ass although the range increase seems noticeable to me (rh karakusa 61, rh kara’ed fwd karakusa should be 70)

Yeah, the range is definitely noticeable. It seem to work pretty well when I tried using it after a hayate that puts me at a range where a normal karakusa would’ve whiffed. Surprisingly I got a cr.RH more than a whiffed karakusa when I messed up so it didn’t screw me over too bad.

Hello Everyone,

What are some practical and damaging punishes for wake up option select forward parry + grab (by a shoto)? Let’s assume this person is not a complete moron, and only does this OS when you are close enough to get grabbed. Let us also exclude troll punishes (e.g. dash in, SAII as they wake up, or mp xx SAI)

I find easiest & most consistent punishes are hk karakusa just outside of opponent’s grab range and meaty cr.lk -> lp hayate. There’s also walking in and then out of grab range, then whiff punishing the grab with cr.mp -> hayate. But Makoto’s walk speed is so slow, some times she’ll get caught by the grab.

Also, are there any tips against playing footsies with shotos? I find it little bothersome that Ryu’s cr hk sweep is faster than Makoto’s cr. mp, which means I can only counter poke when playing footsies (I know that I have a 2 frame window to punish the cr. hk on block with fierce hayate). Would jumping over Ryu’s crouching normals be a viable option? Would Makoto’s j.mk hit the opponent in this case?

Thanks for the help,
Cong

One real good option against that: whiff lk. That puts you out of throw range and into your HPxxHayate range. That insta-air EX tsurugi (hits twice). Also, kara-karakusa catches any movement on wakeup so it’d beat out that guess parry. Also, if you know your opponent is doing it SAII or mp xx SAI is a legitimate tactic against what they’re doing. If they’re going to try to beat out your uki the same way every time, make them fear every option you have. I believe Tominaga started using SAII a bit more randomly and it’s definitely a great tactic against an opponent who uses that OS.

Tips against shotos:
Mak’s hp sweep is your best normal in this matchup. Hk also is a low crush and beats out many shoto normals (hence c.mk). Also, jump-in and parry. Test their mettle by jumping in. If they’re trying to shut down your dash, turtle, jump-in and parry, and hayate. j.mk is a great air attack. I prefer jump-in tsurugi because it’s hard to parry. Mak’s pokes are better than Ryu’s:
c.mk, hk, lk, f.mp are all your best friends. Put yourself at advantage with f.mp then make them guess. f.mp is like +7 so you can beat a lot of things shotos throw with anything. c.mk is also +7 (think) so if they’re pushing buttons after you hit c.mk on block or hit, they’ll get tagged. One thing I don’t like about c.mp is that it doesn’t punish shoto c.mk. Literally goes right above the leg. Gotta love 3S hitboxes. So yeah, use c.hp if you’re looking to tag c.lk or c.mk.
You can also punish sweep with SA1 but you should ALWAYS punish sweep with hayate. This is a crucial tactic and can make or break a game against a patient player. Sweeps are easy to recognize which should send a signal to your brain to mash hayate. If you’re playing online, this may be difficult. I don’t know what’s happening half the time online…
Anyway, hope this was useful to you.

You can also try to bait the throw/shoryu with a back dash and confirm whiff throw/special and punish with s fp or cr strong into what ever (spacing specific).

Thank you araider & JAK for helping me gain a much clearer comprehension the character! I realized that there are a lot of things I’m not doing in general. D:

Another question I have is are there any good ways to convert an air-to-air parry into damage? It seems like whenever I parry an air normal, they have all the time in the world recover and then parry my punish.

Thanks for the help,
Cong

Hey Guys,

I was wondering, when people jump out of the post hayate mix up, they could probably parry or parry + attack as they jump away. Instead of going for the air to air, would the solution be just to dash again and nail them as they land? Would the dash be too short if they super jump?

Thanks for the help,
Cong

There are many options post hayate. Depending on if I’m playing somebody new I’ll see how they react to post-hayate. People tend to do a lot of punishable things post-hayate so I usually tap forward or down for a parry attempt.
As far as snuffing out jump backs, dashing works depends on the character. I don’t jump after Q because of that awkward jump-attack hitbox. What you could use is dash then mk, mp or hp. If you do either punches you can hayate or fukiage cancel if they parry or get tagged by it. If they get hit by mp I believe they’re put in a reset situation you can dash to other side for a mix-up (good way to set up a SA2 attempt). HP knocks them too far back and the same with mk.
One thing I’ve wanted to try was dash-in and EX fukiage. I have to throw this in practice mode but it seems like it could hit crossup under them. So yeah, there are a couple of options. I’d just worry about getting tagged by the jump back air attack (but then again, I play online too much so it’s nearly impossible for me to parry air attacks online).
Good luck to you.

If anybody’s having trouble with Akuma jump back fireball:
Dash under fireball… Punish with mp hayate fp hayate… I can’t believe I haven’t been doing this all my life…

I hate to admit it, but I get raped by the CPU Akuma set on max/jungle difficulty. Once it starts doing the lk tastu whiffs, land and UO or cr.LK, I’m fucked. It doesn’t help that my TV lags lol.