Character pros/cons/playstyle

I'll try for superior Pattycakes.

Play style: 33B pressure, throw/mid mixups, punishment.
Execution: High(est?)

Pros:
  • Relative safety + low risk for some of his best stuff.
  • Superb punishment.
  • Damaging throws, mids and combos.
  • Can cover range when necessary using wave dashing/RoH
  • Can also run away with these tools.
  • Nice CE.
  • Good interruption (2A/JFT).
  • Awesome TCs.
  • Post-GI game is quite something and his aGI covers a lot.
Cons:
  • Awful guard break game.
  • Relatively poor throw range.
  • and oki.
  • and step-kill.
  • and pokes. He gets shut down quite a bit with these too.
  • Can't really do much vs jumpers.
  • Inconsistent wall game.
 
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I'll try aeon:

Play style: spacing, whiff punishment, ch fishing
Execution: low to medium (his best combos require very strict timing)

Pros:
Excellent ringout game
Good movement and spacing abilities
Stepkill
Solid TCs and TJs
Good throws
Punishment in general

Cons:
Slow
Useless CE
Meter dependant
Bad lows
Whiffing issues with 44BAA
No real frametraps
 
Pyrrha Omega

Playstyle: turtle and punish (also suited to a more aggressive, high risk/reward YOLO style)

Execution: medium - high

Pros:
  • Punishment (DNS B, NS B and CE are excellent block and whiff punishers with great range, not to mention NS A for whiffed throws)
  • High NH damage
  • Safe pokes with good CH damage (e.g. 2B, 6K)
  • Excellent guard burst game (great guard damage and over half life on post-break combos)
  • Decent RO/wall game, especially with NS B
  • Very strong GI game
  • Advancing STC, and you don't take a CH if you're interrupted out of it

Cons:
  • Lack of "beat-em-all" option selects
  • No good lows
  • Lack of decent BEs
  • Poor oki
  • Less safety than vanilla pyrrha
 
Guess I could throw my two cents in on Raph, too.

Raphael Sorel

Playstyle:

Turtle, pressure, whiff punish, CH fishing. Pretty flexible.

Execution:

Varies. For the most part, Raph's "execution" is just hit confirms and CH confirms. That's easy.

Some things require a little practice like SE B ~ 3 BBB ~ 8 ~ A+BA. It can be a little awkward at first.

Pros:

  • Great pokes
  • Fast
  • Pretty good CE that's both fast and easy to combo into
  • Push back and spacing in general usually do not prevent block punishes
  • Fantastic whiff punishes
  • Not terrible wall damage
  • In a lot of cases, match-up ignorance will factor in
  • Good CH damage that's easy as hell to confirm
  • Fun
  • Great 2A
  • Good movement
  • Has a fantastic taste in waifus
  • His hat
  • Has some pretty good match ups
  • Has easily one of the best stances in the game, if not the best, with Shadow Evade
  • 33_99k BE is a fantastic whiff punish that can lead into roughly half life with CE or ~80 damage with great oki. Can also catch step if you step the right way and/or time it correctly.
  • Good guard break damage
  • Okay TJ moves
  • Some "okay" mids, like 6K, 2B, WR B, FC 3B etc. *
  • Fantastic throws
*I wouldn't normally list most of these as actual pros, but any tool do dissuade players from just constantly ducking Raph are very useful.

Cons:

Oh boy...
  • "Fantastic throws". Yeah, try throwing someone who has no reason to stand and just ducks everything
  • At first glance, AB is a free low poke but a small amount of practice will allow you block it on reaction if you just 2G after the first A. That shit is -14. Totally not worth the "risk" in most cases. If they block it once, never use it again. Ever.
  • Pathetic Damage in most cases (6BB is i12 with great range, but does 16 goddamn damage)
  • Absolutely useless AA outside of a small amount of situations
  • Step kills are essentially nonexistent outside of things like 2A
  • CE doesn't ring out for whatever stupid reason
  • 22B ~ 3B patched out for whatever stupid reason
  • Some match-ups are nigh unwinnable
  • On what step kills he does have, he gets very little from them.
  • All options from PREP beaten by stepping
  • Requires very high risk at times for mediocre-at-best rewards
  • 6BB is -14. While having short block stun, there are many characters that can literally destroy you for that assuming they've practiced the punish. You also lose 14 frames off of what should be a safe poke.
  • Can be very unsafe on whiff
  • Everything is a reverse mix up on himself, rarely *forces* people on the defensive for any period of time unless they don't block or duck
  • CE doesn't fucking ring out
  • CE whiffs for absolutely no reason at times
  • Any GOOD damage requires either your opponent to make a mistake, you use all your meter and/or you land SE B. Considering you have to be in PREP to even go into SE, it's not exactly something to rely on
  • No threatening lows
  • To expand on the previous point, his old 1K is now 11K so you have to quickstep making an already pretty slow low even slower and ultimately useless against practiced players. Seriously PS, why?
  • Ringout game not the best
  • Overall, most things he does well another character can probably do as good or better.
Conclusion:

Rapheal is very fun to play, in my opinion. However, at the end of the day he is objectively one of the worst characters in the game. He does have some options, and has a degree of viability and flexibility in some scenarios and match ups and he can most definitely win in any match up regardless of how bad it is... Though some, I wouldn't recommend trying! Raphael is DEFINITELY someone you should consider picking up if you just want something new or just wanna play around with a fun character. Competitively speaking, consider Raphael in "Counter-pick Tier". Raphael actually fares very well in some match ups and can come out even with even more, so consider picking him up if the character you play does NOT fare so well in one or more of those match ups.

If you main Raphael or otherwise play him a lot - competitively speaking - you are like the skinny kid in the boxing club. Everyone will be like "the fuck is he doing here", but inside they're all like "damn, I wish I was as brave and tough as that guy".

*EDIT*

Holy shit that was long as hell.
 
Anyway, copy and pasted:

Leixia
Style: Speed, Poking, Counter-Offensive Pressure
Execution: Easy~Medium (raises to medium for "same-side 22Bs" ex:223698B and 887412B)
For same side 22_88B's, you don't need to do the half circle input. Inputting it as 228 or 882 does the same thing. It works the same for Natsu's 22_88K.
 
For same side 22_88B's, you don't need to do the half circle input. Inputting it as 228 or 882 does the same thing. It works the same for Natsu's 22_88K.
Yeah, but I actually find that way to be even harder. Usually ends up doing a 2B or Jump B instead.
 
Don't quote me on this. I may not be completely accurate, so feel free to correct me. I'm going to keep it short, simple and very general.

aPatroklos:
- Very fast.
- Ridiculously complicated.

Aeon:
- High damage.
- Slow.

Algol:
- Can fight at any range.
- (I don't know enough to say anything bad about him)

Astaroth:
- High damage, long range.
- Arguably the slowest character in the game.

Cervantes:
- High damage, decent range.
- (I don't know enough to say anything bad about him)

Dampierre:
- Very mysterious, not sure what he'll do next.
- Some useless moves, comical character.

Devil Jinn:
- Powerful moves, good combos.
- Must be in very close range to be effective.

Edge Master (or Elysium/Kilik):
- Knowing a combination of characters means that your opponent can't learn a strategy because your style changes in mid-fight.
- Your weakness solely depends on your knowledge and skills of the characters, and that of your opponent.

Ezio Auditore:
- CH fishing.
- Some unsafe moves.

Hilde:
- Good fighter at close/long range.
- Arguably complicated to use.

Ivy:
- Can fight well at almost any range, great unblockables.
- Long range moves are very linear and unsafe when stepped.

Leixia:
- Fast, tricky and good mix-ups.
- Short range character.

Maxi:
- Fast, decent range and good mix-ups.
- Stance transitions leaves him wide open.

Mitsurugi:
- Balanced in range, speed and power.
- Struggles against faster characters sometimes.

Natsu:
- Surprising speed and power, decent range.
- Weakness is against patient players.

Nightmare:
- Good range and power, surprisingly good speed sometimes.
- Unsafe moves and some slow attacks is his weakness.

Patroklos:
- Decent speed and power, good at punishing.
- Mostly short range moves.

Pyrrha:
- Decent speed and power, good at punishing, arguably the safest character in the game.
- Short range, familiar patterns.

Pyrrha Omega:
- Almost the same as Pyrrha, but more power and more unsafe. (As far as I know.)

Raphael:
- Great speed and range.
- Weak moves, somewhat linear.

Siegfried:
- Powerful moves, surprising speed.
- Mostly slow moves, unsafe stance transitions.

Tira:
- A decent variety of moves. (I don't know much else.)
- Her weakness is her Jolly mood.

Viola:
- Can fight at any range, extremely high pressure.
- Weakest at mid range, familiar patterns, frustrating to use because of complexity and timing.

Voldo:
- Decent range, mysterious and good at mixing up.
- Slow.

Xiba:
- Good range, good balance between horizontal and vertical moves, high damage.
- Slow, hard to punish players.

Yoshimitsu:
- Good speed, great mixups and has by far the most unblockables in the game.
- Somewhat complicated to use, unsafe moves.

ZWEI:
- Decent mix-ups.
- Slow and inconsistent.

Jared The Killer (JTK)

Edited for Edge Master.
 
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Well I mean I could want Yoshis which leads into a half life wall combo.
true; well we can safely say they are both great TJs
as far as I remember Natsu's 8A also can give You wall splat into 6A+B4 combos, but Im not sure I will have to test that.

EDIT
So, Natsu's 8A wall splats to her right for:
8A~3B~A:6~1A/4A+B/44KK for quarter life
8A~6A+B4~A:6~3KKK~1A/4A+B/44KK for quarter life
(stages with multiple walls) 8A~6A+B4~A:6~3KKK~44KK~wall bounce~1A/4A+B/44KK for half life
 
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Dampierre:-

Playstyle: Tricks and Lies. Whiff Punishing. Mixups.
Execution: Mid/High.

Pros:-
  • Great mixup.
  • Good whiff punishing tools.
  • Half life meterless combo damage.
  • CE, half life damage with clean hit.
  • Random factor that happens on some moves can give you advantage.
  • B!E!.
  • Unpredictable.
  • Good throw range.
Cons:-
  • Bad range.
  • No i12 or below moves.
  • FP and PB can be punished easily when fighting fairly good players.
  • 11B is really unsafe (-22).
  • CE bugs that make him vulnerable for a long time.
  • His brave edges are not great.
  • Unsafe character in general due to the random factor.
  • Cant really do anything if someone has good spacing.
  • Not good oki.
 
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Yoshimitsu

Playstyle: Rushdown, Mixup, Complexity

Execution: Difficult to Most difficult (to get the most out of iMCF, his 2a:B, you must do a 1-frame slide at frame-perfect timings). Also a lot of his important moves are not simple inputs. Requires mastery of iFC, RCC, slide inputs, tight timings, rhythmic JFs, difficult buffers, everything you can think of.

Pros:
  • Speed - His 2a:B slide input crouch punch is one of the fastest moves in the game, leading to good damage on counter hit, making him a very fast character with mastery. Effectively the fastest, since the move goes under highs, and anything that can stop it is way slower. A offensive and defensive tool that continues and breaks pressure in ways no other character can. Hard to punish on whiff.
  • Strong Low - Fast, knockdown, mid-range, low sweep in FC 3K, combos to RCC 3B for 40 damage. Stops movement and passivity cold, but is very unsafe on block. This drives his mid-low mixup game.
  • Movement - Fastest all-around movement in the game.
  • Great ring out potential and ring positioning control.
  • Very high wall damage, easy to get half health bar damage.
  • Powerful launcher and punisher (JG) in i17 3B and i16 CE.
  • Powerful mixups from a:B+K into unblockable setups and tech traps
  • Strong throws with untechable knockdowns.
  • Solid basic AA, BB, 2B, and 2K (due to iMCF threat).
  • Highest damage CE (110-120) other than Algol's 2-bar CE, great for post-GI.
  • Strong evades in 214A, 7_8_9K.
  • Highly situational but powerful reverse mixup options in A+K, 4B+K.
  • A variety of stances that can run mixups.
Cons:

  • Short range, can be kept out and forced to take big risks.
  • Difficult to get the most out of the character.
  • Mixups heavily weakened with proper matchup preparation.
  • Difficult to convert meter to damage.
  • Requires careful spacing and fast reaction time to successfully whiff punish, limiting what's possible to whiff punish.
  • Struggles in a wide variety of matchups, especially the top tiers. Matchup strength is largely determined by punishing power on block, and his short range and high amount of important -12 moves makes him both a bad punisher (unless you JG) and one of the more unsafe characters.
  • Weak on infinite stages, since some of his strengths don't matter there.
 
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