Mai Shiranui (Arcade Version)

[FreeRunner]

I did not like the combo

10 Ryuuenbu

I agree with this YouTube comment.

What happened to the Mai we saw from the first few loke tests!?  It's as if once all the other characters were added everyone just dropped her ass.  I wanna see more HCF-K [DC] j.QCB-P into whatever.  I totally remember genuinely creative combos like that and miss them.

Is a just a corner combo. Ok it's not very creative, but at least is finished with her DM, we haven't seen this in many videos... But you have to keep in mind that is only one corner combo, she has other ones more varied, combining her Hisatsu, her Musasabi or even her air throw (I think is the first time Mai can finish combos with her air throw, excepting MI series). But RyuEnbus seems the easier way to combo in the corner, thanks to its juggle properties, and is not the only character that has this (Yuri's Saiha, for example, or Ash's fireball).

Agreed. Even Kula's and K's combos are pretty much the same loop over and over again. And then there's Elisabeth's.

Succumb to her! LOL

NEVER XD!!! I blame KOF02um, CVS2 & NGBC for this. She won't stop haunting me, she keeps outshining my characters.

On a gameplay note, I gotta experiment on a few things the next time I go to Chinatown Fair. I best look up the rest of her combos for when that time comes.

Go use her still anyway. xD

You guys win. I can't fight this bouncy ninja anymore XD.

Still a bit sad that CF closed down. As soon as I know where it's gonna be relocated, I can get back to the lab.

[Shiranui_ninja]

Well, well, well. I finally played Mai :D

Oh, man. I really love her new sprite, her fastness, her voice... Her victory winquotes, her intro dialogues...

About her gameplay. Let's see. I think Mai is a pretty good character, not the low tier some said. She's fast, her jumps are quite highs. And she really does have very good regular hits. C and far D are great. Ukihane (down B on air) is a very nice tool to enter aerial combos (could be followed by a qcb+P in air, then you can cancel it into EX version or/and DM). Not really big damage but nice, and unexpected. The bad thing is that Ukihane is very punishable if it misses, so better follow up it with a Musasabi Mai (it's safer). The rest is just Ok, her kachosens are good for zoning, her EX version is great because is very very fast. Ryuenbu and Hisatsu are good, but you must be careful, if your opponent guards... it could be your end.

The worst thing Mai has, for me, and what makes me anger a lot with SNKP... is her Musasabi. It's too vertical this time. In old kofs, Mai was able to cross the screen with her Musasabi (somebody said she still can... well, she CAN'T). So, when your are in front your enemy, let's say in the middle of the screen, and you scape from him with a back jump, if you perform a Musasabi in the middle of that jump you FAIL. It was a great tool for Mai, and they removed to gain verticality. Why? I really don't know. But it's a mess.

[Aenthin]

Verticality? What do you mean? Are you talking about her ground version of Musasabi?

[Shiranui_ninja]

Verticality? What do you mean? Are you talking about her ground version of Musasabi?

No, I'm talking about qcf+P in air. I'm refering to the angle. She doesn't cross the screen and the attack is not self-directed (I mean,she doesn't go to the enemy whereever he is, she always has the same angle when she launches herself) and it's a very close angle. You need to stay very close of your enemy to impact him.

[Aenthin]

Ah. When I said it "homes" to the opponent, what I meant was if Mai did a crossup jump and did Musasabi no Mai, she'll turn backwards and try to hit on which side the opponent is. In previous games, she didn't and kept moving forward. The more vertical angle actually helps in hitting them a bit, at least. As you said, it isn't much of a great way to cross the screen anymore but she has the speed and her ground Musasabi, I thought she doesn't really need it in the first place.

Oh and there's also the issue of having a wider screen. What used to be a full screen in older KoFs is now around 3/4ths of the screen in XIII. That could also have made Mai look like she was diving even more vertically than intended.

At least the NeoMax homes unless the opponent is too near the corner where she's jumping.

[Shiranui_ninja]

Ah. When I said it "homes" to the opponent, what I meant was if Mai did a crossup jump and did Musasabi no Mai, she'll turn backwards and try to hit on which side the opponent is. In previous games, she didn't and kept moving forward. The more vertical angle actually helps in hitting them a bit, at least. As you said, it isn't much of a great way to cross the screen anymore but she has the speed and her ground Musasabi, I thought she doesn't really need it in the first place.

aaah, ok now I get it. I missunderstood you :P  Musasabi charge is good. Is nice to see how you confuse your enemy with a cross up jump, but the problem was that I get confused too xDDD

Oh and there's also the issue of having a wider screen. What used to be a full screen in older KoFs is now around 3/4ths of the screen in XIII. That could also have made Mai look like she was diving even more vertically than intended.

Yes, that could be an explanation I guess, but they need to readjust it. Or maybe is just a matter of get used to new Musasabi angle...

At least the NeoMax homes unless the opponent is too near the corner where she's jumping.

True! Her neomax is good, easy to enter it. What I like is that at the beginning looks like a Musasabi charge, like if you were running away, but then... SURPRISE! NeoMax is coming! xD

[Rex Dart]

Did you play with her aerial Super Ninja Bees DM at all? Most people tell me it's pretty useless, but it's definitely a unique addition to XIII-Mai.

It seems like it might be a good way to cross the screen too, if you were willing to spend the one meter. How long is its recovery? (Part of me really wants to find a purpose for that move.)

[Diavle]

^Yeah, too bad they didn't make it (by the looks of it so far) as useful as Kyo's air Orochinagi.

[Aenthin]

Did you play with her aerial Super Ninja Bees DM at all? Most people tell me it's pretty useless, but it's definitely a unique addition to XIII-Mai.

It seems like it might be a good way to cross the screen too, if you were willing to spend the one meter. How long is its recovery? (Part of me really wants to find a purpose for that move.)

Pretty sure you could super cancel it from Musasabi no Mai. Haven't really gotten to using it but I'll try it next time I play.

[Shiranui_ninja]

Did you play with her aerial Super Ninja Bees DM at all? Most people tell me it's pretty useless, but it's definitely a unique addition to XIII-Mai.

Is not useless. If you perform aerial Super Ninja Bees DM when somebody jumps in the right moment,I think it damage as in the ground. It's not a real damage when you try combo it from Muasasabi. The problem, I think, is that Ororchinagi is just one blow, SuperDeadlyNinjaBee is various hits with displacement, and there's a point that your opponents falls on the ground and you don't finish the move on him. You need to be super fast to enter DM after canceling a Musasabi.  I tried just one time to do Ukihane>Musasabi>EX Musasabi>DM, and is what I say, you lose your opponent in some point who falls in the ground, so not really big damage, but super cool combo anyway xD Maybe this combo has an a very strict timing to not lose the rival, I'm not sure, but aerial tools of Mai is definitely something that I want to explore when I have the console version.

[Shiranui_ninja]

Did you play with her aerial Super Ninja Bees DM at all? Most people tell me it's pretty useless, but it's definitely a unique addition to XIII-Mai.

In response to this, I think aerial DM is better when you super cancel regular Histatsu than cancel a Musasabi Mai (we have to keep in mind that she can only perform regular DM on air, not EX version). Some mid-screen non HD combos with aerial DM which I like:

-EX Ryuenbu, Histatsu [Super Cancel] DM (1 stock, 1 cancel)
-Hisatsu [Drive Cancel], EX Ryuenbu, Hisatsu [Super Cancel] DM (2 stocks, 2 cancels)

One question to those who played her. Is it me or it's terrible difficult connect Hisatsu after [EXryuenbu, >ryuenbu] on corner? Looks like you must perform the second ryuenbu not too late because doesn't juggle enough to connect Hisatsu but not so soon or fire of second ryuenbu will not hit, so you loose juggle... I just could connect Hisatsu 2 times in 10 attempts... U___U

[Kane317]

Did you play with her aerial Super Ninja Bees DM at all? Most people tell me it's pretty useless, but it's definitely a unique addition to XIII-Mai.

In response to this, I think aerial DM is better when you super cancel regular Histatsu than cancel a Musasabi Mai (we have to keep in mind that she can only perform regular DM on air, not EX version). Some mid-screen non HD combos with aerial DM which I like:

-EX Ryuenbu, Histatsu [Super Cancel] DM (1 stock, 1 cancel)
-Hisatsu [Drive Cancel], EX Ryuenbu, Hisatsu [Super Cancel] DM (2 stocks, 2 cancels)

One question to those who played her. Is it me or it's terrible difficult connect Hisatsu after [EXryuenbu, >ryuenbu] on corner? Looks like you must perform the second ryuenbu not too late because doesn't juggle enough to connect Hisatsu but not so soon or fire of second ryuenbu will not hit, so you loose juggle... I just could connect Hisatsu 2 times in 10 attempts... U___U

Mai's juggles are very particular in distance and in height.  They're not as easy as they look but I wouldn't call them hard either.  IMHO, it's coz of her consistency with her juggles which has deterred so many players to try her or continue to play her competitively--it's not like she doesn't have challenges already to keep up with the group.

Having said that, The Answer seems to fare pretty well with her so maybe he could give you some input.

[Shiranui_ninja]

Mai's juggles are very particular in distance and in height.  They're not as easy as they look but I wouldn't call them hard either.  IMHO, it's coz of her consistency with her juggles which has deterred so many players to try her or continue to play her competitively--it's not like she doesn't have challenges already to keep up with the group.

Yes, I can see why. Her juggles are something you really need to put some practice on, and get used to her timings. I think there's something wrong with her ryuenbu. It has too lag at the beginning and that's why sometimes you don't connect it, also looks like flame's hitbox disappears before flame extints, so sometimes, even your flame is "touching" the enemy it doesn't hit and enemy falls on the background. But at the same time she has some powerful combinations, for example 1 stock/2 drives combo about 501 of damage:

-On corner: jC > sC > Hisatsu [DC] Musasabi > Ryuenbu [DC] EX Ryuenbu > Ryuenbu (light) > Ryuenbu > sC
(not sure if it could be finished with air throw but probably it could if last juggle is high enough)

But then has some EPIC FAIL combos like:
-HD mode (no corner): Hisatsu [HDC] EX Ryuenbu, Hisatsu [HDC] Ryuenbu [HDC] Kachosen [HDC] NeoMAX > she doesn't connect NeoMAX. Too bad... Mai needs corner to combo like fishes need water to swim...lol

[THE ANSWER]

Like Kane said her combos depend a lot on distance, corner, height, character (Maxima compare to Yuri, Ash)

At the beginning I had the same problem that you had with EX Ryuenbu in the corner and not being able to do follow up with Ryuenbu. What I came to find out is that if you do 5C, 214AC in the corner and you are too close to your opponent it will be really hard to follow up with 214C. There needs to be a small gap in between you and your opponent for this to work. If you do 2B, 2B, 5A, 214AC instead of 5C, 214AC you will get the perfect spacing between your opponent and you and you will be able to follow up easily with another 214C.

Your corner combo is using too much Drive, do this instead:

CORNER
2B, 2B, 5A, 214AC, 214C, 41236D, [DC] 214C, 214C, 9C(airgrab). This combo does 498 damage and it only uses 1 Super 1 Drive.

Mid Screen:
5C, 41236BD, 214C, 9C.

[Shiranui_ninja]

Like Kane said her combos depend a lot on distance, corner, height, character (Maxima compare to Yuri, Ash)

At the beginning I had the same problem that you had with EX Ryuenbu in the corner and not being able to do follow up with Ryuenbu. What I came to find out is that if you do 5C, 214AC in the corner and you are too close to your opponent it will be really hard to follow up with 214C. There needs to be a small gap in between you and your opponent for this to work. If you do 2B, 2B, 5A, 214AC instead of 5C, 214AC you will get the perfect spacing between your opponent and you and you will be able to follow up easily with another 214C.

Your corner combo is using too much Drive, do this instead:

CORNER
2B, 2B, 5A, 214AC, 214C, 41236D, [DC] 214C, 214C, 9C(airgrab). This combo does 498 damage and it only uses 1 Super 1 Drive.

Mid-screen:
5C, 41236BD, 214C, 9C.

Thanks The Answer! I will keep it in mind. My most terrible challenge is connect 41236D after second ryuenbu, but probably starting from 5B is the good way. That corner combo looks great. My intention was try to find the most powerful non-combo with 2 drives but not so much power bar (it means, without EXDM), but looks like I can do the same damge with just 1 drive, lol.