The King of Fighters '98 UMFE/Saisyu Kusanagi/Strategy

Strategy & Tips

Neutral

Saisyu's neutral from mid-range is rather lackluster due to his stubby buttons. On the ground, his only real safe poke is 5B, which still has issues when facing other long ranged pokes. His sweep is also quite good, with good range, speed and the ability to be cancelled. A very potent weakness Saisyu has is that his jab is inconsistent at stopping hops, resulting in having to buffer a DP to be able to deal with an incoming hop and still react in time. Fullscreen, he can use his fireball, or move forwards to start an offence.

In the air, Saisyu has some very good options. j.B is the infamous Kusanagi knee, a jack of all trades that can air-to-air decently, cross up, and also still does a hefty amount of block and hitstun for pressure. j.D and j.A are your main air-to-airs however, being much more consistent than j.B in most scenarios. Saisyu's j.CD is also quite good.

Defence

Saisyu's defensive options are very limited. His buttons are poor at stopping the opponent's offence, meaning he has to heavily rely on system mechanics such as your AB evasion, reversal superjump and Guard Cancel CD. He is particularly weak to grounded pressure because of this, as his only meterless defensive tool is his DP, which is very punishable.

Offence

Once Saisyu is finished navigating the neutral, which usually won't take long, he can start laying down some pretty serious offence. Once you get in, his j.B and j.CD become very strong at keeping the opponent locked down, alongside a good set of crouching lights. Another notable grounded pressure tool is the +7!!! 6B, which can also be useful for frametraps if done from heavies (although it can be interrupted easily). Pair this with a 2 frame cl.C and Saisyu is a monster up close.

To mix the opponent up, you have various options. His low confirms are strong and link into 236236A, his 6A overhead links into 236236A with Quick MAX and he has 63214K as a risky option to throw the opponent off. As usual for a Kusanagi, his j.B is amazing at crossing the opponent up, greatly enhancing Saisyu's mixups from when they are already very solid. Combining all of these options in your offence will make Saisyu very scary to play against.

For his combos, you generally want to land 623K no matter what without meter, although A rekka into 623C can help to close out a round or just deal some extra damage. With meter, you don't have to think about what super to use, just remember that 236236A comes from your lights and Quick MAX 6A if you're using Extra, and that 2141236P comes from heavies and Quick MAX A rekka if you're using Extra.

6A Quick MAX Combo Theory

Saisyu has multiple choices during his metered combos, mainly after landing 6A Quick MAX, either cancelled or not.

• 236236A - Your easiest ender, and it still does very good damage. You sacrifice the hitconfirm for pure consistency - this will hit on every character in the game, while also connecting from extremely far away (but not 6A's max range).

• 2A xx 236236A - An easier hitconfirm, but remember that you have to link 2A before the pushback is too high, and also beware you might accidentally DP.

• run 2A, 2A xx 236236A - An actual hitconfirm for every character. Be warned, this is extremely difficult.

• 5C, 2141236P - Whiffs on all but tall crouchers, but highest damage. Easier to land after a cross-up, or if you landed the 2B, cl.C link. Most effective as a punish, if you can land the link.

• 623B (or run 2A, 2A xx 623B) - Useful for if you don't have red health and want to secure a hard knockdown while keeping MAX Mode.

Generally, you want to go straight into 236236A or if you have the execution, secure the hitconfirm with the two run 2As. However, your other enders are still useful, as explained in their own situations.