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

Strategy & Tips

Neutral

First and foremost, Saisyu's goal in neutral is to establish an advantage, so he can push his offence and make the most of his strengths. Playing the neutral game with Saisyu is precisely where his main weaknesses lie, and so the main goal is to get past this phase, mostly via his air game, and a little bit of brute force with his DP.

On the ground, to put it bluntly, your neutral is terrible. Your long range options include... f.B, with slower startup, slower recovery and considerably worse hitboxes than any other f.B of the same type, and 2D, which surprisingly has a good hitbox and fast recovery, alongside the perk of being cancellable, however, it's range is mediocre, and the startup is similarly poor. 6B has a pretty good hitbox, and has the great perk of being +7 on block, however, the use case for it is so rare due to the slow startup that working it into your neutral game is incredibly difficult. On top of this, Saisyu's fireball is very slow to recover, and thus is particularly easy to jump over and punish with a full jump-in starter, meaning it should only really be used fullscreen or during a blockstring.

Saisyu's anti-air game is pretty simple. Since your f.A is remarkably terrible at stopping shorthops, and your 2C has pathetic horizontal range, dealing with jumps is difficult if you're on defence and want to defend from the ground. For hops, f.A and 5D are your best bet, with 5D being the prime option. For full jumps, you'll ideally DP on reaction, however, depending on positioning, buttons like 5D and 2C can also work here. If you want to contest a jump with a rising air-to-air, you should use j.A, as this has the fastest startup out of any of Saisyu's air normals, and has a very strong vertical hitbox. This option is ill advised, as this will not put you in any advantage whatsoever compared to using a fast normal or a DP.

To counteract this weak ground neutral, Saisyu's air game is really good. A strong balance of jump-ins and air-to-airs allows Saisyu to quickly choose the right normal for the job at hand, with air-to-air j.A and j.D being very strong contenders for space control and defence, and aggressive j.C and j.B for when your opponent wants to stay on the ground. Alongside this, his j.CD is really good, with a hitbox and speed that allows for him to not only use it early for a good air-to-air, but also use it to begin pressure on a grounded opponent. Learning to use Saisyu's air buttons effectively is key to navigating his awkward neutral.

To summarise, when playing neutral, you need to prioritise taking control of the air via using your powerful air-to-airs, and keep yourself from having to play on the ground. Obviously, it's inevitable that you'll have to play some grounded neutral no matter what, so make sure you still familiarise yourself with Saisyu's grounded options as well. Making sure you have a firm grasp of all of these points is key to making sure you can win neutral, and begin your offence.

Here's some short notes on neutral, to really hammer down the process:

• Prioritise getting and maintaining an advantage in neutral
• On the ground, use f.B and 2D sparingly to control space
• Anti-air hops with DP, f.A and 5D
• Anti-air jumps with DP, 2C and 5D
• j.A for rising air-to-air
• In the air, use j.A, j.D and j.CD to air-to-air
• Jumping in at the opponent, use j.B, j.C and j.CD for air-to-ground

These points are useful to write down and keep by your screen, so you can quickly reference them while playing and learning.

Defence

When you're on the backfoot, Saisyu has few options to interrupt his opponent's pressure. His DP is the most obvious one, being his best choice at a reversal to get the opponent off of him and attempt to return to neutral. As usual for KOF, guard cancel roll and blowback are also solid, but baitable options. One thing to note is that Saisyu's cl.C has only 2F startup, meaning that if you somehow manage to find yourself in it's range during your opponent's pressure, it has a good chance of interrupting certain setups. However, the main abare-type normal you'll find yourself using is 2A. 236236C is also a reversal, however, the speed is really, really bad, so you're going to get baited, and then punished.

Saisyu's punish game is really, really good. Anything that Saisyu can do to punish his opponent apart from far standing normals can route into either super or hard knockdown if you play your cards right. As a raw punish, 623B is already very fast, and gives you an immediate knockdown to charge meter. cl.C also gives similar reward when confirmed into 623D. 2A can route into 623B or 236236A. 2C has to be one-hit confirmed as 6A won't connect after it, so you must 1-hit confirm into either 623D or super. With an Extra gauge bar charged, a cl.C punish will net 45% damage on yellow/blue health, and 60% on red health. Learn punishes - they are perfect for re-obtaining your offence!

Saisyu really doesn't want to be on the defence a lot. Make sure to remember this section here, and use all your options to their best abilities.

• DP is your easiest way out of pressure
• With meter, GCRoll and GCCD work well
• Abare with 2A and cl.C on large gaps in pressure
• Make sure to remember anti-airing for hop pressure
• Don't use 236236C as a reversal, it's too slow
• Learn your punishes!

Saisyu has decent defensive options, and you must make the absolute most out of them to get out of pressure and gain your advantage back.

Offence

Saisyu's main strength is his offence. From the ground or the air, his close range options are what really bring him into his own when it comes to offence. Due to the sheer amount of tools that Saisyu has to give himself plus frames from short range, his pressure game is incredibly freeform, allowing you to loop into a guard crush, be patient and frametrap or go straight in with a mixup. To gain these plus frames, your main tools will be hop CD, 6B and 2A. 6B is +7 on block, so, despite it's startup, you should learn how to work it into your offence in order to reap it's rewards. You really need to keep the heat on with Saisyu, and his kit fits that role perfectly. To top it all off, both your light and heavy meterless combo enders grant you a hard knockdown. This knockdown is incredibly important, no matter the system mechanics you're using. It allows you to set up an ambiguous roll crossup, gives you time to charge some Extra meter, perform a meaty of choice and generally do anything that lets you re-establish your offensive presence. Make sure you always route into 623K meterlessly. With Extra gauge, take the hard knockdown's time to charge up your meter. With Advanced, the meter build comes naturally. Once this meter is built, Saisyu gains access to fantastic damage, boosted even more with Extra's Quick MAX. Make sure to always charge your meter when you score a hard knockdown.

Mixups are one of the core parts of effective Saisyu play. 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, for a very solid high/low game. Strike/throw is also something to note here, with Saisyu's throws giving him solid knockdowns. For crossups, j.B and j.D both have hitboxes to allow them, and this will easily link into a full heavy starter. Learn your spacings, and learn how to hyperhop. There is no exaggeration that Saisyu's mixups, if done correctly, can make the opponent's head spin, so learn them, get used to them, and harness their power.

To summarise:

• Hop CD, 6B and 2A for plus frames.
• 6B is +7 on block
• High/low with 6A, 63214K, hop B and 2B
• Left/right with hyperhop j.B/j.D
• Use running throws and empty jumps to catch people off-guard
• Charge after a hard knockdown

Saisyu's pressure and mixups are phenomenal and freeform, and so you must learn how to use them effectively and creatively.