Season 5 – Kensei Update

Season 5 – Fighter Update – Kensei

Why do we want to improve Kensei?

We feel Kensei didn’t have a good way of opening up the opponent – someone dedicated to defense could block most of what the Kensei launched. And if the Kensei did reach the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher, the opponent could just roll away and completely ignore the mix-up.

How do we approach improving Kensei for Season 5?

It’s important when changing a character to first try to understand the “soul of the character”, do our best to preserve that, and try to make it shine even brighter. In Kensei’s case, we can feel the “soul of the character” in the mix-up game of the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher – it feels satisfying to land, and Kensei has ways to shortcut into this mix-up from Guard Breaks and Dodge attacks.

Between the Top Heavy Mix-up, Swift Strikes coming from the opposite direction as Dodge, and the current reliance on Feints, we feel that the “soul of the Kensei” is that it likes to show attacks, but be a bit tricky with what the real attack is. So bearing that in mind, let’s see how we can improve the fighting ability throughout the “soul of the Kensei”.

Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher

Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher’s existing Cancels into Side Light Finisher, Side Heavy Finisher, and Dodge now start 200ms later (this means they now start match the same branching timing as Feint)

Swift Strike and 2nd Heavy Attack in the Chains now cause Heavy Hit Reactions

New animation(!)

Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher hasn’t done a great job of hitting opponents – some of the reason for this was the Cancels into Side Finishers happened too early in the strike animation. This meant that high-level opponents had the time they needed to identify the real attack, and not get tricked into parrying the wrong thing.

Our first change moves the start of the Side Cancels to start as late in the strike as the Feint does – this should make it better at tricking the opponent. We also changed the animation of the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher, so that it better blends into Dodge and these Side Cancels.

Another reason the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher was weak was that if Kensei reached it from a Swift Strike or 2nd Heavy in the Chain, that hit caused a “medium hit reaction”, so the opponent could recover in time to stuff the Kensei with a fast Light attack. So now, Swift Strike and the 2nd Chained Heavies cause a “heavy hit reaction”, meaning the opponent no longer has time to stuff you with a Light.

NEW MOVE: Nature’s Wrath

NEW MOVE: Forward Dodge + Heavy Attack

800ms Top Heavy Attack

New animation(!)

“Nature’s Wrath” is a new Forward Dodge + Heavy attack with very high forward movement. Kensei can already cancel the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher into Dodge, which can now go into this new move Nature’s Wrath and punish the opponent’s roll.

(We gave Nature’s Wrath the old Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher’s animation, since that animation was really iconic and we wanted to preserve it.)

Note that Nature’s Wrath can be followed up by a Finisher – including the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher, and put the opponent right back into the mix-up. We hope with this new ability to punish roll-away, Kensei’s Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher mix-up will become the threat it was always meant to be.

NEW MOVE: Pommel Strike

NEW MOVE: Top Heavy Opener can be cancelled into a Melee [with Guard Break button]

400ms Unblockable Melee

New animation(!)

This Unblockable Melee forces the opponent to take an action, or the Kensei will land this hit. This Pommel Strike guarantees a follow-up Light – and that Light will be the 2nd hit in the chain.

We wanted to make it a Cancel rather than a move directly from neutral or dodge, because it seemed to fit with the “soul of the character” as the tricky mix-up artist.

Top Heavy Mix-ups

Top Heavy Opener can now be cancelled into Side Light Opener, Side Heavy Opener, Dodge, or Pommel Strike.

Top Heavy 2nd Chained Strike can now be cancelled into Side Light 2nd Chained Strike, Side Heavy 2nd Chained Strike, Dodge, or Guard Break.

Top Heavy Finisher can now be cancelled into Side Light Finisher, Side Heavy Finisher, Dodge, or Guard Break.

3-hit chains added: H > L > L H > L > H H > H > L L > H > L

Edited animations: Side Lights that are Cancelled into are 500ms. All Light Finishers are now 500ms (were 600ms Top, 700ms Side).

We like how the Pommel Strike Cancel kind of mirrors the “Cancel” trickery of the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher’s Cancel options, so we took this direction as an opportunity to let Kensei feel the “soul of the character” strongly throughout the entire character - and make even the 2nd attack in the chain useful.

Since we were giving the Kensei more freedom in the chain with these new Cancels, we decided to also relax the Kensei’s chain rules. Now, Kensei can do a chain of any 3 hits together, regardless of Light or Heavy input. We hope that with these simplified chain rules, Kensei will remain easy-to-learn, but hold hidden depth with the Cancels.

Zone Attack

Zone Attack now hits 3 times First strike is 500ms Second strike hits behind Third strike hits forward again and can be Cancelled

New animation(!)

We’re reworked Zone Attack into a move that should find use in both 1v1 and group fight situations.

More information

Check out the articles for the Berserker and Conqueror updates here on http://www.forhonorgame.com!

Also, check out our Parry Changes.

And patch notes can be found here: http://www.forhonorgame.com/patchnotes

See you on the field of battle!