VF5FS Kage Strategy

Introduction(top)

Kage has always been a very unique character in every iteration of Virtua Fighter, and Final Showdown is no exception. He has the ability to combine speed and safety, along with great strings that often contain mid-level attacks to prevent the opponent from regularly interrupting. This allows him to use pokes for long periods until he can set up something bigger. He often has the ability to cancel into stances or enter them after being guarded and has several unique moves to counter specific options from the opponent, limiting their moveset. He has great throws and legitimate mid/low mixups, along with a large array of half-circular moves. He can also fight effectively from any range. Against Kage the opponent can never be sure of themselves.

The trade-off for all this is his comparatively low damage output. In general, Kage needs to land more hits than his opponent to win and cannot heavily punish them for making mistakes. His higher damage options are usually slow and are built to counter specific threats (such as defeating high moves) so you will need good yomi to be successful with these as they are often susceptible to faster launchers.

Nitaku(top)

Nitaku, or two-choice guessing game, is one of Kage's stronger areas. This is due to his best two launchers for this situation having comparable damage to the rest of the cast, coupled with his excellent throw game and circular moves. He can often negate multiple defensive options simultaneously.

When you have +6 or better (+5 vs Taka) you can force the opponent into defending either / or throw since they can no longer crouch under your throw attempt and your launchers will out-speed and counter-hit any attempted attack from them.

A common defensive option for the opponent from these situations is simply guarding throw-escape. Attempting a throw against this is still a good option since they can only escape 1/3 directions and his direction throw is a very large threat that will open the door to a lot of success on the other directions. You can also use a low attack such as or his hit-throw which will still work against guard. Options like this are slow and will lose to abare so be careful, but keep in mind if you're forcing them to abare then you're creating opportunities to launch them.

Another defensive option for the opponent is evading throw-escape. Again, throwing is still a good option against this since the odds are in your favour. Kage also has a plethora of half-circular attacks that are useful from this situation. and are fast enough to beat abare and cover Kage's back. is also mid so it will beat even low attacks such as . has the advantage of being advantage even on guard and easily hit-checked into if you score a counter-hit on their evade. is another option here for a good combo, but only if the opponent doesn't/can't cancel their evades since it is slow. Since these options are all quite good, the opponent may choose to make a habit of evading towards Kage's front. To beat this Kage has , , and . Be mindful that the first three are high and is too slow to beat until you have +7 or better.

Side Turned(top)

What are this character's options for side turning the opponent with an attack or throw?
What are the optimal follow-ups when the opponent is side turned?
Do the options vary due to ring position?
What are the optimal follow-ups when you successfully evade an attack that recovers standing or crouching?

Combos(top)

Any additional notes about combos (e.g. favouring one over another due to ring position)
Discuss techniques that can be used for 1 frame delays

Wake-up Strategies(top)

Okizeme(top)

Baiting and punishing whiffed rising attacks
Guaranteed punishment after blocking certain rising attacks

Ukemizeme(top)

Ideal attacks to pressure with
Option selects between attack or down attack
Meaties

Ring Position(top)

Wall Pressure(top)

How to induce, and follow-up, wall staggers
How to induce, and follow-up, wall side stuns

Ring Out(top)

Ideal ways to ring out over half fences
Ideal combos that carry good distance (for ring out)

Other(top)

Stances.
Anything else is unique about the character?