Overview

Pros

• Ken has an extremely scary close and mid-range offensive game, with Quick Step cancels and Thunder Kick feints to engage opponents.
• He has a useful full-screen projectile as well as a relatively safe long-range engagement tool using HK Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, supplementing his aggressive-based archetype.
• Access to one of the most powerful V-Triggers in the game changes him into an incredibly dominating character.
• With an invincible Shoryuken, he can take back tempo of a match by deflecting a jumping attack or blowing through an adversary’s aggression.
• Standing is an effective mid-range poke with high priority, beating out many mid-section pokes, as well as certain crouching MK attacks.

Cons

• He has limited mid-range attacks, and crouching is one of the weakest crouching medium attacks in the game.
• Quick Step cancels can be punished on block, making many of his techniques risky against experienced players.
• All normal versions of Hadoken are unsafe in up-close blockstrings.

Ken has always been the exemplary offense-based Shotokan fighter and, in SFV, these qualities are amplified. Many of his basic combos and links are easy to execute, but he also has access to an abundance of situational combos that require a deep understanding of the character in order to optimize damage output.

Your objective is to identify holes in your opponent’s defense and capitalize on them through advancing moves like Quick Step and Thunder Kick Feint. Achieve this by:

• Using the threat of your Hadoken at range to keep the opponent guessing, allowing you some control in how Ken advances
• Threatening the opponent with standing at mid range, forcing out a bad jump that you can anti-air with MP Shoryuken or crouching
• Taking calculated risks and engaging from long distances with HK Tatsumaki Senpukyaku or Quick Step
• Landing a knockdown with one of your many combos to gain tempo and eventually corner your adversary