Ibuki is coming to Street Fighter 5 with the June update (that also includes Story Mode), and fans have been eagerly awaiting their chance to learn all of the new strategies surrounding this character. We took an early peek at what Ibuki has to offer, and while she differs quite a bit from her Street Fighter 4 incarnation, she should appeal to the same kind of player. If you’re a high-risk, high-reward type of player who likes to play characters with high damage output, but low health, Ibuki should be right up your alley.
Kunai
One of the biggest changes when it comes to Ibuki is that she no longer has an infinite supply of kunai readily available. Instead, she can only stock six kunai at a time and has the ability to restock her kunai one at a time, or charge her restock to collect as many as six kunai at once. Of course there’s risk involved with restocking your kunai. If you’re hit anytime during the restock animation, you don’t get any of the kunai. While it should be easy to figure out setups to allow Ibuki to restock a single kunai, it may be more difficult to find a safe time to restock all six.
Another change with Ibuki’s kunai is the fact that she can now throw three different strength kunai on the ground, as well as an air kunai. On the ground she can throw a kunai close to her, near the middle of the screen, or all the way across the screen. All of these kunai land on the ground, however if you charge for a moment you can send a bevy of kunai straight forward like a more traditional projectile attack. You can shoot a fast series of kunai, a wider set of kunai that’s more difficult to avoid, or shot your kunai diagonally into the air. In addition, while airborne Ibuki can only throw kunai while jumping forward or straight up.
The EX version of the kunai added an explosive to the end of it that knocks an opponent into the air. This allows you to follow with a juggle of some sort which can really allow you to start Ibuki’s extensive mix-up game. With all of the different kunai options, Ibuki can be a handful so long as you manage your kunai inventory well, but that’s not all she has going for her.
V-Skill
Ibuki’s V-Skill is similar to Karen’s. She emits a ki blast from the palm of her hand that stops projectiles. You can charge her V-Skill to extend the range of the ki blast, but either way this is primarily used as a way to avoid projectile attacks. Of course after a knockdown you can mix up between the normal V-Skill and a charged V-Skill depending on whether or not the opponent teched instantly or used a delayed tech.
V-Trigger
When you use Ibuki’s V-Trigger she tosses a bomb toward the opponent that lands on the ground. You can have the bomb explode immediately or with a delayed fuse depending on your combo and setup applications. As soon as you activate Ibuki’s V-Trigger, the first bomb is thrown. You then have a set time period to throw a second bomb while the V-Trigger gauge slowly depletes. As soon as you throw the second bomb, the V-Trigger gauge will be gone.
It’s best to use the bomb in conjunction with Ibuki’s kunai options, as well as her general cross-up shenanigans with her trademark command dash (which can stop in front of or behind the opponent, or becomes a jump similar to Chun-Li’s V-Skill). There are a lot of different ways you can keep the opponent guessing when you’re playing as Ibuki, but if you get caught, it’s going to hurt.
Stay tuned to Prima Games as we’ll have more on Ibuki and Street Fighter 5 in the coming weeks!
