Hokuto no Ken/Raoh

Introduction

Raoh is slow, powerful, and more than anything else, a combo character. He can generally be characterized by long 100% combos and his horrible defense. Raoh is without a doubt one of the hardest characters to learn, on par with Juda, due to the large learning curve. His lack of a reliable reversal move without having a powerup stock means he has almost no way of escaping pressure. Getting locked down in the corner in the first round and subsequently losing the entire match without doing anything at all is a common losing patern for Raoh. All in all, he is a very strong character despite his weaknesses, but is not one that can be recommended to beginners. That being said, let us start this section off by listing Raoh's main strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths:

• No gauge 100% combos from almost any hit
• Combos involving Traveling recover a large amount of Boost while generally giving the opponent less than one bar, giving Raoh a big advantage in the next round
• Decent star reducing ability and easy 3 star combos
• Good matchups against the lowers tiers
• Has a large collection of gimmick combos you can use to mentally destroy your opponents

Weaknesses:

• Bad matchups against Toki and Rei
• No backdash (his KOF98-esque "fade" is mostly useless and will often be the cause of your demise when you accidentally use it trying to fuzzy Musou/Agility Guard)
• Switching guard from high to low/low to high takes 8 frames due to a hardware bug, making quick overheads extremely hard to block
• Can be crossed up in the corner
• Defense relies heavily on Musou or powerup stocks; has no way to get out of pressure without gauge
• Poor mixup

Before diving right into the combos be sure to familiarize yourself with Raoh's special/super moves and important normals.

Normal Moves

See Normal Moves section.

Special Moves

See Special Moves section.

Combos

See Combos section.

Matchups

Kenshiro

Raoh is considered to have the advantage in this matchup, due largely to the fact that Kenshiro is extremely easy to combo, but this is by no means an easy fight. While Raoh is capable of killing Kenshiro from pretty much any hit, getting that hit can be difficult if you find yourself under pressure early in the match. In the worst case scenario, which is Kenshiro scores the first hit and gets you knocked down in the corner, you are put in a very sticky situation. You pretty much have to guard his next mixup otherwise you will end up dizzied, and before you know it you will be in the second round with 1 star and no Musou. In addition to this, Raoh is also the easiest character for Kenshiro to use his Dribble combo on - against any competent Kenshiro user you are more than likely dead if you get hit when he has a bar of Boost stocked. For these reasons, you will want to take the initiative at the start of the round and build meter for Musou. Once you get Musou things get a bit easier as Kenshiro has to exercise caution when approaching you. Of course, the same is true for Raoh as well when Kenshiro has Musou, which is why it is so important to get the advantage early. This does not mean you need to rush in and try to make something happen - on the contrary, as long as you stay out of range of Kenshiro's far D, Raoh has the advantage in footsies so waiting for him to make a mistake is fine. Raoh's 2B and 2D will beat out Kenshiro's ground attacks, and his air-dashes can be dealt with with far B. At the opening of the round your best option is crouch guarding or walking backwards. If you try to jump you will get hit by far D so you will want to avoid this. Every once is a while you can throw in a 2D to mix things up - if Kenshiro is going for a far D or some other move you will hit him and can follow up with a Grave Shoot or Insatsu, winning you the round right there! On the defense it is important to understand that due to hardware lag, Raoh has a great deal of difficulty guarding Kenshiro's air dash B on reaction. In this matchup the use of fuzzy guard and fuzzy jump to get out of pressure is imperative. Also, while it is often the case that you have no choice but to guard, if there is a hole in Kenshiro's attack string a quick air-to-air A > B > Sai will beat out his air dash B and win you the round. One thing you never want to do is use a Guard Cancel on Kenshiro's 2B, or any weak attack for that matter. Kenshiro recovers way before the Guard Cancel goes off, and you will eat a 3 star combo and end up knocked down in the corner. While this goes for Guard Canceling against any opponent, it is very important to carefully pick your spots. Additionally, with a well-timed 2B Kenshiro can also bait your reversal after a knock down, recovering in time to guard. You will want to be very cautious with your reversals when you don't have gauge to cancel in the case that Kenshiro guards your attack. This is a good matchup that can go either way, so you will want to make sure your combos are well practiced and your footsies game is solid.

Raoh

Probably the worst mirror match in the game next to Heart vs Heart. This match is all about who hits who first and thus wins the round. Raoh is extremely easy to combo, so you want to make any hit mean death to your opponent. As one hit will mean death for you as well, you need to play extremely tight and avoid anything too risky, especially when your opponent has Boost or Aura. Raoh's mixup is terrible and you should obviously be very familiar with it so there is nothing wrong with going on the defense and waiting for your opponent to make a mistake. One thing to note is that Raoh's bread and butter string of ~2B > far D, which connects during a combo, is not a continuous string while blocking. This means that you can fit a counter hit chop to the head in and win the round if you get a read on your opponent(For example if they always do 2A > 2B > 2B > D~). In general luck is a big factor in Raoh mirror, but it is important to play safe and keep your cool even when you are in a seemingly hopeless situation - remember, it only takes one hit to win the round!

Toki

Raoh's worst matchup is, as you probably guessed, Toki! Toki's strengths need no introduction - specifically of note in this matchup, Toki is able to cross up Raoh in the corner, and his 6D hits as a high attack. It is very important that you try to get Musou activated or at least a powerup stock charged up before Toki manages to close in on you and turn on the pressure. Without either, things will usually get messy very fast. Fuzzy jump is also a must in this matchup for escaping Toki's insane rushdown. Generally when guarding your best bet is to stay standing most of the time since Toki's only low, 2B, doesn't see that much use and has a pretty slow startup. This is quite counter-intuitive and it can be hard to get used to, but it is definitely worth it. You will however want to throw in a little bit of low guarding every now and again so your opponent doesn't catch on. Toki can at times be difficult to combo, especially on his stage due to the lag on the left side. As an alternative to going for Traveling, Raoh's Dribble is also viable option, and worth practicing to perfection. As in Raoh's matchup against Rei, you need to take advantage of every opportunity you get if you want to have any hope of victory.

Shin

This is a decent matchup, until Raoh activates Musou that is, at which point there is little left for Shin to do. Shin's main normals he uses for zoning are far C and 2B. Once you get Musou Shin can no longer rely on far C, and his 2B can easily be beaten by Raoh's own 2B. One important point to remember about this matchup is that Raoh has a guard gauge against Shin. If it starts getting low and/or Shin has Boost, you could be in trouble. Between his crossups and command throw Shin also has a solid wakeup game, which can make Raoh's life quite miserable. Don't forget that Raoh can get crossed up in the corner! If you have Musou available you can quickly do 4 > 6 > neutral when waking up, which will get you either an agility guard or Musou depending on which direction you are attacked from. After guarding Shin's Gokutoken, you can usually follow up with a Grave Shoot - technically speaking you need to Agility Guard it to get a guaranteed hit, but most of the time your opponent will not be able to Aura Guard in time to block it. Shin is quite hard to perform Ura-sai on - you will want to make sure you are well practiced in the Shin-specific routes, otherwise you will find yourself dropping a lot of combos. However, as long as you play a solid game and aim to active Musou as soon as possible, you shouldn't have that much trouble winning this matchup.

Rei

Rei is a very tough matchup for Raoh. Rei's speed and great normals make him extremely effective at keeping up the pressure, and once he gets Raoh locked down in the corner that can spell the end of the whole match. Your strategy here should be similar to that you would take against Kenshiro: distance yourself and wait for a good opportunity, try to be the one to make first contact, and activate Musou as soon as possible. You should also be aiming to charge some powerup stocks any time you have the opportunity, as being able to use powerup chop gives you an actual option to get out of pressure, and forces Rei to think a bit when approaching you. It is also very important to use discretion when choosing where to Guard Cancel, as Rei has plenty of options for baiting them. Ura-sai can be relatively difficult to perform on Rei, making him one of the harder characters to combo in some situations. On the other hand, Traveling is quite easy to pull off on him. Also, if you manage to score a hit on Rei while he is crouching and you have or are close to having a bar of Boost, you can easily chain into Raoh's infinite. As this is such a hard match, you really want to make sure you have your Rei-specific combos down pat, because if you miss an opportunity chances are you wont get another one.

Juda

Juda is without a doubt Raoh's best matchup of the top 3 - he is extremely easy to combo and many of his setups can be escaped with the help of Musou Tensei. At the same time Raoh's lack of a backstep makes things tougher for him until he is able to activate Musou. Juda is very easy to cross up, so you will want to use this to your advantage as much as possible. Aside from just air dash B, you can also try to aim for some harder-to-see setups like high jump (air dash) D. Against Judas dam super, Agility Defence > throw or BD throw is your best bet to avoid the water and debris, and if you have Boost you can follow up with a nice combo as well. Also important to remember is that Juda's Banishing Strike has an unreal amount of active frames - even when it looks like he has missed with it you will often receive a counter hit if you try to punish him too early. It is best to exercise caution when Juda is throwing Banishing Strikes around. While generally a garbage move, against Juda ground Goushouha, especially the powerup version, can function well in punishing him when he is setting up land mines etc. Keep in mind that it is still by no means safe, and should not be used when Juda has a Boost stock available. Another move that normally doesn't see much use but can be useful against Juda is Tenshou Honretsu. A common setup for Juda at the end of a combo is 2D > Dagar Rush > max Banishing - in such a situation a reversal Honretsu will take out both Juda and Dagar and net you big damage as well as a nice 3 stars. You can think of it as a really ghetto Sekkakou. While certainly not an easy match, Raoh has a slight advantage overall, and once you get used to Juda's setups you shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with him.

Thouther

Thouther is similar to Mamiya in that he is great on the offense but terrible on defense. Raoh has a definite advantage, however one wrong move can easily spell death. Once Thouther takes a round things start to look bleak, as in most cases you will be starting the next round with 1 star. Thouther is easy to combo for the most part, but as he has such low health most 100% combos cause him to die before you are able to start building meter. Since he has a guard gauge going for a Chikuseki wakeup can be a very viable alternative option. As many of Thouther's mixup options simply can not be guarded on reaction, this is another matchup where the use of fuzzy guard and fuzzy jump is very important. A few of Raoh's moves are particularly useful against Thouther. First off is Raretsuken, which has two main uses in this matchups. For one, it is great for pressuring as is takes off a huge amount of Thouther's guard gauge. Also, it will go right though his Bakuseiha fireballs and counter hit him, causing wall-bounce. Combined with Boost this can be a deadly way to close the distance and punish his fireballs. Also notable is that Raretsuken is the only move you can punish Thouther's Houshoujuujihou(the one where he flies up then comes back down) reversal super with, unless you were able to Agility Guard it. This will counter-hit, so ideally you will want to follow it with boost to continue into a wall-bounce combo. Another useful move is ground Goushouha, which can be used to take out Thouther and his fireballs in one stroke from a distance. Against Thouther users who like to high-jump and throw a fireball right away at the start of the round, this move can be used every once in a while to shake them up. Keep in mind that the startup and recovery are both huge so caution is necessary when using it. If you are able to avoid Thouther's lock down and maintain control of the match, you should be able to make quick work of him.

Jagi

Jagi sucks. Really bad. I mean he is cool and using him makes you awesome, but let's face the facts. Raoh outclasses Jagi in pretty much all areas, and Jagi is also the easiest character for Raoh to combo along with Kenshiro. The match pretty much ends as soon as Raoh actives Musou Tensei, as this makes most of Jagi's moves and mixups unsafe. If your opponent is capable of using Jagi's magical Basuke combo then you will want to avoid getting thrown or hit with his overhead near the corner when he has more than 2 Boost. When Jagi takes a hit while crouching he recovers extremely fast(think the opposite of Rei), and because of this 2B > far D will not combo. In the event you do hit him while he is crouching you will want to connect 2B to 2D and follow up with a (Boost) Grave Shoot or Instatsu. Jagi has two combo enders that can be a pain if you don't know how to get out of them. The first is 'Gas Hame,' which is done by ending a Banishing Strike combo with a match and then dashing in and dropping gas barrels over and over, causing the match to ignite the barrels and continuously knock you down. This can be escaped using Musou, a Guard Cancel, or any move with big invulnerability like Honretsu or powerup chop. The other, known as 'Misora-shiki,' is likewise done by ending a Banishing Strike combo with a match, and then using his gas super with a slight delay so it covers the ground under you. This results in the gas igniting in a huge fire when you get up, and will net Jagi a bit over a full bar of Boost if you guard it. This is generally followed up by a Heavy Strike or other mixup, which using the boost gained allows Jagi to reset into another Banishing Strike combo. This however is extremely easy to counter - if you have Musou activated you can just Musou it, otherwise it is safe to simply not guard and take a small amount of damage from the fire. If you are low on health without Musou and can't afford to take the hit you can also Guard Cancel just before the Heavy Strike connects, although the fire still hits sometimes anyways for reasons unexplained. Also it should be noted that Jagi's Rakangeki super is guaranteed to counterhit after blocking any of Raoh's normals and most specials, taking two stars and a good amount of health. Overall this is a really easy match and you should easily win most of the time.

Mr. Heart

While Raoh is generally considered to be at a 7:3 advantage, he is also the easiest character for heart to use his BD throw infinite on, making it an easy matchup to lose. Heart can get a guaranteed Guard Cancel off on all of Raoh's normals, which makes it very difficult to approach him when he has half a bar of Aura or more. The one exception to this is an air dash C preformed near the end of the dash animation, as it has 0 recovery on landing and thus allows you to Agility Defend or Musou Heart's guard cancel. Heart is very similar to Raoh in that his defense relies heavily on having meter, making the start of the first round the most important part of the match. You will want to go on the offensive right away, and try to score a hit before heart gets enough Aura to Guard Cancel. at the start of the match the worst heart can do is hit you with a Banishing Strike combo for ~50% or so, so it is quite acceptable to be a bit risky in your offense. Once he has Guard Cancel gauge the whole match changes. It becomes very risky to apply pressure, so at this point you should switch to high jumping around and throwing fireballs, powering up when you make Heart guard one. As long as you stay out of his anti-air throw range and avoid eating an Earthcrush, there is very little heart can do, and he will be forced to take some risks and go on the offensive. If your opponent doesn't do anything you can just sit there all day throwing fireballs until you win by time up. Otherwise you want to capitalize on any mistakes they make. Whenever Heart stores up Super Armor with his air C, you want to remove it with air Goushouha before he gets close. Keep in mind that if he Aura Guards it he won't lose the armor, so just keep shooting until he either gives up or loses all his Aura. It is good to remember that Tenshou Honretsu can be used to negate his Kempou Goroshi okizeme. You can also Boost backdash/Musou activate through it and then combo him, but this is much harder to pull off and mostly falls into the gimmick category. Due to his poor mobility Heavy Strikes and max Banishing Strikes can be used quite effectively against Heart, although both come with risk. Also since you will often have lot of powerup stocks left over from throwing around fireballs, charge air C and even 2D can also be quite deadly. All-in-all Raoh is at a definite advantage, but it is necessary to make significant changes to your strategy in comparison to how you would fight most characters, and failure to do so will likely result in a quick loss against any decent Heart user.

Mamiya

Mamiya is a 6:4 favorite in this match, in theory. The reality however is that very few players play Mamiya at all, and of those even fewer are capable of using her to her full potential. Against any but these select few this is a pretty easy match. With her great mobility, crazy projectiles, and unblockable wakeups, Mamiya does pose a threat if you let her get on the offense. Once on defense however, she drops extremely quickly. As she posses a guard gauge vs Raoh, the best course of action to take upon landing a hit is often to go for a Chikuseki wakeup as opposed to a 100% combo. This will allow you to take off most of Mamiya's stars and build up a ton of meter, making the second round very easy to win. One thing it is important to note is that in the event you bait Mamiya's Guard Cancel with a chop, it will not Counter Hit as she recovers extremely fast. To follow up it is necessary to use Insatsu or Boost. In this matchup you really want to take the fight to Mamiya right away and keep the pressure up the whole time. If you are able to do this then you should be able to come out ahead most of the time.