Black Shroud
Samurai Shodown Community ******
Actually, each character has some sort of strength, its just you need to dig more into some of them.
Kuuga: all of his forms can use Gouram as link between combos, resulting in longer combos, Mighty form's kicks powerup as they hit, Dragon Form basically delivers a non-stop barrage of hits, Pegasus has big defence+big variety of shots+can evade everrything with gouram flight, Titan is just a monster with his superarmor+defence+damage+gouram links+easily kills DiEnd's summon with his backhit combo.
Agito: Ground form controls the ground, if he knocks you down, big chances are you wont get up safely, being knocked down again and again and again with his rider kick. Agito Trinity mosntrous long combos and loops, easy 70-75% of lifebar per combo, can easily take 2 lifebars while being in Trinity form.
Ryuki: Unblockables and unblockables all over arena. Changes fighting style for 3 types of gameplay: 1)knockback and charge rider gauge 2)damaging combo style up close 3)annoying long-range fireball style that also has safe spammable and very annoying 11 combo, making it the best style. With empty rider gauge, charged rider kick = unblockable homing 50% of lifebar damage. Survive form is balanced, but not too reliant on special moves since you should score 5 tractor beam hits on opponent for them to do best damage, and Tractor Beam leaves opponent wide open. However spam support attack instead and you have chances to tractor beam busy opponent, and then use Survive's big unblockable combos.
Faiz: weak defence but has most damaging air rider kick, and paralyze move. Paralyse move allows him to combo into super. Auto Vajin summon and Crimson Smash can chain in each other both ways most of time, and Auto Vajin also connects on laying down opponent, which is the bread&butter for his combos. Axel Form renders most of opponents helpless and you can empty 1.5 of opponent's lifebars during its duration with a combo.
Blade: Simple, big defence power, big attack power (+powerup bonus) and can hack opponent to pieces up close. Lightning Sonic dash punishes every action of opponent (like Kabal's move in Mortal Kombat). Blade King owns up close with unblockable lightning spam that also can prolong his combos, owns on mid distance with Royal Straight Flush, and owns on long distance with Royal Straight Flush Shockwave (flushes become uber damaging and guard breaking once they are channeled through all the 5 cards). The only safe place against Blade is in air, since he has slowest rider kick in game (use it only to waste time if opponent goes in Clock Up / Axel)
Hibiki: Big combos, can turn opponent around and connect anything (including super!) into his back, annoying Ghost Flame, his support attack (Raging Flame Blast) setups many combos by juggling opponent. Kurenai Form has defense drop but constantly heals, while keeping opponent busy with Raging Flame Blast spam and prolonged drumming. Gameplan for Kurenai is not to allow opponent to hit you and heal while you keep opponent busy.
Kabuto: Not for beginners, all 3 of his moves are useful, but you should time Counter Kick. Even though it does 12% damage, you can combo it into d+22 for 36% damage. In basic form, Kabuto has good setups for Counter Kick like 111 or d+111, since after you stop attacking opponent will use opening to punish you and will be always caught by Counter Kick which was inputted right afterwards. Kabuto's basic combos all knockback so he can charge Rider Gauge safely, and his teleport prevents opponent from doing the same. Kabuto also can use teleport assaults into throw or d+22 to get opponent from any position on screen; Falling Kunai Stab can also start combos up to 43%. In Clock Up, Kabuto can empty 1.5 to 1.8 lifebars of opponent, and is devastating when used against basic forms of opponents who dont have unlimited Counter Attacks to ward him off; and since he mostly goes into 2nd form first, opponent's health goes down quickly.
Den-O: DenLiner Bombardment support attack is something like territory-covering nuke with kinda random damage output, but can be useful, especially during combos. Sword Form isnt too good, its specialty is mid-range combat where it uses charged Extreme Slash ver.2 to break opponent's guard. Rod Form is very good with safe projectiles, paralyse move, multitude of long combos (can take 1 to 1.2 lifebars with longest of them) and can turn opponent around and connect anything into his back. Axe Form is a monster with superarmor, big defence, and can score 85% of lifebar combos off an unblockable hit. Gun Form is relatively weak, because its damage output is too random, and it leaves itself open quite often. Its specialty seems to be burst shots that go 3 ways and cant be roll evaded, and tick damage from his special moves. You can try to combine Jump Spinshots, DenLiner Bombardment and Breakdance Shot and you have chances to get 80-90% damage, but those are small because of randomized damage output.
Zeronos: When he warns you that he is fairly strong, he doesnt jokes. Altair Form is close-combat hack machine that can take like 70% with easy combo, has annoying step kick chains, can combo into super, AND can hold its own on long range with projectiles. Vega Form is basically a tank with uber high defence, and "win button" in form of his support attack (unblockable shot barrage that does 48%...come on), and other kinds of projectiles to complement it. Both forms can combo off their Counter Attack (Juggle Shot Barrage), and since Vega Form can do those non-stop, it means opponent will take 40% damage each time he lands a hit on Vega.
Kiva: low defence, big attack power with powerup, but is a strictly up close fighter, so long-range characters will own him. Support and Counter are useful but you are better saving energy to go into Emperor Form. Emperor Form is close to a perfect character (even though its defence is medium), its all-around great, can charge its sword to deliver guard breaking hits, deliver combos that take up to 1 lifebar, can spam unblockable castle doran fireballs to cover himself, can spam unescapeable castle doran falling press counterattack and can combo off of it into 81% damage, and destroy's DiEnd's Ouja Summon with Dogga Hammer.
IXA: Save Mode is a mediocre close-range fighter, which has useful support attack to prolong combos. Burst Mode is much, much better, since
-its support attack allows multiple combo resets, as well as can initiate combos off laying down opponent
-its counter attack is super fast unblockable shove, which is why Ixa Burst dominates over superspeed chars (Clock Up Kabuto and Axel Faiz). Their speed isnt enough to retaliate to this fast shove.
-can Rider Cancel its combos like now tomorrow, you can hack your opponent as much as you want (well damage of each consecutive hit lessens though)
-can do 60-80% combos even without use of Rider Cancel. Basically you can just mix support and d+22 like stuff and you can go into big combos
-Calibur Mode special move (shot + sword swipe) can be used to score a bonus hit on laying down opponent after your combos
DiEnd: All aroung great, owns at long range with damaging shots, owns on short range with 111 combo that is followable with alot of stuff (you can input 111 again, or you can use it to combo in super!, etc), can powerup to get homing projectiles that always hit opponent (or even guard breaking homing projectiles), and lets try to not forget the KamenRide: Ouja he has instead of 2nd form; Ouja is basically a biggest annoyance in game, he likes to backstab you, and if you get caught between Ouja and DiEnd you can lose 1 lifebar already... plus added bonus of disabled support/counter attacks thanks to DiEnd's Dimension Portal being on screen for whole duration.
Decade: A character with easy strong combos, ability to fill rider gauge fast (thanks to his taunts) - is able to go into 2nd form earlier than his opponent, and has useful projectile which knocks down Ouja from 1 hit, and Ouja never regains his senses afterwards. His secondary forms are basically first forms of other riders with bonus of spammable support/counter attacks, which gives them new strategies. Decade's biggest strength lies in his customizes aka Final Form Rides. Strongest are: Den-O Climax (125% damage output + superarmor), Ryuki Dragreder (prolongs combos), Faiz Blaster (for major damage fullscreen punisher), Agito Tornador (instant fullscreen-distance attack, great as counterattack). Customize Decade can score up to 1 lifebar with a combo, while non-customize one can pull max 60% combo.
Dark Decade: Decade with big damage boost/defence boost, but without Final Form Rides. Well, the duded who can nearly empty a lifebar with simple 6-hit combo that you can teach 3 years old kids to do, really doesnt needs Final Form Rides. His defence rating is biggest in game, and all his secondary forms have boosted attack/defence power as well, which makes him arguably top tier. If there would be tourneys, this guy would be most likely banned.
