Been playing my friend alot lately. We will probably record matches on Friday so look forward to that. I have fallen out of love with Kiva. Very reliant on meter and normals. Doesnt have enough extra oompfh. Good mobility, but when faced against a character who's normals are as good or better it feels like fighting a real uphill battle. Against my friends Todoroki I really felt a difference in the abilities of our normals. In Emporer form of course things are better since Kiva hits much harder, is safer and faster. Which brings me to the my point that Kiva in his base form is way too weak. I think he is in the bottom 5 for damage. He needs break the chain active to do any real damage. His other special bloody punch is garbage and Zanbat Sword in Emperor form is garbage too. How is it that Climax den O can get armor on his running slash, but Kiva can't get armor on his slow specials?
I also felt the difference in ability when fighting my friends V3. His specials are fast and pretty safe with good hitboxes that can stuff alot of moves. His striker Riderman is unblockable and sets up a free special for good damage. And V3s normals are just as good as Kiva's. I feel Kiva is too reliant on basic gameplay to be a top char, but that's ok because his brother is amazing and Kiva is better in Emperor form anyway which is how it should be I guess.
Still I think Power Up Style chars got shafted overall. It takes too much meter for them to become effective. Compared to Assualt Style, a style that creates WAY too much meter FAR too easily and can easily pressure you and break your guard, power up style has to play much smarter and more conservatively.
However Kabuto has been impressing me more and more. Good chains, great useful specials one of which is safe on block. Amazing mobility, has clock-up, great punisher. Just a solid character and one I truly overlooked. Seems to have the tools to hold his own in any match vs any kind of character. I am starting to like him more then Sasword because Kabuto has better specials though they are both amazing punishers and Sasword has more range and power while being slightly less safe.
I played around with Ultimate Kuuga. I am fairly confident that he is not top tier but he is pretty solid overall. You cant just spam super armor specials though. You will just get grabbed. BioRider is nice and Black RX has some solid normals using Revolcane. Kingstone Flash is nice too. Still counter moves are not fool proof. they do have start-up and if baited you are wide open to punishment so you cant just mash on counter while blocking though it can work on occasion. Mostly its just nice to have another defensive option.
Still the biggest weakness Ultaimte Kuuga and BioRider have is the same as all powerup forms. You gotta get the meter first then give up the meter to attain the form. then you lose the form in the next round and have to regain it.
For the next game you rly should just stay powered up if you are moving into the next round and you ended the round in that form.