Seth Killian wrote up a nice little overview of Makoto in Super Street Fighter 4 for Bitmob.com. I call her the equivalent of poker's "all in" [laughs]. When you're a Makoto player, you've got to stay on the offense. She's got pretty terrible defensive options, but her offensive options are some of the best in the game.
Beginning with her command grab.... A lot of her offense centers around either her command grab or the threat of a command grab -- and there's a lot of range on that grab. She's sort of like a mini-Zangief, but she's actually more dangerous than that because she has a superfast dash, which makes her really mobile. She's got this very dangerous command grab, but she's faster than Zangief and can actually do more damage than he can...because the command throw leaves you vulnerable for a minute just like in 3rd Strike, and you can land a combo.
Basically, when you're playing Makoto, you're in this sort of offensive flow, and you're keeping the opponent on the defensive. And if they pause for even a second -- if you see a moment of hesitation from them, or they start to get scared, or they're like, "Ah! What should I do?" -- Makoto is in a unique position to punish that. She can grab you, she's got a lot of great rushing strikes, she can chase you in the air pretty effectively, she has one of the fastest dashes in the game...she's just an offensive beast.
If you want to go a little further, Seth also has a recent write up concerning Ibuki too.
I dislike the fact that capcom decided to stick boring ass characters like makoto into ssf4. The BOFHs creating the game must have been fresh outta ideas..
@3
I honestly don't care for many of the SF3 Characters that aren't in SSF4 except Yang, Urien and Elena. I'm glad they chose who they did, because they went with what fans wanted. Don't blame Capcom, blame yourself for not making your opinion heard.
Urien would have been the best. They mentioned the 3 deadly characters as Dudley, Makoto, and Urien. Urien would have given us another charge character, since 1 new charge character isn't cool...especially when they take all his options away before the game even came out.
"because the command throw leaves you vulnerable for a minute just like in 3rd Strike" wat?
Well, all i read here is "her command grab is so good and her command grab is very good too becouse of her command grab and Makoto overall is good character becouse of command grab. And i forgot, did i said about her best-of-the-best command grab already?" If its as hard to follow this grab with HP as it was in SF3 online play - its not very good. Timing must be very strict. Its not a problem for offline play, though. But online, you have like fifty/fifty. Good damaging combo or got punished.
"She's got pretty terrible defensive options"
This isn't very reassuring. Unless some changes were made in Super, it's way too easy to get stuck in wakeup or corner hell if you don't have a reliable get-off-me move.
The only people who don't know about Makoto are casuals and newbies.
Super is getting an outlandish amount of pre release interactions, I'm ready for everyone to just shutup and let it be released. Enough with the SKill, Ono, Sven interviews, gameplay vids, combo vids, tier lists, etc etc etc etc etc.
Jesus, we're gonna be jaded on this title before it even comes out.
I don't want to keep bashing Killian as it's getting corny already but he NEVER has anything interesting to say. All the good information about Super is always from someone else. Lol. Makoto has a good grab? Oh thanks Sherlock. I nominate this "Overview" for front page.
Makoto is by far the most aggressive female character in game series(IMO)....Also she wassent that famous in 3rd strike(Only to the hardcore fan-base). So i say its good that she is being reincarnated, she is my main and i would gladly love so see her progress on in other SF sequels.
Also, People who bitch about wishing if it was someone els can go suck a big one. Seriously, this was a fan base request. if your favorite character was not chosen must be because he wassent that important or was not praised as a god-like character as most of you let us know when you cry and moan.... THE MAK IS BACK PEOPLE!
all this talk about her being an agressive character doesnt mean nothing. Online there gonna speed half the time running away like everyone else. Tbh most of the new characters like offensive oriented, the thing is the game itself isnt.
"This isn't very reassuring. Unless some changes were made in Super, it's way too easy to get stuck in wakeup or corner hell if you don't have a reliable get-off-me move."
That's the point of the character. If she had a strong defensive game, she'd be completely over-powered. The way I see it, assuming her rush-down game is worth its salt, she'll be used much the way that Cammy is used now, as a secondary character for top-tier players for tournaments when they want a rush-down character. She probably won't be used by the masses or dominate in the mid-tier online tournaments, because she'll just be too hard to play well for most people.
"all this talk about her being an agressive character doesnt mean nothing. Online there gonna speed half the time running away like everyone else. Tbh most of the new characters like offensive oriented, the thing is the game itself isnt."
The online component isn't the only component to the game. If they geared exclusively for the online component, then single player (I know it doesn't matter much, but some people do it) and head-to-head play would suffer for it. As it is, there are always going to be some characters that are better offline than online.
@jarkyttaa
Online or offline doesnt matter. I have seen tournaments where all they do is turtle(the honda vs honda match comes to mind). The game is too friendly towards defensive play. Online affect certain combos and tactics yea but it doesnt change the fact that playing def is always a good idea versus games like turbo were pressing the advantage and going for it could pay off in big rewards that justify the risk.
Thing is Ryu's dragon punch looks like its going to get smothered hardcore on wake up now.
Ken, while he has some added invincibilty on his dragon, all it is going to take is a well-timed safe jump, cross up, or even a focus attack bait (backdash at the last second) to nullify that.
Yup, the shoto army will need to modify its war strategies significantly in order to continue our success.
But rest assured, with the power of Metsu, the shoto army will prevail.
Tapping forward won't help you this time. (tm)
If that was true, you'd never see Cammy(especially Combofiend's) or Rufus in any tournament play what-so-ever if they could just be hard-countered by a strong turtle character. They're not the general-use character that, say, Ryu is, but they definitely have added utility in some match-ups. That's why I said I expect some tournament players to pick up Makoto or other rush-style as a secondary character when SSFIV is released.
"The online component isn't the only component to the game."
For better or worse, online drives sales. What do you think the comparison is between sales to play online and sales to play offline or in tournaments? 50 to 1? 100? They should design the game around how it's going to be most used. And SF4 has a lot of online-unfriendly elements, even if the netcode is kinda OK.
"If you see a moment of hesitation from them, or they start to get scared, or they're like, "Ah! What should I do?" OF COURSE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY'RE GONNA DO! SHORYUKEN!!!
Makoto will just be another character that has a good mixup game that just gets shut down due to DP's.
SFEX4 would be a hell of a lot more complex if they took out the mashable DP motions.
Ok, last attempt. Does ANYONE know if Makoto can combo AFTER BOTH of her ultras?
Makoto has; A. a fast dash. B. a good command grab. C. a good offensive game. D. a bad defensive game... Wait a minute, she's Abel. Think about it, he has good dash, the Tornado Throw, is one of the best rush down characters in SF4, they're the same character. The only thing missing is a really easy way to combo into her ultra... wait, she has that too, what the heck?
@JohnJohnson Makoto has super slow walking speed and, from what I've seen, not absurdly good normals. While similar to Abel, he has a lot of footsies game that must be played for openings. Makoto appears to be much more pure-rush down. Abel has his EX roll for when he's really corner trapped without options, so his defensive game isn't total crap. Makoto appears to have fewer options, on the other hand.
yup but she can turn herself red (with the super?) to take off more power for a fixed amount of time, also giving the option of bolting an ultra to the end of it?
sounds like a trade of defense for more offense.
Makotos is the best like fall back im going to main her regardless .since she lacks a lil defense it makes it so scrubs can't use her witch is a possitive for I don't like seeing a lot of the same characters witch why I like guile and know I don't turtle but when I I find a guile they always turtle such a shame =( im heart broken thank god for makoto ily u capcom
These pro didn't like Makoto that much like pretty much everyone I hear so far. She (and guy) seems weak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeryGs...
On a totally off topic for all you fans you always complain how perfectly balance SF4 is and that we have no Sagat in final of any tournament:
@Jarkyttaa
Ok, I see what you mean (even though I was trying to make a joke of it).
You think the character sucks don't use her that's all its so easy
@yes4me
No one says that no Sagats make it to the competition finals, but much fewer than the rankings would have you believe do. Compared to how many people use Sagat, especially in online play, the actual tournaments see a rather decent amount of diversity. And no one actually claims that SF4 is perfectly balanced, it's just well-balanced while remaining diversed. Compare this to any other Capcom fighting game, and most other fighting games, and you'll find that it's pretty good. Only 16% of the characters have two or more 3/7 match-ups. And this is based on equally skilled players, which are largely hard to come by. I guarantee you that there are a good number of Guiles and Gens out there that could mop the floor with many Ryu's and Sagat's.
@yes4me compared to all the sagat users you really dont see alot winning big tournaments at all thats probably what he meant
@ #4
replace makoto with yun or yang if it must be a 3rd strike character, otherwise i would be perfectly happy with another original if he/she is anything like Hakan and not Juri.
@41
I will only care what Japs say seeing as most outer country pros stick to tiers. And who cares if the characters are good or not, from what i hear, Guy's EX Spinkick is Godly, his Bushin Izuna Otoshi has insane range and damage, and his Air Throw has the best priority and beats out all others.
Makoto she's an All or nothing character, High Risk, High Reward, And has a HUGE comeback ability.
@NA,
Technically, Sean is not "100%" shoto, as his fireball is super art (although with short bar). However, he retains shoto stance, Ken's punches, Ken's MK as HK (in 2nd impact), c+MK as poke, links his supers just like shotos, has (albeit lame) DP and poor excuse of Tatsumaki. Think him like a shoto with lots of potentially cheap options taken away. 3S Sean was pain in the ass to use after switching from traditional trio, but refreshing, too. I actually miss him.
@anti_nelaelu
I highly recommend prayingso they won't mess Ibuki, while your petition to Capcom is on its way.
Any news about Makoto is good news. Cant wait to play as her again.