Doonpa

Gotta abuse oki here. Go for knockdowns as often as possible and stagger your pressure to catch them hitting SLOW buttons. In neutral just spend your time running away and setting traps. Abandon your fort if they are flying at you with j.B, DP it if its IAD j.B, just don't try to 2B. I've only successfully 2B'd a j.B once in this matchup and it was frightening going for it. If you are dealing with a mashy j.B user, then airthrow becomes a possible answer if you are good at that. Playing GG helps in the department of throwing people who just fly at you :P. Also, Chain grapple loses to traps that are set in front of you but only if they aren't visible just yet because if she pulls herself in, the trap becomes visible then and will probably counter hit her. Otherwise the chain would just disarm it to begin with. So abandon fort, especially if your traps have been exposed already. So in general, use shots sparingly, remember you aren't safe even with traps out, and press your offense as much as possible. You need to abuse the fact that you are faster in everyway and use the fact that Labrys's DP is a terrible reversal/mash option.

Yeah I've heard of/seen Bond play, it would be great to get his perspective on Naoto things. So after some thought, I'm going to devise a list of important topics related to Naoto's gameplay for everyone who wants to contribute. I feel its probably best to get multiple opinions because everyone's experience playing her is different and I can imagine that we all do different things with her. There are probably things that I don't know that some of you guys probably know and what not because of the difference in match up exp and what works for us individually in our matches. So with that in mind I'll be sending a PM soon with general questions and topics for everyone just to get people to reflect on their game play and any useful info worth contributing. By doing this, we can figure out our middle ground so that we can all come to an agreement on the "universal info/tech" that we all have in common and that can be accepted as part of Naoto's standard gameplay. I also ask that anyone who wants to contribute to please revise the pastebin guide I wrote a while back. As I said before, everyone has their own perspective on playing Naoto and the uses of her moves, so I'd like to get feedback on that. If you guys feel that some of my analysis is incorrect or can be worded better, let me know. After some preliminary corrects that you guys have, I'll post up the shell of the guide, and at that point I'll go about editing info about it as it comes. The layout of the guide is still up in the air, so any ideas on how it should be formatted and any topics that should be talked about in the guide are totally open for discussion. Once that is decided, I'll personally put in the time to flesh out everything as much as I can. Any and all info that you guys write that is felt to be accurate and helpful will be put into the guide and credit for your write ups/corrections will be given.

All help is definitely welcome guys. From the general look at this character board, there isn't really much activity besides a random question here and there. Only time things are discussed is when we get a rare vid of a good Japanese Naoto aka Denpa. So hopefully this master guide will get people talking again and intrigue players both new and old to play Naoto. Hopefully by this weekend I'll have what I need to at least open the thread and make a worthwhile opening post. I'll probably PM you guys a general list of topics to get multiple POVs on the subjects. Advice on formatting would be great. Ideally, I am aiming for something like Moroha's guide or Kyle's May guide. I kinda want to go nuts, but at the same time I want to format it in such a way that a person can read some of it and can walk away with a good enough understanding without getting immediately overwhelmed. I'd probably split it into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced sections for certain aspects such as combos, spacing, burst decisions, etc.

Just a question for those who still play this game/character and for those who are interested in learning her or at least knowing stuff about her. Would anyone want me to post a more complete guide as a separate thread that won't randomly die out like the paste bin doc? I have a good amount of material to add on to what I've originally written and it might be more convenient for people who are interested in having a complete guide for her to just go straight into a thread and not read a badly formatted paste bin document. I'd like to make it look like what some of the Guilty Gear character guides look like, such as Moroha's ABA thread.

Silence SMPs, Corner (or at least close to the corner): 5B 5C 2C Mudoon D-Trap 2B Silence Shots (all hits), OMB, either (dash 236A~B(1), 236BxN) or (dash Sweep 236A~D 236BxN) AOA~D FC, 5B 5C Mudoon D trap Silence Shots (all) OMB dash 236A~D 236BxN 236B FC, dash 2A 2B 5C IAD j.C j.D Ex Trap, j.B, Silence Shots, OMB, dash 236A~D, (214D, 236A~D) xN D trap, 5C, j.A j.C 5C 214A~Cx5 Mudoon 2B, Silence Shots, OMB dash 236BxN 5AA 5B 5C 2C Mudoon, D trap, Silence Shots OMB, dash 236A~D 236BxN 5D CH, dash 5C j.A j.C 5C Mudoon D trap, (2B) Silence Shots, OMB, dash 236A~D, 236BxN 5D, 5C, Mudoon, D trap, 2B, Silence Shots, OMB, dash 2AB 236A~B(1)~D 236BxN 2AB, Ex Fangs, Mudoon, D-Trap, 2B, Silence Shots, OMB, dash 5B 236A~B(1)~D, 236BxN AOA-C FC, j.b j.c Silence Shots OMB land Mudoon, 5B 5C 236BxN j.C, 5B 5C 2C Mudoon, D trap, 2B Silence Shots, OMB, dash 236A~D, 236BxN Throw+Follow up, Mudoon, D trap, 2B, Silence Shots, OMB, dash 2AB 236A~B(1)~D, 236BxN Naoto in corner, 214214A~C FC, 2B, 5C Mudoon, D trap, 5B, Silence Shots, OMB, dash 2AB 236A~D, 236BxN Notes: These are just some examples mainly focused on using 100 meter and an OMB. These are very costly, but the reward for these should be pretty high. Biggest perk about using these SMPs is that your opponent won't be able to burst untill the bulk of the damage has already been dealt. Most people don't immediately burst Naoto's combos because there is no reason to unless it kills or involves Mudoon, right? What happens here is that the 2B into Silence super serves as a pseudo burst bait for those who burst immediately after Mudoon as the invul from the super plus Naoto backflipping away makes it so that their burst doesn't do a thing to you. If they do burst that spot, you get a nice 4.5k combo from the Silence super if you OMB into 2[C] 5C IAD j.A j.C land 5C 236B~D 5C IAD j.A j.C 5C 236A~D or B shots follow up. If they don't burst, it all combos and you get a FAT SMP loop that should score you a kill. Most of the times on the more damaging SMPs listed above, the opponent's next chance to burst doesn't happen untill you are like 7k-8k into the combo lol. This is probably the safest and most ideal way of getting dat runback once you get put into awakening while still having your burst. Basically, if anyone has lost half their health, this situation guarantees that they are dead regardless of their burst. If they have 80% life and decide to hold the combo, they will be in for a real rude awakening as they won't be able to do burst even if they decide mid SMP that they could be dead if hit with a decent starter. Unless the opponent has kept all their life, then this isn't a guarenteed kill unless they do not have their burst to begin with for most of these combos. Dumb combos, 150 Meter, OMB, Corner: 5AAA Smp: 236B FC, dash 2A 2B 5C IAD j.C delay j.D land 5B 236A~B(1) OMB, Mudoon, 5AAA, 5AAA OMC dash behind opponent, 5AAA Mudoon, D trap, 236A~D, 236A~D or AOA Bounce ender. 6k? 5D SMP: Same as above up until Mudoon. Then you do [C Trap, 5D set, C trap explodes, wait, 236A~D, 5D hits, 5C Mudoon] x 3. On the last rep, you do 236A~D 5D hits, 236B (just like the usual SMP) straight into 236A~D for the final knockdown. Ex Fang SMP: Same as above up until the OMB. Then its 236ABxN. These 3 combos are bad except for the 5D SMP as it actually does a lot of damage (10k if its ended right I believe, but its still too costly). Ultimately, these are just combo vid material.

OMB SMP Combo dump. Note: You can always tack on Mudoons to the end of these to boost the damage. I don't know whether you get more damage by using it as soon as you get the 10 hits or after the max reps of 236B so its up to you when you do Mudoon to get the most damage if given sufficient meter. As for all SMPs and their slight alternatives, rearranging the order of normals used and/or changing certain moves for more damaging normals will often yield better SMPs of course. What i listed is what I feel are the easiest variations to remember/do mid match. Outside of throw/2a starters, the damage off these SMPs should be pretty good (I dont remember/haven't checked all the damage values of these) considering that no Mudoon is being used in these combos. Anything that works midscreen or 3/4s to the corner also works while in the corner. OMB Only, midscreen going into the corner: 5AA 5B 2AB 236A~B(1) OMB IAD J.A J.C 5C 236B XN ~6.4-6.7k? 5C CH 2[C] 5B 5C SJ. AD J.ABC 2A5AA 2AB OMB 236B XN 5.6-6k? C TRAP CH/D TRAP 2A/2B 5C IAD J.A J.C 5C 236A~B(1) OMB 2[C] 5B 236B XN 8.6k? J.A J.B 5AA 5B 2AB 236A~B(1) OMB 5C 236B XN almost 6k? J.C 5AA 5B 2AB 236A~B(1) OMB 2[C] 5C 236B XN 7k+? AOA-C FC J.ABC OMB 2[C] 5B 5C 236B XN 5k? 5D CH 2A/2B 5C J.A J.C 5C 236A~B(1) OMB 2[C] 5B 236B XN 9k? 2A 5A(A) 5B 2AB 236A~B(1) OMB IAD J.A J.C 5C 236B XN ?? 3/4 TO CORNER FC 236B DASH 2A/2B 5B 5C J.A J.C LAND J.B OMB D-TRAP 5AA 236A D TRAP HITS, (236A, D TRAP)XN 7.4-8k? CORNER AOA-D FC 5B 5C J.BCD OMB 2B 236B XN 5k? AOA-D FC 5B 5C OMB D TRAP 2AB 236A~B(1) 236B XN 6k? 5B 5C 2AB/2C OMB D TRAP 5AA 236A~B(1) 2B 236B XN 6k+? THROW+FOLLOWUP, 5B 5C J.B J.C OMB D TRAP 236A~B(1) 236B XN 4k? 2A 5AA 5B 2AB/2C OMB D TRAP 236A~B(1) 5C 236B XN ?? (CROUCHING ONLY) SHORT HOP/NORMAL JUMP J.A J.B J.D OMB D TRAP 5B/2AB 236A~B(1) 2B 5C 236B XN 5k? 5AA 5B 5C 2C/2AB OMB D TRAP 236A~B(1) 2B 236B XN J.C 5AA 5B 5C 2AB/2C OMB D TRAP 236A~B(1) 236B XN 25% + OMB Notes: So basically, any combo above can be tweaked by simply adding a SP Fangs towards the end of the combo. Usually, there is a normal at the end before you go into B fangs. All you have to do is just do SP Fangs at that point instead of the normal to achieve the same result. Also works by omitting 2[C] and going into the normal after it then into SP Fangs as well. 25%, NO BURST 3/4 TO CORNER 236B FC DASH 2A 2B 5C IAD J.C J.D J.EX TRAP J.A/J.B C TRAP CONNECTS, LAND 5B DELAY 236A, ( D-TRAP, 236A)XN. Note: Can replace 5b with 5AA towards the end but the timing and height is tighter to do it than 5B. Also yields a more damaging SMP as 236A does not become the 10th move in the SMP so it does not get destroyed by the scaling. 25% CORNER AOA-D FC 5B 5C J.D EX TRAP J.B C TRAP CONNECTS, LAND 236A D TRAP CONNECTS, 236B XN 25% + OMB notes: Basically, just tweak the combos above for them. An easy example would be like 5AA 5B 2AB 236A~B(1) OMB 2[C] 5C 236AB 236B xN from midscreen going into the corner. These do more damage in general, so its not bad to go for them. Some can do up to 1k+ more damage than their meterless or burstless counterparts so play around with them. I am too lazy to write these out because there are a lot of possibilities with them.

Ok so I finally found a way to make the Narukami fuzzy work on the entire cast. Unfortunately, the way it works is that your opponent has to be inflicted by Fear from her shotgun super. The fuzzy is the same thing of course, deep j.C into rising j.aaaab. You can set this up after landing her shot gun super after B fangs or whatever by simply landing after the shot gun super, then immediately dashing forward, then jumping forward retaining the moment built by the dash, and rough as you are about to drop from the peak of your jump, airdash forward and j.C. This should result in a safe jump. If someone has an easier way/more reliable way to guarantee a safe jump off shot gun, then please let me know. Of course, if your opponent late techs the j.C can miss but you'll close enough to meaty 2A, etc. EDIT: Also short hop j.a j.b j.d on hit in the corner lets you get a 236A~D into C/D trap oki with the option of just going straight into B shots as opposed to just doing j.a j.b 236A and having to commit to B shots. The only difference is that for j.d to connect, your opponent needs to be crouching, but that should be a problem since I wouldn't imagine why someone would get hit with a short hop j.a standing....

Yeah, 236B a is funny answer to sweep. I was talking to Colpevole about dealing with Mitsuru pressure and he reminded me that doing jump back airthrow when Mitsuru does 5AA5B is also completely legitimate and a lot safer than using 236B. It OSs Throw/Airthrow while getting you out of the situation entirely. And since airthrow recovers so fast, you'll be safe from practically anything else Mitsuru will try to follow up with. The blowup to that as Mitsuru is to sweep feint and 2B you, but if he is resorting to that in his pressure then you've achieved your goal of not having to deal with the 5B/Throw crap. I also watched your matches vs Aigis and Chie today. From what i've seen, you fight Aigis pretty well. I can't really give you any advice besides keep doing what you are doing, but watch your hit confirms and what not. There are some things that you should be aware of vs Chie, and stuff that your Chie player should know thats really important in general. Colpevole gave me some info to pass on to you about your match. Your trap sets and shot zoning are on point against Chie. Your pressure was good and you played neutral great. From what i've seen, you let this Chie get away with bad oki setups that you can get out of. If Chie ever does sweep 5DD midscreen without delaying 5DD enough, you can tech immediately and EX Roll out if you have the meter. Backdashing should also be possible if the oki is done too fast. You can also take a chance and tech immediately and upback the 5DD if its done top quickly. Theres a chance you'll still get hit., but the Chie player must react to you getting hit by the 5DD and do the proper confirm to get an AOA bounce into oki again. I am betting this Chie player does not know the confirm, so abuse this until he learns. There are specific gaps in Chie's pressure that you must react to and DP or mash the appropriate move. For example, you can't let Chie reset into Tomoe so easily. Resetting into 2DD is understandable, but never 5DD. Even 2DD is reactable especially if its not done in really awkward or unexpected points in her pressure. Be ready to DP it whenever you can. This is a matchup where you can take Chie's fate counters away real fast if they aren't careful with their pressure and approach. Another thing you should be ready to DP is D Black Spot, but from the look of it he never used it, but be aware of that. Also can't let him do j.D in the middle of his pressure. You can 2B it and get out of there. Asides from those spots, you are better off respecting and looking for moments to upback/backdash/Ex Roll/Rolling her general pressure. In the corner, you can still Ex Roll if the 5DD oki is done too quickly, so don't forget that. EDIT: Forget to talk about giving Chie the finger for doing Agneyastra. If you have 50 meter, just do the shotgun super, especially if you have any traps out at all in front of you. If you have 100 meter and are in awakening, you can do 2141214A and shoot once, OMC it, then DP and slightly delay the 6 follow up. If you are nearly the corner, you can even SMP off the if you have an extra 50 meter. You can also raw DP and do the 6 follow up late, but i'd only do it if there traps in front or above me in such a way that Chie can't get behind Naoto in time. And one little side tip that I remembered right now, if you get 5D CH, you don't have to go for 5C 236B as if it wasn't CH and risk dropping the combo (even though it looks like you have it down). Let them fall and do something like 5B/2A 5C j.a j.c land 5C 236B for like nearly 4k meterless.

Overall, you fought against this mitsuru player a lot better in this video that you posted compared to the previous video. Theres a couple of things I noticed about how you both play your respective characters that id like to point out since I play both Naoto and Mitsuru that you should think about. General notes about your Naoto: Your trap sets/shot usage/5D usage is good, not much to say about that. Just stay as mobile as you can to avoid getting put into the corner or get put in a situation where you are going to be forced to block. Your AOA usage is decent, but its very much punishable on block, the Mitsuru player should have punished with 5A CH Sweep into whatever as there were moments where you got away with it. Another thing to note is your hit confirms and burst decisions. I like that you got your sweep knockdowns into 5D, its really good to safely apply pressure to Mitsuru without having to commit to it right away. What I dont agree with is using OMB on confirms that don't lead to much or RCing stuff on hit that does not lead to much as well. It's just not a good idea RCing 236A to get an extra 5B 5C etc. if you can't kill off of it or take the rest of their fate counters in the process. I know that you want to do as much as you can whenever you get to touch the opponent, but if you are sacrificing meter for low reward, you are killing your own damage potential in the long run. So please watch your hit confirms and be aware of what the results in terms of meter and damage are. As for your match vs mitsuru, your neutral against Mitsuru was pretty good as you weren't hit out of setting traps with things like 2D/5D, which was good. Ideally, a Mitsuru player should not let you set more than one trap unless you knocked her down first. Her ranges allow her to hit you from fullscreen standing and at the top corners of the screen depending on where you are facing. So with that in mind, safest way to set traps on her is to be at super jump height a character length or two away from her to avoid the angles of her whip while being too high to get hit with 2B. Staying out of 5A range is also important. If you are at that range or slight out of it, then doing Chie things like microdash sweep will destroy 5A/Coup Droit. Another note is don't try to reaction DP Coup Droit, ever. Just block it, its not worth the risk of mistiming. Same thing with Mitsuru's D Mirror oki, never DP it since all a Mitsuru has to do is wait a split second before committing to 2A/j.b to bait the DP out. You got hit by the ice without even getting mixed up a few times, which is not good. Just try to block it, more often than not the Mitsuru player will go for j.B so just take a chance. If you have the meter, try reversal silencing shots if you want out out that badly if you are midscreen (don't do it in the corner). If they are late with setting up the ice or mess up the spacing in the corner, then you can ex roll out or use the awakening super to punish her. J.B is a big problem in this match as its range is retardedly far and difficult for Naoto to anti air. Its probably the best way for Mitsuru to disarm your traps as well along with 2A. 2B works sometimes against j.B, DP also works as she can't jump cancel it so she's stuck even if she decides to chain into j.C or j.D. Do be careful with your gunshots, as a mitsuru with meter can Ex Coup Droit you during the recover of your stance if im not mistaken. You can shoot safely if you have traps out before hand without worry about random coup droits hitting you. Also watch for him jumping your shots and hitting you with j.D while you are switching to C shots to get him out of the air. If that situation comes up too often, then consider ex rolling out of the snipe stance and then shooting him. Also fully charged Myriad Arrows kick is NOT unblockable. Roll and punish. That dude gave some wrong info there. As for dealing with Mitsuru pressure, you are fortunate/unfortunate? that this specific mitsuru's pressure is still pretty basic. From the look of things, he sticks to basic 5AA 5B Sweep/feint pressure leading to either throw or another 4/5B to counter 2As/Throws. Heres the nice thing about B/Ex Fangs, it has low invul. Kill his sweep every time he decides to go for it off 5AA5B. If you instant block before he goes into sweep, I don't think he'll be safe even if he feints the sweep unless he does a charged 5B before going into sweep. By doing that, you won't have to deal with the situation of Throw/5B at all and you'll net a hilarious fatal counter. Once he decides to mix things up, you'll have to IB 5A/2A, DP (not 6 follow up version, sweep goes under it), Ex Roll, etc. during his pressure depending on what he does. If he changes things up, then I'll break down Mitsuru's pressure strings more carefully. In general, you'll win if you avoid this specific situation, corner D Mirror oki, along with avoiding 2D/5D/j.D. Have fun lol.

Sorry for the weak testament play Alzarath ://

So, I was messing around with C trap, short hop j.A j.B after a cornered 236A~D knockdown. If the opponent wises up to it and starts blocking it consistently, you can do short hop j.b j.d canceled into C/D trap, then you can hit them with a falling j.A/j.B or go low really quickly. If they get hit by the initial j.B, you force your opponent into a situation similar to when Naoto does 5C into d trap vs an airborne opponent in the corner. You can set them up for an air throw if they try teching out of the corner. If they neutral tech, they fall on to the trap anyway. This loses to mashed DP and roll of course.

Ok, so here is some footage of my Naoto after like a 2 month hiatus ( I technically dropped her, but then the recent Denpa vid showed me the way of true Naoto) which involved playing Mitsuru because screw top tier. Forgive my subpar confirms, but i feel like this is good footage on how to deal with Chie in particular. Critique and comments always welcomed guys. http://www.twitch.tv/rokunaya/b/367798005 ~22:00 mark, Me (Naoto) vs Colpevole (Chie). Winners Finals. ~47:00 mark, vs Grover (Narukami). Losers Finals. <---- screw this character. The actual answer to this matchup is pick a different character like Mitsuru :3 Probably Naoto's worst matchup in the game. ~1:07:00, vs Colpevole again, grand finals. Lost first match with Mitsuru, switched back to Naoto for the rest of the set. Asides from my relative subpar hitconfirms, any tips and comments on things i should work on would be great guys.

http://pastebin.com/Sy8yK63F Ok, so it's finally updated. I revised it (for the most part, I probably missed a lot of stuff again >_<) and rewrote some stuff. I added in a couple of sections of stuff towards the end such as mixups and other things. The section on normals, specials, burst, and defense are relatively unchanged. @Ichipoo: Thanks a lot. You can use whatever you like out of the guide for the wiki, I don't mind. If you can reword anything to make what I'm trying to say clearer that would be great too lol. @mynus: Thanks a lot dude. I saw your play at NEC and got a word with you about an SMP you did to my friend during the tourney. Might head to a TSB event since im from NJ and im friends with sti1ckbug. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play and talk about Naoto stuff. Come down to a Rokrew Tourney at the break if you can and get some games in. I'd just like to put out there that I hope this guide inspires people to pick her up and play her, or at least motivate those who have been playing her to try to explore her more. With that said, I'd like to hear what you guys do when you do get a chance to mix up your opponent. You see guys like SKD do some sick stuff involves crossups utilizing OMB and silly setups, so I was always curious to see if anyone has found any obscure tricks we haven't seen. I included two tricks in that guide that work off that concept ever since LK showed me something like SKD's setups but using Mitsuru.

Yes, its hard to rank AOAs because of their wide range of uses. In general though, i've heard the most complaints from top players about Naoto's, Narukami's, and Chie's AOA because of their speed and animations. At a higher level, your use of AOAs won't really be to beat out players mashing things like 5A/2A as they'll react to their moves being armored and they'll either jump cancel block or OMC then block. AOAs are still very good to beat out DPs at any level. As for 5A range, its honestly not too bad for a 5A. Its no mitsuru 5A, but its still strong. You should be able to punish most DPs with a dash up 5AA 5C 236B~Cx5 or dash 5B 5C 236B~D short dash 5C IAD j.A j.C 5C 236A or use 214A~Cx5 if they are too high for a knockdown. A better punish if you have meter or burst midscreen would be a 236B Fatal Counter, which is really easy vs Narukami and Mitsuru as their DPs will probably leave them relatively close to Naoto. If your opponent is near the corner you can do a nice 4-5k combo without spending meter on this. AOAs are kinda tricky to punish as they are Level 5 moves, which inflict ~18 frames of blockstun. So you trying to dash up 5A might not work or might be a really tight punish and generally not worth the effort. Stick to 5B 5C 2C if you are comfortable with it, its not a bad combo for Naoto. The 5th B shot out of Snipe is considered to be a Level 3 move, so that means 14 frames of blockstun. According to the wiki, it takes 13 frames to cancel out of Snipe. This seems to be potentially a safe follow up to something like Double Fangs, but I'm not sure if this data accurately represents how negative it is (its definitely not plus). I feel like Naoto's 5th shot animation might play a part in delaying the time it takes to get to cancel out of Snipe stance, so this might be unsafe if your opponent instant blocks your shots or something. I'm not sure about how legit it is. If anything, if you want to simply be safe you could try A shots as its a level 5 move, so that means 18 frames of blockstun instead. Potentially safer, but might not be as great because it doesn't hit low for the whole high/low factor off Double Fangs.

Hmm I see what happened now. I was typing up the mixup section today and I specified that you can only combo off the fuzzy guard against Narukami even though the fuzzy portion does work on the majority of the cast. I messed up there, and Ill correct it once I finish the rest of it and properly revise it. Thanks for the question, it helped catch that misleading statement lol. The input is j.C, then input C+D quickly afterwards. Its main use is to make your j.Cs in general unrollable. The OS isn't as strong if you do it off the safe jump setup becomes if its done correctly, they can't roll it anyway. It's used to make sure that if you mistime your safe jump, your opponent won't be able to mash roll out of it. But against Elizabeth, you just just buffer 236B quickly when j.C is out. If you timed your j.C correctly, they won't be able to roll the safe jump and if she DPs the 236B will get you a nice Fatal CH. And as for the pastebin doc (it should be working still), its still a very rough draft, ill have a completely revised version of it completed and posted as soon as im done writing the last section. Im sure a lot of stuff in there is poorly worded >_<. Also Darmonde, Naoto's AOA has a start up of 24 frames which makes it tied for 2nd place in terms of start up speed. It has a relatively subtle animation as well as leaving Naoto in a short, standing counter hit state. What it lacks is a lot of armor to beat out DPs. Teddie's AOA is very slow but can cross up and has a good amount of armored frames, but is very easy to punish on block. Yukiko's is also very slow but happens to be one of the safer and more armored AOAs in the game. They have different uses than Naoto's AOA, which is more or less meant to just catch people crouching blocking instead of mashing.

Nooooo my ride ;____; Roku, drive me if Brenton can't go plox.

http://pastebin.com/brFQTWE2 So I kinda wrote a overall Naoto guide that goes over her moves and what not. Mind you, i wrote most of this stuff at like 3am so my grammar is probably terrible throughout most of this. It's still incomplete because i'd like to talk about mix ups/other stuff and i'm not very happy with the overall format of it anyway. It's also a very long read, so yeah :\. I don't go over combos because it's pretty pointless as the combo thread here is enough. Any suggestions, comments, and corrections welcome. If everyone likes this, i'd like to post this as a separate thread once I reorganize it and reread it. Adding all the info from this into the wiki would be nice but I think the wiki is better off not getting cluttered by massive walls of text. All of this is mainly based off of things I read/experienced during my time playing as Naoto. I'd like to try to cite any info that I have gotten from others, so if you feel that i wrote something in here that I may have blatantly taken from someone's post here or else where, let me know so I can give you credit (I know i cited Mynus and Omni in there at some point lol.)

You make some pretty good point OutLawVinegar, but theres a lot to this character that people don't know about really. NEC really showed me that people don't know too much about her and what to do against her, as most of the cast has pretty strong answers to most of her things. If there is one thing everyone should walk away knowing, its when to burst a SMP loop and to hold their burst for that moment. I'd just like to make a couple points on what you said: -Yosuke kills Naoto in neutral. Kunais, Glide, Run, j.D, j.C, Ex Tentarafoo, and dash 5A (among other things that im probably forgetting) are so strong in this matchup. A lot of these options beat out both traps and shots by either avoiding them completely or just outspeeding Naoto entirely. This isn't a match where Naoto can safely sit back and setup. Labrys on the other hand really only has j.B and the chain grapple, which are very manageable for Naoto compared to what she generally has to deal with. Labrys's red axe is what makes the matchup scary, but that goes for all her matchups lol. -Having 8k health means a couple crucial things for Naoto. What it means is that ideally Naoto will die vs Aigis (two mixups into double megido combo) and Mitsuru (Basic 4k combo in the corner into D Bufula oki into 50/50 into another 4k) in two touches without ever having the chance of getting to Awakening. All characters have to deal with this, but most would survive those situations and live to see themselves in awakening. So yeah, its generally easier to kill naoto before she even gets the meter to kill you. -I agree with you that "no mixup" is nonsense. She has like the 3rd best AOA in the game, cross up setups using traps, fuzzy guard, resets into airthrow, pretty good delayed AD into high or low setups if the opponent respects or if you make them block 5D~D, as well as some other tricky stuff using RCs or AD Ex trap tricks. She's no chie, narukami, aigis or akihiko, but considering that she is suppose to be a zoner/trap character, she has pretty good options to open people up. But lets all acknowledge something, people shouldn't be using Double Fangs to open someone up unless you space it so that only the second hit hits lol. As for meter usage, Naoto players shouldn't be scared of using their meter to open people up or keep themselves safe. If you can't hit them, how are you going to SMP them? And if you are going to SMP them, they should always have their burst ready, no reason to not hold your burst. I know at NEC i made top 16 without really SMPing people too often. I mainly used meter to keep myself safe if they blocked my AOA or to use EX roll among other things like silencing. People getting hit by traps means naoto gets an easy 3.2k or almost 4k if you do the harder meterless combo off traps. But yeah, Naoto is strong, its just a lot of the cast has ways to not let her play her game.

Basically, zoning Narukami is a pain in the butt because of swift strike and raging lion. Setting a C-trap down right in front of you is so important in this match up. Kinda lame how Raging Lion just beats out your traps and is way too hard to get a 2B AA against so you'll be relying on forcing the raging lions to whiff or flat out DP them. What makes this match up even worse is once you get knocked down because lolholdallthismixup. This matchup is fairly zzz if the Narukami only does really simple mixup, but if you are fighting someone like SKD then this fight really becomes a pain because you will not block him and you will die fairly fast due to Naoto's low health. Usually if you block the initial mixup which is usually j.bb or empty jump low for example, you can usually roll out if Narukami attempts to use Izanagi for a delayed roll mixup and what not. If its a delayed AD over style mixup, you run the risk of rolling towards Narukami, so stuff like that requires you to kinda block and hope you guessed right. Another nice thing is that Narukami does have the same problem with naoto as he does with Chie which is that he is susceptible to getting low profiled. Naoto can go under 5B, 5C, and Zios which is pretty nice so if you see Narukami doing the same strings involving those buttons, instant block and mash him. Or if he is simply throwing them out there in neutral, just hit him and force him to use 2B which has way more recovery and much better to whiff punish for Naoto. Also, safe jump into the fuzzy guard is da besssssssss. If they get scared of it and decide to start late teching, pretend you are Chie and do delayed AD mixup for lols. They'll probably not try to DP if you've blown them up enough for DPing.

This match up is a fun match. Both characters can't just derp each other. Gotta out think your opponent and react to whats happening pretty quickly. Yukiko's problem with most of her matchups is a lack of damage when she punishes in most situations, but because of Naoto's low health it actually isn't a problem for her. Either character can zone the other pretty well and at the same time can completely ignore the other's zoning entirely. Rushing in for either character is really really dangerous because neither of them have a completely safe approach. DP is your friend for when the yukiko player is just throwing her fans/ persona at you all from mid to full screen. Shots are great for breaking her persona, which is something you should do often. Naoto's 5D is great for this matchup when yukiko starts using her DP to negate your gunshots as Sukuna Hikona will hit her right out of the DP which also means a potential SMP for the easy kill. If you are in awakening, Critical Shot is soooooo good for this matchup since its very fast and can punish Yukiko carelessly setting out Agis or throwing out her persona. Silencing is great for comebacks against Yukiko or to maintain a health life lead against her while sucking away at her Fate Counters. DP also wrecks havoc on Yukiko if she tries to do her awakening super as naoto will just shoot right through it without a problem. Don't use Critical shot unless the first bullet will kill her as it will just trade. Overall I feel like this matchup would be even if it wasn't for Naoto having really high damage output. Both characters have answers to each other and can just dominate the opponent if they are playing on point. As long as you respect Yukiko's pressure and mash when you see gaps like anything on block into 5D, or blockstring into 2D run up 2A, etc. you'll be fine. Avoid the corner like the plague and don't get unblockabled.

Yeah, its basically a boss fight. Its just one of those match ups where you HAVE to go out of your way to punish Chie every time for whatever derpy thing she does and hope you don't die in the process. This is easily one of, if not, the worst match up for Naoto simply because even the silliest of gimmicks will put you in a position to just get blown up.

This matchup is really retarded to fight. I switch to mitsuru whenever i know im going to have to fight a chie :S Having low health really bites in this matchup, simply because Chie will kill you as soon as you fall anywhere near 50% health so to win this, you must be on point until she is dead. To start, flying around and setting traps is crucial. Don't stop flying around and dodging Chie until you have a nice fort established to keep Chie from freely running at you. You want a trap in front of you and near head height for Naoto at least. If the Chie player is giving you a hard time by trying to hit you out of the air, j.b and j.d are really nice. From there, zone chie like you would any other character. Shoot, move around, reposition traps if you must, etc. Once Chie gets in though, which she will ( she will make you block something. she will have Agnyastra zzzz), thats when you are screwed. Up close, you must respect her pressure and her silly mixup she gets off her D oki. Naoto does not have good answers to Chie's stuff. Naoto's fastest move is her throw, so this is something to keep in mind. I haven't really tested this, but i do believe that you may throw Chie out of 5C dash cancel towards you. I have tried mashing 2A/5A on this only to get CH'd, but throw has worked making the Chie player resort to jump canceling or backing off instead. I know that IBing 5A will let you throw her if she decides to be cute and just do 5A dash 5A pressure, not exactly the best idea. Alternatively, you have DP/EX roll as options as well, but use them wisely. If you recognize when a Chie player likes going for cross up shenanigans off like a jump canceled 5B or something to open you up, you can jump back air throw. Its kinda funny to do. When you get knocked down, you pretty much have to respect the oki. Naoto has to pretty much respect 5DD oki, relying on the opponent to mess up their timing isn't a great idea. Delay tech works here, and once you delayed your tech enough then start waking up immediately and what not. Anything to annoy the Chie player if possible. But honestly, block and hope you guess the mix up right. Mashing out EX roll/DP will work sometimes if the Chie player feels like they are safe and aren't blocking before they perform their mixup, but its not reliable. Also please be aware of silly Chie tricks such as: j.bb canceled into EX Rampage, land, B skullcracker. Doing a long ground string into AOA to reset the combo (I had to learn that when im being combo'd by chie, to just hold 4 instead of 1.) Also, if a chie player does a really long ground based corner combo that started from like 5A 5A 5A or so, be careful. If she did enough moves, the combo will have very little hitstun which means its perfect for resets. Ive been reset with skullcracker and ive never been more annoyed in my life. Also, in the corner if she j.c does deep enough into the corner, it will hit cross up and she will be on the other side. Chie can do a Melty blood style air unblockable if she catches you blocking her j.a in the air. She will mash j.aaaaa into she lands first and due to the low amount of blockstun from her j.a, if she times it right, she can 2b you and hit you. The answer to this is double jump, if you block something in the air you get your air movement back. And she has the legendary 2 frame overhead that stems from A Rampage OMC j.a/j.b and she retains the low option of just landing and doing 2A. The answer to this is guess lol. Long story short is Chie has too many ways to keep you blocking and to open you up. With low health, this is really bad for Naoto. Be as slippery as possible, IB something and then mash if you really want to, pay attention to the habits of the Chie player and use that against them. So long story short, be a better player, unfortunately.

Here are a couple of combos i think might be good to know for when you get these confirms (some of these might already be posted, so bear with me): -5AA 5B 2AB 236A~B(1) OMB wait for the opponent to fall, IAD j.a/j.b j.c 5C 236Bx? for roughly 6K. Works from a little less than half screen away from the corner. Now what i think most people do for this combo after the OMB is to go for 2[C] dash 2b 5c 236B for the SMP combo. I dunno about you guys but im bad at dashing after 2[C], so i tried this and it works pretty well. Decent carry to the corner too. What is also nice about this is that if you build enough meter, you can tack on Mudoon whenever you want on this to nearly kill, if not flat out kill. In the corner, AOA~D FC, 5B 2B 5C IAD J.C EX Trap, land 5B, C trap hits, 236A~D, D trap hits, 236Bx? (I feel this was already posted :\) . Im pretty sure this does 4k for 25%, which is pretty decent. Ending this with 236A gives trap oki so its very nice. You can also tack on Mudoons to this to do nice damage. Near Corner: FC 236B~D, 2A 5B 5C IAD J.C EX trap, land slight delay 5AA, C-trap should hit here, 2B, 236A~D, D-Trap hits. [ 214D, 236A~D]x?. Nice DP punish for 25%. You should have time to dash 2A if you arent right in the corner, but not too far out, especially if you hit them out of the air. Kinda hard to get the right height so that your 5AA 2B 236A connects but is definitely worth the damage if you only have 25%. Once again, what is nice about this is that you can tack on Mudoons to this. Also, for those of you who can do the meterless SMPs that involve sj AD j.a j.b j.c from 5C, i really advise you to try to go into that combo route whenever you can off standing confirms because the meter and corner carry you get is really nice. So something like 2A 5AA 5B 5C sj. AD j.a j.b j.c land 5AAA gives you a good amount of meter(almost 30 SP if im not wrong) and a safe jump setup so that you can continue your pressure, fuzzy, mixup, whatever you want really to build even more meter for a really early Mudoon combo. You could also land slight dash 2B 5C 236B into C shots for damage+meter, or even do land 5AA 2AB 236A for knockdown+ trap cross up mixup too. Practice this guys.

Hey guys, just wanted to post up a couple of my matches at the Break arcade and get some tips on some matchups/things i should be doing with naoto. Heres a couple of links and matches to check out: http://www.twitch.tv/rokunaya/b/335369278 Me(Naochii) vs WYVERNLORD (Aigis) 59 min mark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so17ae9gnrg&feature=BFa&list=PL0rvJJpWLht5Btwf-gK9GvGakDOY4NI_I vs PeanutFever(Yukiko) 3:50 mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYpUuvYyrBA&feature=BFa&list=PL0rvJJpWLht5Btwf-gK9GvGakDOY4NI_I vs MarlinPie (9:00) Annd i don't remember if my match vs LK was streamed or not x_x Regardless all criticism is welcome guys.