Antihero11

I tend to get anti-aired often on my approach, so I really hope this helps. Thanks a lot for the advice Teyah. You should frequent the forums more often. I have almost exclusively watched Ogawa, so watching other Zato players may certainly help.

I tend to get anti-aired often on my approach, so I really hope this helps. Thanks a lot for the advice Teyah. You should frequent the forums more often. I have almost exclusively watched Ogawa, so watching other Zato players may certainly help.

Use far drill a lot to protect Eddie, and dash forward into 2S At worst, you'll get a CH 2S, and confirm into 22HS. Break the law is best used when Eddie is out, or when someone IAD's in at you, that way, you dodge the air attack, and get a punish. I have a question for everyone else that's been troubling me. How do you handle people who refuse to come in vs Zato? I play really well defensively with Nobiru and his anti-airs. But I have a really hard time when Ky's and I-no's stand back and spam projectile to cover their approach. How can I set up an offense and move in on someone while avoiding projectiles. The problem is, as soon as I block a projectile, little Eddie will disappear, so I need to get in without blocking.

I absolutely loved those videos. And I know this post is old. But I've decided to sub Millia, and a quick rundown of all of her oki setups and advantages was incredibly useful. I main Zato and I find him to be incredibly fun, so I'm used to low defense and having to play perfectly. Thanks for the advice man. Zato/Millia are probably two of the most oppressive, fun characters I've ever played in a fighting game.

Your neutral is definitely pretty decent Spark, but a lot of the players you were facing weren't respecting your anti-airs and they were air teching way too soon. Optimal setups would help you a lot. Like learning unblockables, safe eddie summons and unsummons, etc. If you just let the shadow meter run out like that, good players will blow you up. Just trying to be perfectly honest, I do think your neutral is fairly strong though. Do you have a local scene you could play where lag and mashing isn't as prevalent?

Thanks bud. All our welcome here. There are many different ways to play Zato, and he's much different than his AC incarnation. But the fundamentals are the same. With Zato, you can play footsies, rushdown, and zone. But it's best to be able to adapt on the fly to all of his viable styles.

This is one of Zato's toughest MUs in my honest opinion. I was talking with Marlinpie at Summer Jam, and he believed I-no, Millia, and Leo are Zato's hardest matchups. I would add Ram to that list too. Anyways, I know neutral consists of getting the shadow out, but I-no's damn notes make it really difficult to safely maneuver him around. Any advice for neutral. Or any advice when you're on the defense against I-no? Like option selects to get out of her pressure. Her air throw resets and blockstrings make safely getting out nigh impossible.

Yeah, I did some casuals afterward. And we went about 60/40. It's hard to find bedman players online. And my scene is me, a Faust player, and a Ky player. So MUs outside of online play are severely lacking. Thanks for the encouragement. I've improved my Zato-1 recently by using summoning and unsummoning more reliably. I picked up Millia, since Zato's become a little dry and it's a nice change of pace.

I would actually say simply dashing up and knockdown into unsummon is better than going for a -S- combo. Unless you're ending the match with the combo, it's usually better to knockdown into mixups, or unblockable. However, in the corner, doing something like j.K > 2D > -S > j.HS > j.D > shadow gallery can be really good. Since it adds tons of damage.

This I know the answer to, I practiced this in training mode since DPs are my number one pet-peeve. You actually need to delay 6P. It's counter-intuitive, but the head invulnerability frames on 6P come early. So you should do something like knockdown > -K- > slight delay on opponent's wakeup > 6P. If they respect it, you can do 6P > 2S > -K- again to go for a flight mixup. Or you can do 6P > 2S > -S- unsummon. As a side note, I spoke with Marlinpie this weekend about Zato's worst MUs, his neutral, etc. So if anyone has questions, I may be able to help. I made top 16 at Summer Jam, but lost to a pretty strong bedman player from Virginia. I haven't grinded that MU enough. I also lost to Angryblack (a fairly strong May player). Once I learn both MUs, my performance can hopefully be better. And listen to 9:02 PM, he's got a weird name, but everything he's said about Zato is 100% on point. Thanks for the informative posts friend!

We're all too anti-social and angsty to Skype. Comes in the job description when you select this character as your main.

Lol. I wonder why you were striking that Huber. I was thinking, that's still applicable in revelator. And anything ending in 2S is great, since you get frame advantage nobiru. Easiest ways in my opinion are 2P > 2K > 2S (unsummon), or 2k, 22S (unsummon). The problem with the second one is that I think there is a gap between 2K and 22S. Can someone confirm this? I could have swore I've been mashed out of that before, possibly because 22S has startup frames. You can also 2K > 236S (unsummon). A lot of great zato players do that (AKA, Ogawa, Marlinpie) since it leaves frame advantage and discourages jump out. You just need to ensure you 236S and don't held S for even a split second.

I was thinking about this just today KurlyBandit. I have a habit of doing mawaru pressure into 2k > 22S > unsummon with nobiru (236s). While this is great, it eats a lot of the shadow gauge and is fairly predictable. If you release shadow P, then unsummon. Does it actually leave you at frame advantage? Or at least neutral so you can 2S then resummons. Thanks guys, I'd greatly appreciate it. As I'll start working haneru into my blockstrings some more. Special thanks to tastylumpia for the comprehensive post.

I was just mentioning that Ogawa rarely does it, and he has a better grasp of the character than all of us. And I don't know why you keep misunderstanding me Huber. I never said hit confirming off of -P- wasn't important, it is extremely important! But primarily in sandwich/corner pressure. It is rarely used mid-screen in the exact string you posted. That's something Marlinpie does and not many other Zato's. Hit confirming off -P- is very important as a Zato player, just not in the aforementioned combo.

Ogawa Revelator footage! Zato looks almost untouched, which is great, since he's still very very strong. Corner dust wallstick looks different. But most of the same stuff seems to work. Unsummon after dust combo route might change, but it all looks good.

I'm not sure why you said that or how it's relevant to this thread to be honest. I think this thread is okay, because as you mentioned, it's tough to find stuff in the general gameplay thread. If you said that since everyone's playstyle is unique, I'm not saying we can't learn from each other. I just don't want someone new to Zato practicing links and SG loops, since they're a very small part of playing Zato effectively. Negative edging in neutral, learning unblockables, learning mawaru mixups, and optimal pressure string are key with Zato. Also punishing people for killing little Eddie, etc.

Ogawa doesn't use the combo you mentioned Huber. To be honest, the only linking with -P- he uses is sandwich pressure with 2K, or setting up unblockables and general poking with it. I'm not saying don't use shadow P, it's a very versatile, excellent poke. But you don't need to link it consistently for mid-screen combos to be a good Zato player. Ogawa doesn't. AKA doesn't. But Marlinpie does, so it depends on your style and strengths. This character is so unique, he can be played many ways.

Linking Zato's normal with -P- isn't extremely important. Ogawa is the best Zato player in the world, and rarely does it, unless it's sandwich pressure, but then it's much easier. Try a string like this to start: 5P > 2K > f.5S > 236P > 2S > 22HS > (move little Eddie forward) -S- > 236S (Unsummon) This is a pretty simple string which will get you the hang of summoning and unsummoning Eddie during pressure to create some frame traps. I wish I practiced it at first, but I have a bad habit of summoning mawaru (-k-) mid-string, which can be taken advantage of by good players. Anyways, we may have want to move this to the general discussion thread since it's more of a question.

I'm glad to hear it. We need more passion in these forums. For some reason, the Zato subforums are pretty dead. I think it's because we're all out there experimenting/playtesting instead of theorizing on the forums. Zato would probably be my favorite fighting game character of all time, in both playstyle and background/story. He has a tragic history, and understands what it means to make difficult decisions.

I'm no authority on pad Zato since I switched to stick just to pick up this character. Took about 6 months to get used to stick, and I still miss shoryuken motions sometimes. But if possible, I'd find Beautifuldude on his twitter/youtube etc and contact him, as he'd be able to help the best. As long as you have slash and kick mapped to the shoulder buttons, you should be fine, as you'll probably use those most. But Haneru (punch) helps too. Honestly, just like stick, keep practicing. How long have you been using Zato for? It takes at least 2-3 months to get used to negative edging in neutral. Try using break the law and controlling little eddie in neutral if you're having a hard time using both characters at once. Once you get a feel for that, then transition to using things like nobiru, then 2HS, etc.

This is probably in the Faust forum, but it's not character specific, so I figured it's worth sharing here. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kt3d_YoUH5i3g8X5putPdm74bqrTu5e1DKNuOTfG6pc/edit Nage's thoughts on losing and how to improve. Very helpful for any competitive endeavor. This would include video games, sports, etc. It helps a lot since sometimes competition can feel like an endless grind. Zato is a character you'll lose with a lot at first until you get really competent. So stay strong other shadow users.

How do you practice it then? I just meant stalling with safe blockstrings can give you more time for the eddie meter to recover and allow a resummons, as opposed to going straight for a combo.

It's strange how you practice this by setting Zato-1 to dummy. Since timing the DP is crucial with Sin/other characters. Seems counter-intuitive, but it makes sense. I think that's a good idea. I wonder if knockdown, into medium drill, and stalling until re-summoning would be better. Less damage, but lets you set up mix-ups again. Thanks for the ideas.

Thanks for the feedback. I've been working on optimal shadow gallery loops. And I use BTL and Shadow H pretty often in neutral, it helps tremendously. I think what I'll focus on is baiting reversals and dead angles. What do you guys punish dead angles with? Simple 5P > 2D (knockdown). Or do you have something more fancy?

I've improved my Zato play tremendously lately by slowing myself down and playing him more as a bait and punish character. So I just wanted to throw that out there first. Your mentality makes a big difference when playing Zato. And what works best for me is taking my time and not panicking/rushing. And waiting for good opportunities to apply pressure with mawaru/nobiru, etc. Now to answer your question: How do you deal with people that jump like crazy? Nobiru Seriously, it's that simple though. Nobiru combined with Zato's other AAs like 2HS and 6P control a lot of space and put pressure on an airborne opponent. What I tend to do a lot is summon shadow, use BTL, then fish for their position. Once nobiru hits, you get instant pressure if they block it, or a nice ~120 damage combo. Nobiru and break the law make Zato amazing at dodging aerials and fishing for AA hits.