Yes.
Lol. In her defense, that move’s got 27 frames of startup. It’s not like you can really use it in neutral. It’s pretty much an oki or instinct-only move.
After combo breaker this year I think I’m done with KI and Hisako. I’ve put in wayy too much time and effort into her just to keep coming up short. The shadow air ryo zan is damn near useless, she has no launcher ender, minimal juggles, among other things… Maybe I’m just salty now but seeing characters with safe dps, unpunishable openers, and endless pressure tools just makes me want more for our ghost girl, she has to work way too hard for combos and setup. Ok rant over.
Meh. While I do think that Hisako is a character who takes a lot of work, I very much do not think she is in any way underpowered, not even at high level. I thought this was true in S2, and I think it’s even more true now in S3. She doesn’t need more juggles, a launcher ender, or even a DP (which would make her broken) - she’s a very, very good character in her own right. Good meterless damage, great reset potential, and a really good combo trait as well.
She does take work, and she’s not Top 5 or anything, but Hisako is a monster of a character when played well. I can definitely sympathize with the struggle (cause damn, she does take work), but she’s really good.
You’re definitely free to switch characters (or even quit KI, though of course we’d prefer you to stay 
) if you feel like it’s not worth it or you’re not having fun. But felt like I had to defend my girl 
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I think I’m gonna stay with her, I just had a bad night in ranked and was ready to drop her. But things got better today, when she is on, She is very hard to beat. Back to the topic of the thread I use to only use the shadow air ryo zan as a recap after wallsplat ender-juggle with heavy on ryo zan, linker then and ender, but that was hardly worth the meter since it’s so easy to break. I also wish it was projectile invulnerable. It would crush glacius shadow hail
Me too. That would give it quite a few more MU specific uses. It honestly seems like it should be.
Really? That seems like a super specific property to wish for. Just about the only situation where this would be useful would be against Glacius. It doesn’t have much “travel” to it and is fairly slow, so it’s not like you’d ever use this in any neutral situation to blow through a projectile - you’d just use shadow ORZ instead. Regular air-ORZ clears most fireballs easily enough, so I don’t think this would be much of a buff at all.
Now if you wanted to buff the move’s post-flash startup…THAT would be a buff worth talking about.
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Hmm. We’ve got Sadira and Kan-Ra who like to toss projectiles in the air, seems like those would be MUs might benefit from it as well.
Or it could just be one of those “hey the grounded version is projectile invincible so my brain expects the air version to be too” kind of things.
I can see it being useful in the Sadira MU as a hardcore punish to widow’s bites, but I don’t think she needs it against Kan. That “one aerial action per jump” nerf means that if he’s putting up a scarab in the air, you should be using descent to get behind him and punish, or at the very least force him to get defensive again at a range he’d prefer you not to be in.
Yeah I can agree with that - if Kan were to spit scarabs at you in an air-to-air situation, then the projectile invulnerability would definitely come in handy. Same with Sadira’s shadow projectile - though oddly, I’ve beaten that on reaction with Shadow Air-ORZ, probably due to a difference in startup frames.
It would also be helpful against fulgores that pop hype beam on jump. It would decrease some of the damage she takes.
So after grinding some 300 odd matches over the past month, I think I’ve come to some very definite conclusions about the utility of shadow air-ORZ. Long story short, it doesn’t suck, and is actually an effective reset and conditioning tool. Its use is pretty particular though, so you definitely won’t be spamming it anytime you get meter.
I personally found that its best use is in the corner after wall splat situations, particularly against characters without DP’s. It’s basically a Hisako-specific reset to punish throw techs, backdashes, and jump outs by the opponent after you wall splat them. Any of these actions will result in an immediate recapture (with the grounded punishes also staggering) that gives you a nicely delayed manual opportunity to also bait a timing lockout. A good corner sequence of combo->wall splat->shadow air-ORZ can have an opponent eating 80% or more in very quick succession if they manage to get themselves locked out early.
Just as useful, eating that kind of damage also serves as a potent conditioning tool on your opponent, encouraging them to sit still and block high the next time you wall splat them. And this option is punishable by either a heavy influence or cr.MK->rekka reset.
Downsides to the shadow air-ORZ in the corner is that the blasted thing is -12 on block, so if you run into that rare individual who does nothing after wall splat you’re going to be eating a punish. For that reason, if you have full wrath after your wall splat, I recommend going into TK’d light air-ORZ instead - you get the same mixup (caveat that it might be backdashable, but this is an unlikely reaction in the corner), but can also do an influence tick grab if the opponent happens to block. As discussed previously, the damage differential between the two isn’t actually that different (shadow version adds some more PD I believe), so you won’t be missing out on much. The shadow air-ORZ reset is also obviously DP-able, though it does make some of the more angled DP’s actually whiff, allowing you to full punish as you land.
So there, that’s what I found out about shadow air-ORZ. It’s a good if situational move, and a good default option to use in the corner after wall splats. I didn’t personally find much utility in converting anti-airs into combos with it, but that’s probably more my own preference than anything else. But anyways, hope everyone can take this knowledge and go out there and have fun. And of course, if you think of any additional uses for Hisako’s least-used special, post it right here. 
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Found another use for shadow air-ORZ - we can use it for a reset after Sako’s normal throw. Throw->TK shadow air-ORZ beats most of the most common options for an opponent to take after being thrown by Hisako. It will counterhit jabs and mediums done in response to the flash (mash jab while being thrown will beat it though), and will beat both break attempts clean.
It obviously recaps people trying to jump out, but the real benefit is that it catches what I believe is nearly all the cast’s backdashes - Cinder’s back roll may low-profile it, but it will beat anyone else’s backdash clean I think. In any case, against Cinder you’re more likely to have to worry about the DP anyway.
So here’s another use for shadow-air ORZ, one that seems to be pretty good based on my limited use of it in Ranked. It will of course lose to blocking and DP’s though, so don’t too nuts with it…
@Infilament - think I might finally have an answer about whether shadow air-ORZ can be shadow countered. Depending on spacing and character, sometimes it’s possible and sometimes not. I’ve had Jago’s shadow counter cross under me before I land, and had Spinal’s hit me clean. I think the best option for the entire cast is probably just to block it - it’s negative enough that it should be punishable by a fierce.
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Quick update - Shago’s backdash will also avoid the TK shadow air-ORZ after throw. He teleports away before it becomes active.
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Just catching up with this thread, but what is TK? Do you just mean meaty rekka?
TK stands for Tiger Knee. Its where you input the motion for QCF but add an up-forward at the end so that an aerial move like air ORZ comes out at its lowest point in the jump.
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Yep. What he said ^^
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Following up on what @DoobyDude23 said, you can get certain special moves that can also be done in the air to work much closer to the ground by inputting 
instead of the usual after a jump, which is nigh impossible to pull off on time. Hisako’s in-air on-ryo-zan is just 1 good example of this. Try it with much of the cast to see what I mean. It’s actually a really cool shortcut!
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wow, thanks. i’ve been playing KI for over 2 years now and had no idea. Any air ORZ juggle shennanigans i do require me to be 100% on point with my inputs haha