Hisako Video Archive (For all your Ghostly needs!)

So this community for Hisako is pretty dedicated, and I feel we should expand on that. We should really start archiving match videos. Here we can have good critiques of other players and high level Hisako play that we can extract tech or reference tech from! Thanks to @Marbledecker for supporting the idea.

This isn’t a tech for thread, we have that thread here: HISAKO Tech Thread!

This thread is specifically for matches recorded.

I’ll go ahead and start with my live stream I had done last night. Some critiques would be appreciated X3 :
Video 1 (7-18-26)
Video 2 (7-18-16)
Video 3 (7-18-16)
Video 4 (7-18-16)
Video 5 (7-18-16)
Video 6 (7-18-16)
Video 7 (7-18-16)
Video 8 (7-18-16)
Video 9 (7-18-16)

Alrighty!~ Let’s start archiving!

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Set I did yesterday in the /r/ Killer instinct discord. All of my matches with Hisako against Glacius, Aganos, Cinder

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I’ll post some matches to this later, as well as some observations/critiques on your play. Glad to see you stuck it out with Sako :slight_smile:

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More Hisako from me (Hisako vs Rash):

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That’s a lot of video bro :-p

A few thoughts, just kind of taken as I watched:

  • Focus on optimizing for the kill. Hisako can kill at surprising health levels if she has instinct and an opportunity for a wallsplat
  • You tried to ignore/avoid Gargos’ minions. Try to avoid doing that if you can. Shadow into them if you have the meter, and try to deal with them when they’re out - they are coming, and will mess you up when they catch you.
  • Gargos calling out a minion in neutral at anything but absolute fullscreen is a punish with Sako when you have meter. You missed the punish by a little bit, so try to be quicker on that in the future
  • Hisako has very dirty setups on a TJ who holds his instinct for last breath. Descent under him as his shockwave is about to come out, and you get a free meaty on him.
  • You use ORZ linker a lot. That one is very easy to see for someone familiar with the character. Breaking the light one is always a guess, but both the medium and heavy ORZ linkers are very reactable. They also take a lot of lockout time, on account of being so slow.
  • You’re super patient on the break game. I respect that :slight_smile::thumbsup:
  • If you’re going to use shadow rekka to go through last breath, don’t do it at a range that makes him block the shadow. That TJ could’ve just shadow countered you for the win - shadow ORZ is shadow counterable on any hit
  • Use opener->linker. It’s a much safer way to punish mash breaking than going for the counter breaker. You seem to be very good at catching people with counter breakers, mind you, but no reason to gamble if you don’t have to
  • Sako’s down+HP punishes Rash’s wrecking ball on block in almost all situations. Only time it won’t work is if he hits you so high up that he crosses over, and if he’s doing it from that high up it’s probably counterable on reaction instead.
  • I think you mentioned that you were out of practice, but work on fitting your damage maximizers into the lockout window. Had quite a few heavy doubles that extended past that window that got broken as a result.
  • Hisako can parry shadow counters when she has more than 50% wrath. It breaks my heart to see Hisako’s getting hit by shadow counters when they don’t have to :sob:
  • Manage your wrath in between rounds. You should never start a round with less than full wrath.
  • All backdashes are invincible :-p Not the whole way through, but there’s always some invulnerability frames at the start of them (just cause of an errant comment you made in a Maya match
  • Possession beats all Glacius wakeup options except for jump. You were going for some riskier setups than you needed to against a few of them. Meaty possession them to teach them to stop puddle punching. Heavy TK’d air-ORZ is also good for this, as it beats jumps and makes puddle punch come out wrong side.
  • You use shadow ORZ in-combo a lot. Something of a preference thing for myself, but I think she has better uses for that meter a lot of the time. Having it in neutral is good for shadow influence, as well as having it to frame trap off a full rekka string. Also, see the “Finding a Use for Shadow air-ORZ” thread for some cool reset options Hisako has available to her if you’ve got the bar.

That’s what I got from watching that first string of videos. Apologies for the helter-skelter nature of the comments. I’ll watch the other stuff at a later date. One thought though from a quick glance at one of the lobby videos - don’t forget that grounded heavies break armor. I saw you struggling a lot more than you had to against an Aganos. Hisako’s heavy normals can contend with his, so use that to your advantage. EDIT: seems you remembered that one on your own :slight_smile:

And as promised, here’s some of my gameplay. Someone asked for some tips on Cinder, so here’s me playing a few different ones. Not sure about the first guy, but the latter two are multiple pro star holders, so this can give an idea of what the MU looks like at higher levels of play.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjOVjwYwv0QmojiWfFwL13DWQf10

Will try and get this posted to YouTube at some point so that it can be a direct embed. Some key takeaways though:

  1. When timed meaty, heavy ORZ will beat fireflash clean. This also has the benefit of allowing you to chase down backdashes, in case Cinder tried to roll away instead. The timing is strict, but this is a good way to punish reversal happy Cinders if you can get it down. And if they block it?
  2. These videos have good examples of the rekka->shadow influence frame trap I posted a few days ago. It’s a great way to apply pressure even if they decided to sit still and block the ORZ.
  3. Try not to let Cinder place pyre bombs on you. Hisako is mobile enough to evade them most of the time, and without them Cinder has to expose himself to a LOT more risk to get in. Avoid them as much as possible.

@STORM179 Thank you for the criticism. I think I have reached a high intermediate level and I really need to start learning the advanced tactics.

Hm. This is an interesting thought I think. From what I saw of your play, you actually have all the foundations of the knowledge you’d need to be “high level.”

The better I get, the less I think “advanced tactics” is what separates high from “high intermediate” level play. The key difference I think is developing a real understanding of why things work or don’t work, why people get hit where and when they do. That’s the key determinator, and it bleeds into every aspect of your play. Knowing how and why people get hit lets you adapt your tech and setups to capitalize on very specific tendencies in your opponent, and also helps on you on the defense side, because now you’re getting a sense of what people get hit by, which lets you better predict how your opponent wants to hit you.

If you want a few more “advanced tactics” for Hisako, feel free to steal some of the setups and resets you see me use in the videos above. Between the 6 matches, I used most of the dirty shenanigans I know with Sako at some point or another. Caveat that the oki you see in those videos is very Cinder-specific, and not indicative of what I’d consider “standard” Hisako knockdown pressure. But again, I think the “what” of what I’m going for here is less important than the “why”. Why do I go for a command grab reset early in the fight when I don’t have wrath to combo after? Why do I prioritize a wallsplat ender over a HKD or damage, when I don’t have meter or wrath for a corner reset? There are answers to those questions - can you guess what they are, and more importantly, can you see how they might relate to your own playstyle?

I’ve started using new techniques in my play (been live streaming everyday at different times). I definitely started using wall splat more now with shadow ORZ, and it has helped me catch so many people who don’t expect it.

I should probably post the live stream links on here too.

Go for it. If it’s in a non-middle-of-the-workday time slot, I’m always happy to tune into a KI stream. :slight_smile:

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ill try to post up my matches with hisako once i get the time to play.

@STORM179 after we ran that set vs my fulgore couple months ago, my hisako leveled up alot off the beatings you gave me. ive been wreaking havoc on people online ever since though of course i still eat losses (but far fewer now). i just saw your 13 min vid VS the cinder players, i gained more information off your antics. thank you for posting it!

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No problem. Glad it was helpful :smile:

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hell yeah man, you have no clue how bad ive demoralized many victims. they got me down to danger, they think they got me, then they eat a catch counter into resets and they’re dead and buried instead lol.

Lol. Yeah, Hisako has some of the best comeback potential in the game IMO. It’s one of the reasons I frown on swaggy instinct combos - once Hisako has infinite wrath, she can just melt a lifebar if she’s focused on doing damage quickly.

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i actually dont do anything fancy really with her, its all just good reads, well placed counters, wrath management, and resets. ill do TK ORZs to catch people when i can, but i havent done successive TK ORZs like you can. i ■■■■■ up the execution with that, so i do things within my abilities to make do and it works out great for me. i still feel i need to step up in that department though, i rely too much on screwing the opponent over with catch counters.

Grand Final Matches with me vs Menzo at Press Start Gaming. I make a lot of input mistakes and I get too scared with the counter breaker bluffs, but I feel I did top notch for myself.

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Courtesy of @UABass, here’s some rough sets featuring Sako. First one is against xFrankTheHumanx and his very good Rash, second set is against DaytonJ’s monster Tusk.

Vs Rash:

Vs Tusk:

Great games to both players, and thanks again to Bass for hosting! :thumbsup:

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Anytime. Your Hisako play has grown so much, and it was a pleasure to watch. Hope to host again soon.

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We had the autumn classic tournament last night and I fought menzo, losing to him 2-1. His rash I became familiar with Hisako but Glacius I have no clue how to fight him and lost with both my jhisako and Jago.

There is also the match with aria I did later but I don’t feel like looking for it.

Since you asked, here’s some things I noticed while watching.

  1. Never do shadow influence as a level 4 ender. It should only be used as an ender if you absolutely need the full knockdown time/wrath refill. Unless you’re empty, a level 4 influence ender should give you enough time for both a mixup and full wrath regen - level 4 leaves them on the ground for the same amount of time as the shadow version. The meter is better spent in neutral or on resets.
  2. If Rash tongues in at Hisako and she blocks the tongue, she can almost always down+MP him as a punish. Don’t let him approach like that for free - unless he comes in at a crazy angle, that ish isn’t safe.
  3. Don’t run into hail from full screen. If you’re going to take a hit from a hail, better to take it in the air. Hisako’s dash is also really susceptible to getting tagged en route - it’s fast and low profiles, but it’s a hard commitment. Dashing too much at Glacius is just asking to eat a cold shoulder or shadow.
  4. Hisako should never eat a shadow counter when she has more than 50% wrath. Get into the habit of mashing 3P whenever you see the screen freeze. Doesn’t matter if you have wrath for the cancel or not, this should be an instinctive reaction when playing Hisako.

To be honest though, that Glacius/Sako fight seemed more like bad decision-making to me more than anything. I think the biggest MU specific thing you’ll want to work on is trying to avoid shatter a little better - Menzo hit you with nearly every one that he threw out. He was definitely covering them well and forcing you to juggle multiple threats while he tossed it out, but still, you’ve got to be able to react to that pillar of light against Glacius or you’re going to get dunked.

The more general note I’d have (and part of why I think you got caught in that vortex repeatedly and went for some perhaps ill-advised counter breakers) is just that you need to work on your patience. Zoners in general tend to get a lot of their damage by punishing people who’re trying to get in, and Glacius is no exception to that. Trying to rush in is what he wants you to do, so don’t do that. Glacius doesn’t have anything he can really threaten you with once he gets outside of lance/shoulder range - shatter is reactable, and he shouldn’t ever be able to summon more than a single hail at a time without being punished for it. Make him try and figure out how to pressure you, and then use the things he does to try to apply that pressure to punish him. If he wants to call hail, descent behind him (even if you’re late you wind up more or less at neutral, and his hail is primed to come out in the wrong direction). If he tries to shatter, jump or shadow through it on reaction. If he wants to play inside cold shoulder range, then wait for the lance->something or raw cold shoulder and go from there. Basically, don’t spend your life trying to bully your way in if you can help it. Wait for him to do something you can react to, and then use that to get in on him.

And if you do have to bully your way in, I recommend wall jumps. Covers more ground, and can’t be punished into full combo. It’s fine to spend life to get in, but you want to spend it in ways that don’t have you eating full combos into knockdown setups.

Hope that helps :thumbsup:

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