Junior Member
Member
Of the three vanguard classes, Kensei is actually the most agile one. It's true that his heavy attacks take a bit to come out, but the same is true for the Raider (who has it even worse in that regard) and the Warden. However, his dodge+light attack/guard break moves give him great mobility and poking capability. Additionally, his top light second combo attack (the thrust to the face) is one of the fastest and least-telegraphed attacks in the game. He's also guaranteed a heavy overhead hit after landing a guard break, which is something a Raider (and I think even a Warden) can't do.
I mean, yeah, he can't keep up with the Assassin classes in terms of pure speed, but that's really Orochi's domain. And overall I'd actually say that Kensei is currently the strongest counter to the assassins, as he has both amazing range coupled with quick mixup capabilities from all directions. You can really go for death from a thousand papercuts by leaning on his light attack combos.
Junior Member
It's a game of skill and trying to master your character. I enjoyed playing with Kensei, but when i was facing the Orochi (because of its speed) it always felt like i was up against a button masher. All other matchups were fine and balanced. Second thing that got my attention was when you use a heavy strike on soldiers his hand does not turn with the hilt so it looks like the katana is going to fall out of his hands. And the last thing that bothered me so much that i had to change it was the spine execution where he is holding the nodachi by the blade with his bare fingers. All in all a great game, it was running very well for alpha stage and i could not find any big problems, just small things that needs to be polished.
