Know your fighter: Jin Kisaragi

Blazblue is the game I want to get better at. As a new IP, I get the head start at adopting the game engine and pick up a character to main and compete with. True, it was out in Japanese arcades for over a year before I got my hands on it, but the majority of the Western audience will be like me, starting at the same time.

Before I start, I should point you to this page. This will explain any terms you may be unfamiliar with. There's a link to go backwards to an onslaught of additional information you may need. It's pretty much a one-spot stop.

Jin Kisaragi is my choice main character. He's pretty much the Sagat or Eddie of the game. A stark lack of drawbacks with only an abundance of advantages to use. The reason he's not among the top 3 is because their rushdown game is so overwhelming, it doesn't matter that they have less stamina then Jin.

Click on the image for a quick overview of Jin's basic attacks and special attacks

Jin's drive is Frostbite. Press D and the attack that comes out with freeze the target for a second or two. If you're a victim of Frostbite, wiggling the stick back and forth reduces your freeze time. Jin's drive works in two ways basically. You can use some drives as surprise pokes and cross ups to punish your opponent's careless spacing. While frozen, they're helpless as you can come in for a free combo, though Jin's best poke, 5D, has a lot of knock back which restricts what you can actually do. My favorite trick is air dashing over my opponent and using j.D as an ambigious cross up, confusing your opponent as to which way they have to block. From there, a free combo is guaranteed.

The second idea is to extend or otherwise tweak how your combos end with an additional drive freeze. Jin's bread and butter air combo will often times end with j.D. As you fall from your attack, your opponent eventually falls faster then you, allowing you to use 214B/D (Crystal Ice Strike) to tack on additional damage.

 Crystal Ice Strike, otherwise known as "lol icecars"

Rather then go into combos now, I wanted to take this chance to share important things to know about Jin's moves that you could use for yourself to nudge your Jin game an extra inch or two. The video link under the emblem's picture basically takes you to the collection of strategies compiled with the limited edition dvd, so if you're interested in getting better, definitely watch the advanced strategies videos and combos. With that, here are the subtle notes the videos don't go over.

• 263C (your strong DP) starts off completely invincible but leaves you vulnerable on block. You'll of course be using it to bait head on attacks and almost everytime you use it, it'll be a counterhit. Point being, when this move lands on counterhit, you can hit them with 5C as they come down and go into Jin's BnB combo. Or if you're lazy, just use Hiyoku Getsumei when they fall in view.

In other words, this attack on counterhit...

...to this when they fall down.

• Speaking of counterhits, you can also hit the opponent with Ice Fang on 263B counterhit. This is the same story with invincibility frames except the B version implies you're trying to "psychic" your opponent's moves and can accurately guess what they're doing. Unlike the C version, B isn't invincible immediately on startup so you need a good guess in to go through their attack and counterhit. Once you counterhit them, they stay in hit stun, spiraling through the air long enough for the tip of Ice Fang to ravage them on their way down, just before they can tech.
  

Holy shit, I love this move

•  As long as I'm on Ice Fang, you should know this move comes out fast. I mean, crazy fast. How fast is it? I've played against Hakumen players who tried to air dash from full screen distance away in an effort to close the distance between us. My reactions are pretty modest, but a well reacted Ice Fang can punish air dashes hard, even at full screen. Seriously, on top of his DPs and the hit boxes on his drive moves, being in the air against Jin is a very bad idea unless you have barrier ready.
  
• j.B has crazy, insane horizontal reach. Using this attack as a jump in is a great way to surprise opponents who think they can anti-air you because you can use this earlier then they can AA you.

Seriously, this attack rocks.

•  214D doesn't just freeze your enemy and knock them away like a bastard child. It completely resets their tech time. What this means is that they won't be able to get up longer then usual due to this attack (normally after a long combo, the enemy can tech earlier in order to compensate for a long combo). If your BnB combo is carries the opponent near the corner, end it with 214D into the corner and you'll be free to get in a few extra hits while they're down in the corner.
• j.D cross up is my favorite trick in the book. This move hits all around Jin, basically turning his entire body into an active hit box. You can air dash quickly over your opponent and play mix ups on when you press D, forcing your opponent to guess if they should hold forward or back in order to block your attack correctly. Basically play mind games on pressing D earlier, later, or even when you're right on top of their head so even you don't know which side they're supposed to block. It's a good ambiguous cross up due to it's huge hit box.

Force them to literally second guess their defense and punish when they guess wrong.