@Keylay we've run into each other I think 3 or 4 times between today & yesterday. GGS my guy!
I think I'm going to play a few more rounds then I'm going to go back to labbing SFV & SC6 until the game drops. I just wanted to make this post & then fill out the survey for the game. After discussing some things with Hajin, XCalibur, Shade, Allan, Master, & some others, I've come up with this conclusion: Kasumi seems better in DOA6. This is premature, but I'm going to explain some differences & what we can realistically expect & what we can unrealistically expect.
Notable things
6P+KK
This is an old move that's returned. It has some pushback, but how safe the pushback is right now is still unknown to me unless someone else knows something that I don't. It does launch, but I wasn't able to get anything major with it as of now.
The new 6PK
This needs to be explored more. On CH, they do some sort of turn around. They can hold the 3rd hits after 6PK, but it's still not a bad idea to use to check opponents still. I hit several people will it over & over to see what could I do after the CH, but I wasn't able to find what I wanted from it as a follow. It could just be a new animation for it & nothing more, but we'll see. Still, it's something that I'm going to keep an eye on.
New Toys that will make players respect her neutral
Moves like 66KP & 66PK are godsends because before, all the opponent had to do was either duck the 66P follow up 66PP & then just abuse mid kick hold against her for 66K- K. NOW, they have to look for several things: 66PP, 66PK, 66P9PP, 66KK, 66K-K, 66KP & 66PP9PK. This is why I was telling Sakura Luva not to write off 66KP. We should be able to get an extension off of this too. I believe that 66PK is safe also. Cyber Evil & others tried to punish it, but were unable to. I even ducked to see if I would be thrown. The 2nd hit also causes a knockdown.
9P tools now are to be respected. Yes. one of the riskiest tools in DOA5 is now something that we could use in neutral as a guard break because now, she has 9PP, which hits mid I want to say AND guard breaks. I'm not going to lie. I am stretching a bit getting excited about this move, but the reason why I am excited about it is because if it tracks, then that means that means that not only we have a new mid that will make people freeze for 9P to see the follow ups, but they'd also have to block & deal. I doubt that this will track, but this is still a good addition to have for her.
Insane corner carry & PP7K/ PKK7K/ KK7K > P
I learned some of the new combos that I will post a little bit later after I make this post, but long story short, if you use KK7K > P (hoshinpo punch that bounds them to the ground), then you could possibly use one of her new follow ups then extend the juggle to carry them across the screen. This is the gist of it. I'm going to make a note of this string because I feel like it's going to be really important going forward for 236T, 33K, 46H, 214P, & 1T. Time will tell.
However, what's unrealistic/impractical will more than likely be the damage output mainly & how long she can keep the combos going. Not only they do an insane amount of corner carry, but the damage is also insane too, to the point that the opponent doesn't have a chance to play. I actually feel like this will more than likely be toned down a bit. Kasumi is an offensive character with a relatively decent neutral plus mixups. How long she can extend the combos off of bounces I expect to be toned down too. However, I do hope that the damage is more substantial than what she did in DOA5.
Some of the new juggles like 33K (launcher) > 33P > BT H+K > 6KK are really fun to do. This possibly could replace her 6K > PPKK or 66K-K > 7K 6KK as a small juggle for a bnb.
Overall, from what I see, I think she got several things that she needed that really opens up doors for her gamplan moving forward. I hope that they tweak some of the mechanics in the game a bit & work more on the netcode. I do like that they show you what type of connection that they have though.