Hakumen/Move List

Overview
Hakumen is a character with large normals which most on hits and counterhits can lead to big damage. Hakumen benefits from IBing more than any other character, as he gains 1/3 of a magatama per instant block. He can special cancel his specials, allowing for unique combos and setups. His C moves have projectile autoguard during their active frames and give you a magatama per projectile autoguarded. He also has an insane air dash which covers most of the screen.

Hakumen gets zoned pretty easily, even with meter. Lack of combos without meter, relegates him to not doing much at the start of the round. Even with meter, a lot of his combos are still less than many other characters while still having less options. Like Jin, Hakumen is an excellent poker, but comes one change from Hero of Ikaruga to a hero of six people, Jin's future-self has lost his famed pressure and is considered less mobile due to his huge frame and slow moves, lack of gatlings leave good close combat skills with Hakumen something to be desired, so he must focus on poking opponents without any magatama available.

Hakumen's Drive:  Zanshin serves as his ability to counter his opponents attack. If performed at the right moment, your opponent's attack will be negated, and Hakumen will retaliate. Does not work against throws. If used against projectiles, the counter will catch the projectile and the retaliatory attack will come out, but unless the opponent is near Hakumen, the opponent will not be damaged.

In Continuum Shift, Zanshin is significantly easier to use with longer active time, and his new Fumajin move takes the place of simply having projectiles disappear in collision with his sword, a barrier pops up instead, giving Hakumen room needed to plan his next set of tactics before the barrier disappears. What's more, the damage of the barrier is proportional to the damage of the projectile stuck by Hakumen's blade, giving him an even more powerful defensive game. Hakumen also somehow has experienced similar changes to Jin, as they both had their j.Cs reconfigured. Some of his new moves even give Hakumen better approach than in the last game.

Continuum Shift II has turned Hakumen into a more offensive character. Almost all of his Zanshin counters can no longer be comboed from, and some of his normals have been reconfigured for pressure and mixup. His pokes and sword attacks were made slightly faster, allowing for quicker reactions and punishes. Yukikaze no longer activates immediately after input, instead the red barrier pops up like a normal Zanshin and only changes to the Distortion screen when the opponent's attack connects. This change makes it easier to trick the opponent into falling prey to Hakumen's unblockable Distortion Drive, but also riskier to pull off during a block string.

In Extend, Hakumen has moved up the tier list along with Ragna. New configurations such as chargeable 4C and wall-bounce Renka further increase his reach as well as damage potential.