Character discussion: Lars

Ahh Lars.... the legendary speed demon everyone loves to hate and hates to love. As he is my favourite character, he shall be the first character to be discussed about. So yeah, Lars is cool and has moves that are total rip-offs from Masked rider. According to the story, he's the illegitimate son of Heihachi Mishima and that kinda proves what kind of a man Heihachi is. Namco is trying hard to emphasize this by giving him pimp coats and a butt-spanking throw. Enough of this crap, lets move on to his gameplay.

Lars is top tier and i'm going to explain why. Lars is a powerful punisher. He has pretty average 10 frame punishers with his 12 giving +6 frames on hit and his 21 giving more damage but only +3. Oh, and did i mentioned his 12 frame punisher f24 deals a chunk of damage and KD/Wallsplats? Not only that, he has a 14 frame pseudo launcher fb21 that gives an immediate bound combo. For -15 and above, his stun launcher f1+2 covers all. For ws punishment, he has ws4 for -11, ws21 for -13 and ws1 for -15 and above.

Lars has a really good and scary offense. He has a whole bunch of safe mid pokes and also a very fast safe mid tracking moves that high crushes. Too good. For lows, he has db13,db4,fc df1+2 and ff43. Yeah, this are probably the only lows you are gonna use when you're up against a good opponent. Db13 is a low,high NC that gives okay damage for a poke, but it's a launch for Lars when the opponent blocks the low and ducks the high. Db4 is his only standing low that gives frame advantage but it's death on block. It deals okay damage but on CH, it trips the opponent for a small combo. Fc df1+2 is his only low from FC that gives decent poke damage and +2 frame advantage. When the opponent starts blocking it, then ws1 comes into play as a mixup. Finally, Ff43 is a very damaging low,mid NC but is death on block and -2 on hit. You're opponent would've thought they've been hit by a combo when you do a ff43 on rage. Oh, and use ff2 for a full juggle when they begin to duck your ff43. It's -12 though.

Lars is a very powerful whiff punisher, Uf4 proves it. Uf4 is his slow long range whiff punisher that jumps over lows and some mids that hit low to the ground. It juggles for his maximum damage combo and is safe. However, it leaves you on a huge frame disadvantage and also gives your opponent all the time to launch you when you whiff it.

To complement his coolness, Namco gave him 2 stances. Silent Entry and Dynamic Entry(SE and DE for short). DE is his stance where he dashes forward in ninja-esque style. It's not an offensive stance because it has no lows and the only throw that you can use from it can be easily broken with 1+2. It is however very effective for oki after combos. Not only that, you can do a uber cool DE wavedash by continously doing f3~u,f3~u. And now, my favourite stance, SE. SE is his offensive stance which utilises 50-50's. It consists of only SE1, a relatively safe power mid that KD's. SE2, a big but very unsafe KD low and SE3, his launching mid. The mids from SE hurts like hell so with proper conditioning, they'll start to eat more of your SE2. And when they do, it's oki galore for them as SE2 recovers in FC and doing ws2~f puts you into SE again to restart the fun.

Oh shit, I almost forgotten to mention Uf3. Well, Uf3 is his 16f launcher that crushes HIGH/LOW and some MIDS. Before you start going OMFGWTFNERFSTICK!!, bear in mind that it comes with its risk as well. It is -21 on block but he recovers in crouching. I see many people trying to do a jab punish and end up whiffing. The reason I didn't include uf3 as a punisher above is because f1+2 is a better punisher in terms of damage and speed.

Honorable mentions
Df1-His best mid poke
Db21-Another good mid poke that advances forward
Df2-15 frame mid that high crushes and gives combo on CH
21-His high mid poke, the second hit is mid! Good!
B1-Safe fast mid high crush tracking move
Uf4-Long range whiff punisher for maximum damage combo
Db4-Gives +frames on hit and trips on CH for combo. Death on block though.
Ff43-Damaging low,mid but death on block. Mixup with Ff2.
1+2-2 hit mid that evades jabs and gives chunky damage. You can cancel the second hit with 1+2~b for mind games.
Uf3-Launcher that crushes HIGH,LOW and some MIDS,Enough said.

I hope this character review can help you to gain a better understanding of the character and if there's any mistakes, remind me and I'll change it.

Sean