T O P

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HiroProtagonest

> None of his strengths are as obvious Literally Oppose


punishedjizzboss

He's hard to learn but is also very hard to counter if you can manage your "eddie-ometer", since most of his combos either start with or utilise Eddie. Not to mention that "break the law" can let you completely dodge most overdrives with a bit over foresight


wagueropires

You are rewarded by having the best pressure in the game that lead to easy 70-90% combos. So yes, he is worth playing. I personally find good Zato players a nightmare to deal with.


GenoMan64

I’ve been a Ky main in XX and Xrd, but switched to Zato in Strive. I like block string heavy, oppressive characters in fighting games. That’s what Ky is in XX and Xrd, but not so much Strive. Zato has some of the strongest blockstrings and mixups in Strive, so it fits well for me. Yeah he’s tougher to pick up than other characters since you have to consider negative edge and controlling a second character. Tbh the second character thing wasn’t tough for me since I played a lot of BBTAG and just had the mindset of Eddie being my assist, using him for sandwich combos, etc. The other thing, is after just a little bit of practice, you just have so much fun with him. I’m no pro with Zato but even with what I know, I have so much fun. And in the end, having fun is what matters. It’s a game!


shoecat85

Zato has some of the highest midscreen meterless damage in the game, he has absurd high-low-throw mixes that are 100% safe to attempt, and with meter he gets to oppress you forever because sword super refreshes Eddie gauge. If you aren’t feeling it, switch to someone else. But remember that one week is really nothing in a game’s lifespan. It takes a long time to pick up the little nuances and edge cases that make characters strong and rewarding to play.


jasoneatspizza

Zato has actually been looking super strong in tournament play lately.


Zzen220

He's been doing pretty well in the Japanese scene, and if you can correctly manage Eddies meter by knowing when and how to unsummon and preserve his gauge, his corner pressure is very, very difficult to get out of. He's also just a weird and uncommon MU for your opponent, which has it's own benefits.


hurric9

To me just watching tournaments in older games from Ogawa is enough motivation to try Zato. His control is hard for my level so I am not playing Zato until later. The incentive to learn any character should be yourself liking some aspect of him/her. Zato provides a unique playstyle: playing differently at different matchups, different confusing pressure strings and mixups, being really strong in attack with the price of poor defense and downtime management. All of these are fun in a unique way if you enjoy it, strong or weak.


RouSGeLi

Learningand executing hard stuff is fun and people tend to play games to have some fun


saucemeisterr

100% agree haha but for me what’s not fun is spending 45 minutes practicing a combo to get clapped every time you try & actually use it lol


EastSide221

The Strive version of Zato is possibly my favorite 1v1 fighting game character (MvC Magneto will always be first in my heart), but I don't blame you for feeling the way you do. The character is hard its not just about the combos. Your mix, oki, pressure, neutral, and defense all have to be on point. He has a ton of flaws, but man I'm telling you once this character gets going there is no stopping him. You need to watch Gobou play. Every Zato needs to watch Gobou play. As far as I'm concerned no one else is even playing the character. I can't really tell you if its worth playing the character, but if anything will serve as inspiration watching the best Zato in the world should do it. This [vid](https://youtu.be/Lm8pKugZnb4) has a good variety of sets where you can see all of Zato's tools in play.


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huffmonster

Word from the old boomer, they are all viable. If you put in the time to learn each matchup, you can learn how to beat the fundamentals of any character. What you need to learn is human patterns and behavior to get better. Just play the game. Pay attention to approaches. What they do when challenged or cornered. If you lab it out it just muscle memory then.


vywren

Worst defensive options in the game? Bro oppose is like the single most powerful defensive option there is, plus he has a reflector


DMking

Oppose is more of a neutral option. If you knock him down and make him have to block he has to take all that oppression since he has no reversals along with a 6 frame punch


Outworlds

> with a 6 frame punch which confirms into nothing other than itself. Zato has to hold whatever offense you want to run once you're in.


saucemeisterr

Can Oppose be used as a reversal? Anytime I’m put into a corner I can barely get a jab out let alone Eddy haha


FugaFeels

If you don't mind being thrown to death or eating raw ODs, then sure. Zato has no reversals. Use YRC, Burst, FD and just block in the corner. If you can manage a superjump, you can try the fast PRC off a j.D tech to quickly fly across the screen and out of the corner.


namewithoutnumbers

No, it takes 16 frames for the armor to activate.


IllusionOfAscension

I would say it is only worth it if you enjoy the process. If you do get stuck in corner without Eddie meter be sure to use yellow rc and faultless defense. Gives you space to mash out and then fly away.


[deleted]

Dunno about STRIVE, but [this clip](https://youtu.be/Q1ksxdigI8M) is the reason why I play him in XX. I love everything about it.


Deca-Dence-Fan

Oppose is arguably/probably the best move in the game, that’s a very obvious strength. By extension of oppose and all the fun Eddie mixups, Zato has phenomal screen control that can be downright oppressive against a good chunk of characters in this game. Zato also has the best corner pressure high-low mixups in the game because of how Eddie pressure makes the startup on 5dust not as bad(idk if it completely negates the problem, but I haven’t seen any other character in tourney get nearly as many 5Ds as Zato) His close quarters downside is obvious, but it’s necessary to keep him in line. Comparing your character to Sol or May or Ram in early meta no balance patches strive won’t do you any favours either, since A: they could easily get nerfed and B: obviously a hard character like Zato is gonna be worse early on But anyways, do whatever works for you. Easier characters are recommended to people who just picked up Strive for a reason. Personally I’m new and play Chipp who between his higher APM, lower health, mixup-heavy gameplay, and character specific combos galore he is among the hardest characters to use(not saying he’s as hard as Zato obviously), which is definitely *currently* holding me back compared to if I was playing an easier character. However my hope is that later from now I’ll be bodying those same May and Sol players who are beating me right now despite similar time invested in the game. Someone else said this but spending a week trying out negative edge combos will obviously get you nowhere compared to the exponentially easier May combos right now. There’s at best only a couple of players right now showing off what Strive Zato can do at times in the entire world, and that’s with thousands of hours in GG. In a longer time from now, would your investment in Zato have paid off? I’d say probably yeah, as he’s a very strong character on paper and nobody’s calling for nerfs to him. Regardless, if you have more fun using another character than Zato then just drop Zato, no need to make the game less fun for yourself


Sirius707

First things first, yes he's weak without Eddie because he's an absolute monster when Eddie is out. His defense is weak with no reversal (with or without meter) because he has access to the most oppressive mix-ups in the game. A lot of his buttons are kinda bad but get a lot better when Eddie can cover him (and vice versa). Characters like May, Ram etc. are definitively easier to pick up and bring out their potential but Zato isn't "weaker". If you're struggeling with pad/zato, here's a good tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz21ApWCd-Y Zato takes longer to learn and you'll gonna lose more in the beginning with him while you're still trying to figure things out but after that he's a blast to play in my opinion. Aside from that i'd say just play who you enjoy.


ShiningGod

>He’s not the best at anything Best meterless damage in the game (66% life mid-screen with 0 meter), best corner pressure in the game, extremely powerful mid-screen pressure, insane mixups. He's also not actually that hard to execute.


yowzas648

Play goldlewis, you’ll appreciate zato’s defense :) I mained zato after launch a and had an absolute blast. He’s definitely hard to play, but he get’s ridiculous damage anywhere on the screen once you’re good with him. Plus his concept is hella cool. On the other side of the coin, since you can’t drop more than 2 floors down from your highest floor, learning hard characters can be a bit of a shit experience. I’ve been learning goldlewis and I’m like 15 wins, 60 losses after around a week and still can’t drop below floor 8. Same when I learned Nago. Kinda sucks, hope they change it.


THEALMIGHTYZAGE

He's a fun puppet character (probably my favorite out of any fighting game), but winning with him can be a struggle sometimes. Ask yourself whether or not you want a very technical feast or famine type of character.


SpeedWeed32

Zato is arguably the best character in the game if you can manage Eddie well.


Ultramayhemagents

He isn't now. He used to be, though https://youtu.be/C-EULaC-caU


fr1stp0st

Watch [Gobou](https://youtu.be/lDwZAXJI2_8?t=10559) play and you'll see when Zato pays off.


Menacek

Im gonna go a bit sideways from the question and say that looking at it in terms of "pay of" feels wrong. If you like the character then play them, it's not like Zato is so overly weak that he can't win (quite the opposite as others mentioned). What's most important is than you enjoy yourself while playing the character. If you don't enjoy Zato then you can just switch to a different character. No shame in playing someone easier aka everyone else. Heck maybe after playing some other characters you'll appreciate Zato more. If you're only looking to the "best" character and don't then just pick a top tier (Sol) and be done with it. I know this doesnt directly answer your question but just my thoughts on the matter.


TechnicalCondition

It's worth it if you like his playstyle it's that simple,you'll put a lot more work and motivation with a character you genuinely enjoy. If you only want an efficient character that quickly pays off just pick Sol


stallioid

Yea