Hotaru Futaba overview & gameplay guide
Character specification
Character Trivia
A young girl searching far and wide for her older brother, who disappeared when her mother passed away. As luck would have it she would one day run into someone who looked very much like him, though he denied all knowledge of the matter. But that was then, this is now, and Hotaru still hasn’t given up: determined to fight the mysterious stranger again and let her feelings be known, she sets off into the unknown once more.
Difficulty
MEDIUM star star
Fighting Style
Soft kung fu styles (Tai chi, Baguazhang, etc.)
Hotaru Futaba Gameplay Trailer
PDF Command List
Gameplay Overview
Hotaru is perhaps the most well-rounded character in CotW. With all the basic tools a character could need and then some, she comes equipped for any situation thrown her way.
To properly underscore what Hotaru has, she has a fireball, a DP, a divekick, a launcher, a reflector, a command grab you can combo out of (if you REV it), several strong combo starters, and much more. She can rushdown, zone, pressure, grapple, play footsies, punish minute mistakes, mix up, cross up, turtle up, and do everything short of playing the game for you. If you can think it, Hotaru can do it.
Well-rounded as she is, though, she has a few quirks unique to her. She enjoys great mobility thanks to her amazing walk and run speeds, on top of having a divekick, letting her navigate neutral well and play offense or defense as needed. While she does have some minor shortcomings, like poor reward from lows and a reliance on REV Accel for her offense, there’s ways to play around these weaknesses, like command grabbing an opponent waiting out your offense, or playing a strong defensive game to reduce your reliance on offense.
If you’re wondering if this character is for you, the short answer is yes. She doesn’t rely too much on a defining gimmick or strength, but Hotaru being such a jack-of-all-trades is a boon in and of itself. To that end, Hotaru is one of the best characters for beginners, or players doing some soul searching for their next main.
Pros & Cons
thumb_up PROS
- Versatility: Hotaru has access to every tool you could ever want in the game, and she can execute her flexible gameplan anywhere on the screen. From far away, she can send out her slow moving fireball and follow behind it to force an approach, up close she has a command grab to mix people up, good frame data to apply pressure with blockstrings, and for defense she has the game's best 2A, fantastic reversals and a great Guard Cancel in her Rev command grab. Many of her tools are often exceptional in their own right and give her options in situations where other characters have none.
- Air Options: Hotaru has a comboable air normal in j.C, a divekick and an incredibly spammable air Rev Blow that tends to beat even High Dodge anti airs, so she's both hard to meet midair or defend yourself against when grounded.
- Fast: On top of her excellent fireball to cover approaches, Hotaru has the second fastest runspeed in the game, and her walkspeed is so good she walks backwards faster than some characters can walk forward, letting her do micro adjustments to weave in and out of ranges as she sees fit.
thumb_down CONS
- Light Conversions: Hotaru struggles to convert into a full combo from 2 or more chained A or B normals (which notably includes crouch B starters) without Supers or Rev arts, which lowers her reward compared to the rest of the cast and prevents her from confirming her lows into damage without a steep cost in resources.