Joe Higashi overview & gameplay guide
Character specification
cloud_download DLC
Character
Season 1
Season 1
Character Trivia
Famed Muay Thai fighter with stiff kicks that can shatter steel. No other kickboxer can lay a finger, elbow, or knee on Joe Higashi, so the champ winds up tackling a different beast: the silver screen! His biopic documentary, The Legend of Joe (directed by none other than Cheng Sinzan), is already shooting around South Town; Joe even envisions a bit part for star pupil Preecha, whose recent tournament triumphs have done her master proud.
Difficulty
EASY star
Fighting Style
Muay Thai
Joe Higashi Gameplay Trailer
Pros & Cons
thumb_up PROS
- Close-Range Menace: Joe is undeniably strong up close. He has access to a variety of mixup tools for lows, highs, right/left, and a command grab, and that’s not even mentioning the great frame data on his close moves.
- Dynamic Neutral: Joe can play from a variety of ranges; harassing the opponent from midscreen with hurricanes and tiger kicks one moment and barging in with an advancing special the next.
- Fearless Man: Joe’s new stance is terrifying. With its guard point and follow-ups including a command grab, Joe can use this stance to easily punish an opponent for being predictable. With REV to spare, Joe can even protect himself from lows, or use REV Accel to combo off one of its followups.
- Light Confirms: Thanks to REV Tiger Kick, Joe easily converts sequences of two or even three lights into a variety of combos, giving him much more combo freedom than other characters.
- Glasses: They make him look good.
thumb_down CONS
- Risky Mid-Range: Joe’s far normals are all very underwhelming, being slow, stubby, unable to cancel to special moves, or a combination between the three. This leaves his mid-range game very reliant on his committal special moves.
- Full-Screen Failure: Joe doesn’t have much to threaten the opponent with from beyond half screen, due to the limited range of his fireballs and Slash Kick. This hurts him a lot against hit-and-run tactics, stifling his ability to make comebacks.
- High REV Dependence: Joe is very meter hungry, using it to make stance mixups safer, gain plus frames, and access high damage combo routes.
- Outclassed: Joe is a well-rounded character in a game already full of them, and he lacks a strong, character-defining gimmick to make him stand out. In short, there isn’t much he can do that other characters don’t do better.
- Some People Don’t Like Glasses: That’s unfortunate.