Everyone's favorite green grunt, Denim Zaku is here. Referred to as Zaku-II, or Green Zaku, this suit was the original Zaku from the Battle Master games with his red counterpart having been a secret character, but has since been overshadowed by it. What sets Denim apart from his Char counterpart is the lack of excessively chainable normals such as crouching and standing WP and WK, j.WP, and j.2WP, and the drastic decrease in speed. Because of this, many players have overlooked him, with the GBA2 newcomers significantly overpowering and limiting Zaku's options in many ways - making him one of the more contrast and examples of power creep differences from the original Battle Master series. For reasons like this he is usually considered to be one of the worst characters in the game, alongside Big Zam and GP02A. Denim Zaku is not all faults though, he makes up for some of this in more cushioned health, controllable thruster arcs, and being able to super OTG opponents. Zaku II is an excellent pick for those who are looking for a more rounded-out neutral, and want a more traditional fighting game character, while still being able to special cancel into cracker grenades and enjoy a wide array of conventional creativity within their playstyle.
Archetype: Footsies and Pressure
Strengths
Weaknesses
Solid DP: Zaku II's DP is invincible and leads to a combo on hit, and when taken on its own merits, it's pretty good. However unlike Char's DP, Denim has to be more creative about his chains and cannot rely on repeated j.WP attacks to extend his combos.
High/Low Mixup: Zaku II has multiple IOH normals which leads him run a decent high low game, on top of a relatively strong chain and pressure table, giving him a number of angles and situational follow-ups that other characters don't typically have from the air.
Cracker Grenade: Cracker Grenades are reliable for anything from combo extensions on the ground, air, and can be combined with the likes of moves such as j.6SK in the corner to set up for DP. By throwing cracker grenades, Denim Zaku grants himself insurance for characters attempting to stuff him out with normals or rushdown approaches, allowing him to passively control space and condition pressure with high-low mixups and cross-ups.
Stubby: Zaku II's normals are among the stubbiest in the game and his projectile's and speed aren't nearly good enough to make up for it allowing opponents to play around Denim Zaku almost entirely.
Weak Conversion Ability: Owing to his stubby normals, Zaku's ability to convert is fairly weak. He needs close hits to combo into a knockdown and has no solid way to get big damage outside the corner or callouts with his reversals e.g. Super and DP.
Slow Movement: While not the worst, Zaku is slow to get around which only makes his other flaws that much more pronounced, meaning he will have a tough time closing the distance and getting in.
Can't Deal With Zoning: While 26P is a good move in a vacuum, all of Zaku's projectiles are low priority. On top of that, his slow movement and stubbiness means he can't chase down or contest the zoners of the game without risking his life.
Low Health: While his health is higher than his Char counterpart, Denim's Zaku II has the same amount of health as the likes of RX-78, Hamma, and Hygogg, meaning he will overheat much earlier and to combos that most suits normally wouldn't.
Lacks Plus Frames: Unlike his red counterpart, Zaku has few plus moves making it hard to enforce his mixup game and keep opponents in pressure once he finally does get in.
All damage values were tested on characters with 100% damage taken
Character Summary
Move list
Special Moves
26P (Air OK) - Zaku Machine Gun: Fires a volley of shots, low priority, average ammo consumption, varies with button strength.
24P (Air OK) - Cracker Grenade: Throws lingering cracker grenades, effective combo tool, forces trades, can be destroyed.
26X+X - Cracker Special: Throws a flurry of cracker grenades, invulnerability on start-up, can be used on OTG opponents, plus on block, can be destroyed.
Command Normals
6SK - Shoulder Tackle: Charges at the opponents with a shoulder tackle, can be effectively combod into for cracker grenade or Super.
j.2SK - Stomping: Stomp-down normal, can cross-up, can lead into a cracker grenade combo.
j.2WP - Low Punch: Can be used on crouching opponent as an instant overhead (IOH), and as a universal combo tool that can link into many attacks.
j.6K - Front Kick: Can be used as a good close-mid range spacing and punish tool, can link into cracker grenade combos, and be thrown out after landing super to extend combos.
Any additional information that doesn't fit with the main description, such as it whiffing on certain characters.
Toggle Hitboxes
Toggle Hitboxes
Strategy
Neutral
Describe how a character plays the neutral game. Add sub-categories if necessary, these should usually be on how you use a specific move.
Offense
Describe how a character runs their offense.
Defense
Describe how a character defends themselves when they're on the receiving end.
Additional Resources
Links to any additional resources, delete category if there are none.
Additional Categories
Add any further categories as needed, just make sure they're worth a whole section.
Combos
Midscreen
Commbo Example (5WP > 2WP > 2SK)
Damage. Describe when to use the combo and how hard it is.
Corner
Combo Example
Combo desc
Matchups
Overall
Their general matchup spread, how good are they across the board. Do they have weaknesses against an archetype? Does they do especially well against a certain group?
Overview: Describe overall the flow of the matchup.
Neutral: How does neutral work in the matchup? Do any tools in particular affect it?
Offense: When you're on offense do they have tools to counter you? How does it flow, can you mix them?
Defense: When you're on defense do you have tools to counter them? How does it flow, how do they mix you?
Frame Data
Fill in frame data here, if it has an additional property that lasts for certain frames list it in Notes (i.e. XF~XF Invincible, XF~XF Armor). Delete this line when it's done.
KD - Knockdown
VA - Variable
*UV - value(s) marked with "?" in the table is/are unverified
x~yF - a period from frame "x" till frame "y"
