From Deadly Alliance originally, The Blind Swordsman, Kenshi makes his way onto the latest installment of Mortal Kombat. This time around his move set has changed a bit from what it used to be. Kenshi now uses more of his Telekinetic moves to strike is opponents just like how Noob uses his shadow powers to attack. Kenshi’s combos revolve around him using his Telekinetic powers with his sword to strike.
Telekinetic Slash lets Kenshi to telekinetically attack his opponents with a downward slash. This move has short, medium, and long range versions. His Rising Karma allows him telekinetically slash opponents upwards, makeing a good anti air move and combo starter. Other than combining his powers with his sword he also can project a spirit of himself to attack opponents from a distance doing a 3 hit combo with the attack; Tele-Beatdown. It works somewhat like a projectile. This move is perfect to catch opponents before they fall to the floor. If they end up moving away from you, it is a good move to use to chain your combo together after launching someone in the air. Another move called Spirit Charge allows Kenshi to project himself to shoulder thrust an enemy. Unlike Tele-Beatdown, this move can only cover some distance.
His X-ray move is Soul Blade, where Kenshi throws his sword into the opponent's stomach and warps in front of them. He then takes out his sword, turns it over, and hits the opponent in the face with the hilt, breaking the whole skull. He then rips their ribs open and further damages the skull with an upward slash. After launching your opponent into the air with good timing, you’ll be able to hit your opponent before touching the floor and perform your X-ray.
Unlike most of the characters in Mortal Kombat 9, Kenshi is one of those who do not have a teleport move to get around. If you’re using Kenshi, having distance between you and your opponent then trying to get back in their face might be a problem. Luckily this swordsman makes good use of his sword to reflect any projectiles if you perform his Blade Reflect move on time. Enhancing the move lets you absorb the projectile.
For some reason I don’t know why Kenshi wouldn’t have some type of projectile move. Couldn’t he easily just throw his sword across the screen and then grab hold of it again by using his Telekinetic power to make it come back to him? Some moves he had previous Mortal Kombats are not there. Kenshi did have a teleport called Mind Warp in a previous Mortal Kombat. Honestly I think he should have had the move because even with the moves he has, it becomes a problem getting closer to your opponent. I guess this is a way to balance Kenshi out. There were some moves that Kenshi can also perform that are similar to Ermacs, one of those being the Telekinetic Toss. This move is now downgraded to being Kenshi’s throw.
Some Combos do let him cover up some distance and sometimes prove to be effective. Even though some of his moves are lost he’s still a pretty good character to use. His combos are a bit difficult to chain but you can somewhat easily discover how to chain them. I myself will be continuing to learn how to use Kenshi to his fullest.
“Now I have but one goal: to slay the sorcerer who blinded me.” – Kenshi (MK: Deadly Alliance)
