Kokoro thoughts and discoveries...
It may have already been spotted, but Kokoro's 7K is now 18 instead of 17 frames.
Kokoro's fastest and strongest launcher is now 46P, good luck getting this off due to the tight window on 46 inputs. With that said, a simple stun launch combo using 46P can easily get to 60-80 damage. 46P is 17 frames with 25 damage. P+K, 4P+K, 7K and 33P+K all do less damage and activate much more slowly. 33P and 22P no longer launch on stun.
4PP is +2 on hit. Keep in mind this is a pretty slow high, but it has better range than standing P and its now Kokoro's only natural combo on neutral and stun.
Compared to another stun-launch combo character like Momiji, Kokoro has better flow and mix-ups, but tends to get less or about the same reward as Momiji does. While Kokoro can get red critical much more quickly than Momiji could, Kokoro lacks options for different critical bursts. Considering that several characters that have fewer high-mid-low mix-ups (Rig) or even better mix-up potential (Ayane and Helena) now have two or more critical burst options, it really hurts that Kokoro doesn't have similar options for this, despite her very limited back-turned and Heichu options.
Further, it is hard to say what exactly Team Ninja wants to do with Kokoro, do they want to make her half-grappler? If so, then her throw options need to be better or guarantee something like Brad's or Helena's do (especially since these two are strikers). If they want her to be an aggressive pit-bull character like Akira, then her options for breaking down guards (3PT, PPT, 33PT, 66P+KT, P2KT, 7PKT, 236P+KT, 1PT and more) need to be a lot better at doing this. If they want Kokoro to be a striker that focuses on mix-ups, then they need to give her something else besides variants of the same three strings, from PK, 3K, 1KK, P2KP, 4PK, 7PK BT 4PK, because that's all she's got. Those variants on the same exact moves are found all over her move list and this doesn't help her create any sort of mix-up threat or otherwise.
Conjecture: Seeing as how DoA4 was rushed to market for Xbox 360's release and it was practically Itagaki's last game, I speculate that Kokoro was the last character to be developed, given that Lisa had appeared in an earlier spin-off (and her move list was already locked in). Outside of Eliot, I don't see any character like Kokoro being stuck with such a heavily recycled move-list and series of animations. Kokoro has changed the least (outside of Ein, but does he really count?) between DOA4 and DOA5U. As a character, Kokoro has an array of options; more throws than the typical striker character; one of the few characters than can strike in four different ways through PK (High, Mid Punch, Mid Kick, Low) and she happens to be one of the few characters in the game with two sabakis. A lot of this sounds good on paper, and should more than make up for her weaknesses to step, but it doesn't. It's because too many of Kokoro's options are barely worth using and provide so little threat and so little guarantee that the risk is often too great for the reward. While she can certainly compete, and she's probably still better off that some characters in Ultimate, I don't think her overall perception and her current status as a low-mid to low tier character isn't going to change much. Buffing her damage isn't really going to help or address the issues she has, but I think she needs more than what she's got right now if players want to take notice of her or use her more often in tournaments.
