Goro Versus Kitana. I won't be touching on Kuatan Warrior at all because I don't use it and cannot fathom it having a worthwhile place against any zoner worth mentioning. I'll mostly be talking about Dragon Fangs, but Tigrar Fury might get referenced too.
More or less, this is your traditional zoner versus rushdown affair. Goro wants to get in, Kitana wants to keep him out obviously, but let's talk about why it's a balanced match up beyond the superficial level.
Before I begin, let's make a core design point about Goro: He is built to be played primarily on the ground unlike a character Kitana beats like Sonya or Kung Lao where them not being able to jump hurts apart of their core design, Goro is meant to be played as a patient character on the ground.
Goro can punish fan toss on block with command grab for 16-20% damage off of pretty much any string, which means to stay safer she can spend a bar or avoid cancelling into fan toss on block up close at all, but then that means less chip damage for her in general, but it makes playing up close against him even more precarious.
Goro beats her out ranged wise due to forward 3 being faster than forward 2 with notably more range than forward 1 so in neutral scenarios he can pester her better. Up close, he has great frame traps to keep her on lock down. He has safe mix up options to keep her guessing and 3, down 3 breaks armor and is safe with launching capabilities/overhead, which compliments his low, stagger pressure, throws, ex low stab (+12 on block special). When he gets in, it can be daunting for her and it only takes one correct read to drag her to the corner where his offense just gets stronger and more potent. Compared to Kitana's stagger pressure and lack of a mix up game, most of the time she's not gonna wanna be playing that game. Goro's down 1 rivals Kitana's range, but is faster and safer on block. In fact, all of his low pokes are equal or better than hers, only down 3 has around equal merit.
Goro can move around like a normal character now so getting in on zoning is purely a matter of good fundamentals and patience. Kitana usually kills people who get sloppy or impatient, these are not character weaknesses, but a universal means by which Kitana acquires damage. She also has to be wary at certain ranges throwing fans since Goro can plow through it with armor for a full combo into great corner carry.
The only place she outclasses Goro is fullscreen and thank goodness she wins there because otherwise it would be a hard battle for her if she couldn't keep him at bay.
The oki game is interesting since Goro can always wake up safely and her wake ups are a risk. Against most characters, ex rising fans can plow through armor attacks, but outright gets crushed by ex punchwalk.
In regards to Assassin, even if she makes a read on Assassin parry against ex punch walk, she still gets punished because of the two hits of armor and her whiff recovery. Factor in his low starter and other counter options and parry becomes a read where the risk reward is outside of her favor, it definitely has defensive applications, but is not groundbreaking. A lot of royal storm's tools don't come into play against Dragon Fangs because there's nothing for Kitana to counter zone with reflect and what not and lacking a parry gives her reduced defensive options. Long ranged lift is useful of course as it is in any match up to check ducking.
There's more reasons why it should be even than not. She builds a lot of meter versus everyone and usually has more than most people, not a match up specific issue.
Kitana can be opened up regardless of being patient due to his mix ups whereas Goro only gets opened up due to sloppy play or overextending yourself.
I mostly talked about Dragon Fangs, but Tigrar Fury stuff applies for this as well really.
her parry is the only parry that doest work vs hes EX punch walk... what a shame.
