What Is an Okizeme? - Fighting Games Explained
1,759If you’re a new fighting game player, one term you might hear on stream is “oki”. But what the hell does it mean?
Oki is short for the Japanese slang term Okizeme (起き攻め). Oki, short for Okiru (起きる), means “to get up” and zeme, short for Semeru (攻める), means “to strike or attack”, translating literally into “get up attack” or “get up offense”.
In fighting games, when a player gets knocked down, there is a brief moment where neither player can hit the other. Okizeme refers to this brief lull in battle where the attacking player is deciding what to do once their opponent finishes their getup animation. Will they throw out a hit? A grab? Some other mixup? Oki is the attacker trying to guess the correct option to continue their offensive pressure.
The flipside of the Okizeme coin is called “wakeup”, which refers to the defender waking up from being knocked down. Will they attack? Or block? Or some other mixup? Oki and wakeup are like yin and yang, and this guessing game with your opponent after a knockdown is one of the fundamental mindgames fighting games.
So, next time you hear a commentator ask what the Oki is going to be, you’ll know what it means!
#fightinggames
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