I've been practicing exclusively with Nariko lately. You definitely need to unlearn what you learned with everyone else in this game if you want to get good with her, and that's not easy.
Her play style definitely forces you to think one step ahead at all times since she relies on the "key pose" system. But man, I'm starting to get it down and it's great. She's also got the best super 3 in the game, just imo, and her mobility in the air is excellent. You can easily get from one side of the map to the other with her uptriangle while in the air. Great for getting out of trouble.
She's also got a few moves which either bounce the opponent, stun them, or face plant them, setting up for her awesome 150ap combo.
She's hard to use, most definitely, but I can see that with the right person, she would be devastating.
Oh, one thing I've learned about making her level 1 easier to hit...use her debris sweep first, then straight into her level 1. The debris sweep will push the opponent back far enough to get nailed by it. It's actually got a larger aoe range than you'd think.
