SSBU: Mr. Sakurai Presents “Kazuya” Rundown

During Nintendo’s E3 Direct on June 15th, a number of different things were announced. The first being the addition of Kazuya Mishima as a playable fighter in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.

Image courtesy of The Verge

Kayuza Mishima is the eleventh DLC fighter to join the roster for ultimate, and the second to last fighter part of the “Fighter’s Pack.” Kazuya is one of the main protagonists from the hit fighting game series Tekken. Tekken was released in ’94 to critical success and has spawned many sequels and spinoffs since, including a Pokemon-themed fighting game for Wii U and Switch titled: Pokken Tournament.

Many fans were wondering why Kazuya’s father, Heihachi, was not chosen as he was previously included as a mii costume. Sakurai directly addressed this in the direct, “Mr. Sakurai Presents: Kazuya” stating that “Kazuya has the devil gene, which is carried down from his mother. This allows him to summon the power of the devil.” This ability can be seen in Kazuya’s special moves.

Move set

Kazuya has a very complex and varied move set akin to his game of origin. Like most characters in Smash, Kazuya’s moves fall into six different categories:

Special Moves 

• Kazuya’s special moves all revolve around his devil gene ability. These moves include Devil Blaster, Devil Fist, Devil Wings, Heaven’s Door and Rage. Each of these is a respective directional special. Rage is unique in that after Kazuya reaches 100 percent damage (or 25 stamina in stamina mode,) his attack power is multiplied by 1.1. He can use a once per stock rage throw, done by either grabbing, using his down special (Heaven’s Door) as well as some other command inputs. One catch to this is that if Kazuya misses his rage throw, rage mode will immediately end.

Image courtesy of Game Informer

• Kazuya’s final smash is Final Blaster. This is taken from the final stage in Tekken seven’s story mode. Kazuya turns into his devil form and spreads out like a fan, shooting multiple beams at opponents across the stage.

Normal Moves

Kazuya has an abundance of different moves, a few of which include Flash Tornado, Jump sidekick, Demon God Fist and Neijiri Uraken. Just like other fighters from assorted fighting games, Kazuya has a few manual inputs for certain attacks this time around.

Smash Attacks

Kazuya has three smash attacks:

• Glorius demon god fist (side smash attack) has super armor 

• up smash: devil twister. Attack range is narrow but can be used in combos. Lets you attack through platforms.
• Lion slayer: down smash. Has a meteor effect. Can spike opponents on ledge, can damage shields. 

Grabs/Throws

• sternum smash – takes a while to land but hits hard.
• forward throw is double face kick 
• Up throw is air inferno. 
• Down throw is stone head. Not particularly powerful but easy to put in combos. 
• Gates of hell. Diagonal right, down, diagonal right grab. 

Crouch Attacks 

Kazuya has a unique crouch move called crouch dash. when inputting forward, down, diagonal right, this makes your body invincible and makes it easy to close in on your opponent. Pairing different moves and combos causes different outcomes.

Other

Kazuya also has an attack assigned to his side taunt: Demon’s Wraith. According to Sakurai Demon’s Wraith is the most powerful taunt in the game.

Some things to note about Kazuya are that while powerful, he has a very low range and is relatively slow. He also isn’t great airborne so it’s best to stay grounded when using Kazuya. He’s pretty heavy and hard to launch. Kazuya boasts continuous super armor just like Bowser

New Stage: Mishima Dojo

Alongside Kazuya comes a new stage: Mishima Dojo. This is actually Kazuya’s father, Heihachi’s dojo. You’ll be able to see him sitting in the background of the stage during battles. The walls of the dojo can be broken down given enough powerful attacks.

Image Courtesy of Nintendo Wire

After breaking down, this stage becomes quite dangerous, as the camera doesn’t follow any characters who fall out, making the bounds range on the stage quite limited. The walls do rebuild themselves after a certain amount of time.

The stage boasts a whopping 39 songs from all over the Tekken series.

Extras

Image courtesy of Nintendo Life

With the release of a new fighter also comes the release of some new mii costumes. This time around we got four new ones: Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia, Shantae from the Shantae series, Dragonborn from Skyrim and Dante from the Devil May Cry series.

Kazuya Mishima is set to release on June 29th alongside Mishima Dojo and four new mii outfits. For all things smash, I’m Jack with The Game Haus.

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