Kazuya Mishima’s character breakdown, as well as a word on his added bonuses, has been released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This breakdown was hosted by director Masahiro Sakurai like always, and was this time featured in a slightly larger studio than normal to accommodate for Covid-19. Sakurai broke down Tekken’s history very briefly, and also regaled fans with a surprising number of development stories about the fast-inbound DLC character.
These stories were mostly about how awkwardly a Tekken character translates into Smash. According to Sakurai, the developers who originated from Kazuya’s home company Bandai Namco, were able to quickly and accurately transfer him between games. However, because Tekken characters are quite slow and deliberate compared to most fighting game rosters, Kazuya came out rather weak. He has apparently received a lot of changes since then, and this shows in his design. Kazuya has almost twice as many attack actions as the average Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character, and the number of options his extended movelist covers is near-ridiculous.
Kazuya’s Moveset Breakdown in Smash Ultimate
Kazuya Mishima is bringing an enormous bag of tricks to Smash Ultimate. Kazuya’s B-button specials are the plainest of the bunch, which is saying something considering they’re specials. Still, they aren’t lacking in power: Neutral-B is Devil Blaster, a fast laser that covers a ton of distance and can be angled. Side-B is Devil Fist, a move that can stun and pass through fighters.
Devil Wings is up-B, and not only does it move Kazuya upwards quite a lot and lack the usual up-B recovery, it also has a potentially lethal first hit as Kazuya lifts off the ground. Finally, Kazuya’s down-B is an armored command grab called Heaven’s Door, and it turns into a tug-of-war between Kazuya and an opponent once the grab connects.
Kazuya’s smash attacks are also very dangerous. All of them, along with his special moves, involve Kazuya activating his Devil Gene for a brief power boost. His side-smash, Glorious Demon God Fist, has armor, and has a sweet spot with more kill power than Falcon Punch. In fact, all of Kazuya’s smash attacks have armor, and Kazuya himself does not flinch when jabbed, but they aren’t quite as strong as his side smash or down-B. Kazuya’s up-smash, Devil Twister, is a great launcher and combo tool, and his Lion Slayer down-smash serves the same function, is a meteor move at ledge, and can easily break shields.
Above all his other great moves, Kazuya’s A-button normals are the main attraction, with combo potential and utility galore. His auto-combo alone is his classic 10-hit combo, while seemingly not able to keep an opponent in for its whole duration, will break shields if the last hit connects. The rest of his moveset is spread out across the eight directions of the control stick, the three bottom directions while already crouching, and even pressing the A-button while rising from a crouch.
The number of actions possible here are absurd, including several combo starters, a spinning kick combo, a low launch, a reflect, a tripping attack, an offensive backstep, another strong shield breaker, and an attack that causes a long flinch. An expert player will be able to do whatever’s best in any situation, providing they read it right.
Kazuya and His Patch’s Other Surprises
Aside from his high weight and constant jab armor, Kazuya can also cause special camera angles with some of his grabs in 1v1. One of these grabs is a command-based grab, serving as a mighty back-throw. Kazuya has a number of special command inputs, including his crouch dash, Dragon Uppercut, and the famous almost-frame perfect Electric Wind God Fist.
Kazuya’s last character gimmick is a once-per-stock instance of Rage triggering at 100% damage. Kazuya gets a 1.1x damage increase, and can cash this in for a Rage Art command grab that looks like a souped-up down-B, which can also be accessed through a command input. Finally, Kazuya’s last surprise is his ability to combo into his side taunt, which isn’t that strong but will dish out some damage.
Alongside Kazuya comes his stage, the Mishima Dojo. Kazuya’s father Heihachi stands at the back of the dojo, and the ceiling and walls can be broken temporarily with strong attacks. This stage brings a whopping 39 songs from throughout Tekken to bear, though sadly it lacks Tag Tournament 2’s Snoop Dogg track. Setting aside the bells and whistles, there are some concerns among players that Kazuya may be too strong.
It’s not clear yet if Kazuya’s low speed, range, aerial capabilities, and high complexity will make up for his massive kill power and array of utilities, not to mention his super armor. There’s a lot of discussion going on about this, but perhaps not as much as something else revealed during Sakurai’s presentation.
Mii Fighter costumes and a new amiibo figure for Min Min were also shown off. The Mii Fighters were all crossover characters unrelated to Tekken (owing to Tekken Mii Fighters already being available), but who exactly they were broke a lot of fans’ hearts. A character who becomes a Mii outfit is almost guaranteed not to be made into a new fighter, and this time around Sakurai even alluded to this being the case.
Some may have grieved over The Elder Scrolls’ Dragonborn being rendered unplayable, while more Tales of Symphonia fans were upset with Lloyd Irving losing his chance. However, fans of Devil May Cry’s Dante and the titular Shantae were upset, as they were both very popular fighter requests and many really thought they had a chance at getting into the few DLC slots left. As it were, only one slot remains in the second and final Fighters Pass, so it will be a mystery who Smash Ultimate’s last character will be.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now for Nintendo Switch.
