Kazuya (SSBU)


 * Kazuya GETS READY FOR THE NEXT BATTLE

Kazuya (, Kazuya) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially announced at the E3 Nintendo Direct on June 15th, 2021 as the fifth downloadable character from and was released on June 29th, 2021 (June 30th outside of the Americas) as part of Challenger Pack 10. Kazuya is the second playable fighter from Bandai Namco after, and is classified as Fighter #81.

Masanori Shinohara, Kazuya's voice actor since , reprises his role in Ultimate in all regions.

Kazuya ranks 7th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the S tier. Kazuya possesses several moves that can act as combo starters, most notably Electric Wind God Fist, which while difficult to perform consistently can offer significant reward to the player due to its very high hitstun and frame advantage. The move's paralysis effect allows Kazuya to utilize his fearsome comboing capability, as many of his moves offer a great deal of versatility when performing combos due to their relatively decent startup and high hitstun. Finally, Kazuya can end his combos with moves that have extremely high KO potential such as sweetspotted forward smash, up smash, Heaven's Door, and Dragon Uppercut.

However, Kazuya does suffer from several polarizing weaknesses. He is extremely heavy and has among the lowest jump height and slowest air, walking, and dash speed in the game. Coupled with his relatively tall stature and unique 7-frame jumpsquat which leads to a poor out-of-shield game, he is extremely susceptible to combos. Additionally, despite the strengths that his grounded moveset has, the startup on a majority of them are average and have poor range. Because of his low speed outside of his Crouch Dash, Kazuya also has difficulty approaching, as Kazuya does not have any long-range attacks outside of Devil Blaster, which has very high startup and endlag. Lastly, Kazuya's recovery is still rather exploitable. Despite having two options to recover, he can only use one of them each time he's in the air; Devil Wings has very poor horizontal distance, while Devil Fist has extremely high endlag.

Despite these flaws, Kazuya's domineering offense and combo potential when he manages to close the distance have made him an extremely potent character in Ultimate's metagame, and he has seen great success in tournaments due to players such as and. Kazuya's strengths, however, have also led players to call for his ban.

Attributes
Kazuya is a surprisingly heavy brawler, being the 8th heaviest character in the game, who focuses heavily on ground offense, courtesy of his wide array of grounded moves and command specials which consists of almost nothing but grabs, throws, punches, and kicks. Reflecting both his weight class and series of origin, many of his attacks possess astounding damage outputs and knockback values, though both his movement and attack speed are lackluster, which renders his approach relatively limited. He possesses an impressive variety of microspacing options and ways to close in the distance, including a kick capable of reflection, a quick dash that grants intangibility, and attacks that move him slightly forward or backwards, allowing him to control his grounded movements better than most of the cast. His attributes reflect his ground-focused playstyle, as Kazuya's movement speed is very sluggish in general and requires use of his kit to properly close the distance. Apart from a very high double jump (similar to or ), Kazuya's dash speed is below average, and his air and walk speeds are very slow. Kazuya also possesses one of the lowest jumps in the game: while this assists his combo game due to his attacks' launch angles, this is counterbalanced by his jumpsquat, which is uniquely 7 frames long instead of 3.

Kazuya's most noteworthy attribute is arguably his comeback mechanic in the form of. This is an ability that activates when Kazuya takes 100% (or is down to 25% of his health in Stamina mode), which grants a multitude of buffs. To start off, Kazuya's damage output on all of his attacks increases by 1.1×, which improves his already outstanding damage output and combo game. He also gains a strengthened version of Heaven's Door called Rage Drive, which deals massive damage and can KO most characters before 80% near the ledge. Acting as a command grab, this makes Kazuya very threatening to shield against or even approach, as his high damage capabilities grant him the ability to net stocks starting at very early percentages.

Much like how his fighting style reflects and based on his playstyle in his home series, one of Kazuya's biggest strengths is his punish game once he closes the gap. It is possible for him to dish out large amounts of damage due to his very large and varied moveset. His kit is filled with numerous combo starters that deal high damage and hitstun, and several of his attacks are able to be interrupted halfway through, which creates multiple combo routes to go by, with even the more simple ones being able to dish out at least 30%. He also has options that counter shields, such as shield-breaking options with down smash and Tsunami Kick, as well as some attacks that outright beat shields, such as the last hit of the 10-hit Combo, and Electric Wind God Fist, which uniquely forces opponents out of their shield. Additionally, many of his ground moves have high shieldstun multipliers, making them surprisingly safe on shield if properly spaced in spite of their high lag. This gives Kazuya a very strong close-range game once he does close the gap, as his kit is filled with mixups and routes which leaves the opponent on their toes, having to keep guessing what he's going to do next.

While his aerial movement is very lackluster, Kazuya's aerials in their own right have varied uses. Neutral aerial is unique in that it meteor smashes both grounded and aerial opponents, while also being very quick to interrupt, granting it the ability to combo into other attacks almost flawlessly, rising or landing with the move. Forward aerial has a similar attribute of being very quick to interrupt, but also has decent horizontal range in front of Kazuya while having respectable knockback, making it useful as a poking option and combo starter overall. Back aerial is the hardest aerial for Kazuya to use consistently due to his auto-turnaround mechanic in 1v1 fights, although it is also his strongest aerial. It deals high damage, has good range and KOs rather early when sweetspotted, making it a viable mixup in his kit. His up aerial has a very wide vertical range, hitting grounded opponents even when rising with the move. Like neutral and forward aerials, it is a fast aerial overall, having numerous combo routes out of the move. It also boasts good KO power when it hits clean. Lastly, down aerial is a stall-and-fall aerial that is risky when used offstage, but it deals high knockback, creating a large area of denial for the opponent attempting to get back to the stage. It also has low enough ending lag for Kazuya to be able to recover back to the stage afterwards, provided he has his double jump.

Kazuya's special attacks are unique, and further support his playstyle. Devil Blaster is a long-ranged projectile attack, similar to Robo Beam. It can be angled and deals good damage with respectable knockback to back it up, which makes it good for long-range edgeguarding and keeping the opponent away from the stage, while occasionally being able to net KOs from a long distance. His side special, Devil Fist, is an excellent combo starter that crumples opponents on a clean hit. It also grants Kazuya a horizontal recovery option, albeit a short-range one. His up special, Devil Wings, travels a moderately high distance and is one of the only up specials in the game to not put the character into a helplessness state, which grants Kazuya many recovery mixups. It also has a hitbox that is at its strongest when hit clean, being able to be used as a combo finisher and KO confirm. Lastly, Heaven's Door is a command grab that acts extremely similar to Flying Slam. It is capable of being controlled in the air, and the slam is very powerful and capable of KOing at high percentages.

However, Kazuya's flaws aren't to be overlooked. To start off, due to being a heavyweight when it comes to weight class and having an above average standing height, he is very susceptible to combos. He has a hard time dealing with pressure due to the rather poor startup of most of his attacks, and his out-of-shield game is rather lackluster due to his unique 7-frame jumpsquat heavily hindering the potential for his aerials to be effective out-of-shield, save for up air, which is frame 4 and frame 11 when shorthop buffered. His up smash and Devil Wings both have a 12-frame startup, which is still below-average speed for an out-of-shield option. This is also supplemented by his poor mobility overall, with his running speed being below average, and his walking speed, initial dash, and particularly his air speed being bottom 10 in the game or worse. This gives him a poor ground-to-air transitioning that most other fighters do not share.

Kazuya's recovery can also be exploitable, despite its coverage. While having a high double jump and an up special that covers a decent distance, Kazuya's horizontal recovery options are subpar. Not only is Kazuya's air speed bottom 10 in the game along with a very slow air acceleration, his side special Devil Fist has a short travel distance in the air and very high ending lag, making it very risky to use if he is not close to the ledge; in this situation, either Kazuya won't be able to make it and suffer from its high lag, or the opponent can fend off the recovery attempt only for it to happen again. Devil Wings travels an average distance, and while it has a powerful hitbox and doesn't put Kazuya in a helplessness state, it is still prone to getting countered. Additionally, Devil Wings' ending lag is high enough to where a directional air dodge is rendered useless to try to gain extra vertical distance, meaning that Kazuya would have to recover in an area that is above the ledge (and thus, leave more of an opening) in order to get the most out of his options. To top it all off, Kazuya's aerials cancel almost all the momentum of his otherwise high double jump, which significantly worsens his chances of fending off opponents with his aerials who try to intercept his recovery.

Additionally, Kazuya's unique Rage mechanic has its own downsides. It does not last forever, as landing Rage Drive instantly consumes it, and whiffing a grab reduces the damage needed to take to lose it, eventually ending Rage upon too many whiffed grabs. Kazuya has to pick his positions well in order to best utilize Rage Drive, as too many whiffed grabs can potentially determine the outcome of his combo strings. It also goes away upon taking enough damage, which means that Kazuya has to avoid being hit if he wants to sustain the additional buffs received, which is already hard due to his status as a super-heavyweight with a large frame and poor mobility.

Lastly, Kazuya's vast and large moveset grants him among the highest technical learning curves in the game. He doesn't have the ability to "cancel" his attacks unlike fellow fighting game characters, and , meaning that he has to be more precise and frame-tight with his combos compared to other characters. His wide range of attacks all have specific inputs and timings, most notably Electric Wind God Fist, which is extremely useful when mastered but can take a lot of practice to pull off consistently, making Kazuya particularly prone to misinputs and their associated consequences. In addition, improper inputs can be especially common when dealing with fast opponents who can easily cross up Kazuya, and many of his tilts are fairly sluggish, which in combination with his lack of approach options means he cannot afford to be impatient in neutral. This forces the player to adapt to Kazuya's unique playstyle and learn the ins and outs of every move, carefully anticipate the right time to use a certain attack to avoid being left vulnerable, and see what is most optimal to string together to maximize his considerable damage potential.

All in all, like other characters of his weight class, Kazuya functions as a bait-and-punish type of character akin to how he plays in Tekken, though uniquely with plenty of combo routes and punishment options that differentiate him from other heavyweights. His ability to dish out extreme amounts of damage, sometimes more than characters heavier than him, combined with his ability to close the gap with some of his moves, such as his Crouch Dash, forces the opponent to stay on their toes against Kazuya. Once he is able to close the gap, it is often hard for the opponent to keep up in damage. However, Kazuya himself is very prone to combos and his rather sluggish startup on his attacks means that he must pick his spots well; coupled with his mediocre aerial abilities and Ultimate's heavy focus on aerial combat, he can easily get overwhelmed on certain stages or against opponents with strong air games. Regardless, his high skill ceiling and formidable grounded abilities supplements this a lot, making him a very rewarding character when played in the right hands.

Despite his overall high learning curve and complexity, Kazuya has seen tournament success thanks to the efforts of players such as and, both of whom have won majors using the character. The general consensus is that Kazuya is a high-effort, high reward character who can stuff out approaches and even cause zero to deaths over one mistake, but has a poor disadvantage state that makes it possible for himself to be killed off of one mistake. As it stands, the general consensus considers Kazuya to be top tier, with many also arguing for his ban due to the character's polarizing strengths.

Update History
Kazuya only received one nerf via game updates; update 13.0.0 made it so Kazuya could no longer footstool crumpling opponents hit by Devil Fist. This change removed a deadly infinite that he could do on numerous characters. However, due to the rest of his kit and combos remaining untouched, the nerf does not significantly affect Kazuya's competitive standing.

 

Moveset

 * Kazuya has a unique fighter ability called . It is indicated by Kazuya being enveloped in a red aura after reaching 100% (25% of his total health in Stamina Mode). In the Tekken series, Rage increases the damage output of his moves, which is emulated with a 1.1× damage multiplier in SSBU. It also grants access to the unique Rage Drive, which will end the Rage state when executed. There is no time limit on the Rage state, although it will end if Kazuya receives more than a certain amount of damage or misses Rage Drive repeatedly. Rage will end when . In context, with no missed Rage Drives, it will take 36.93% to force Kazuya out of Rage.  Rage can only be triggered once per stock.
 * Kazuya has universal armor against attacks with low knockback, known as Tough Body. It guards against up to 14 units.
 * Several of Kazuya's moves, including his special moves, smash attacks, and up throw, briefly transform him into Devil Kazuya. While the transformation itself is purely aesthetic, it indicates the attack being particularly strong. A majority of these moves also activate Special Zoom under certain conditions or feature heavy armor.
 * Kazuya always faces his opponent during a one-on-one match or when only two players are remaining in a match.
 * Unlike, and , Kazuya does not always face the camera. This aspect comes from Tekken, where Kazuya assumes an orthodox stance regardless of camera placement.
 * Sound effects from Tekken 6 onward are used when Kazuya hits an opponent instead of the standard knockback sound effects. Kazuya also utilizes unique visual effects when he hits an opponent.
 * When using his forward, back or down throw in a one-on-one match, the camera briefly shifts to a unique angle similar to the Tekken equivalent. On two-dimensional stages (such as Flat Zone X) or in situations where the new angle would result in an obstruction of the fighters by level geometry (such as under a platform), the camera will zoom in but otherwise not shift angles.
 * In addition to the camera angle change, Kazuya's forward throw, back throw, down throw and Gates of Hell have special sound effects.
 * With the exception of moves that cause Special Zoom, Kazuya's moves have significantly less hitlag than other characters. This is an emulation of the Tekken series' lack of freeze frames on hit.
 * Kazuya possesses the most directional moves of any character, with diagonal directions set to additional standard attacks, and command inputs for others (such as Crouch Dash). He is the only character with command input grabs.
 * Kazuya's jumpsquat is set at 7 frames instead of the universal 3 frame jumpsquat shared by other characters.
 * Kazuya has a special double jump that propels him in a floatier, curved trajectory with significantly more height. This trait is shared with, , , and . The upward momentum of Kazuya's double jump can be canceled by inputting an aerial move.
 * Battering items wielded by Kazuya use his unique Sparks effect instead of the typical Normal effect.

For a gallery of Kazuya's hitboxes, see here.

On-screen appearance

 * Appears from a puff of dark smoke in his devil form, then assumes his fighting stance in normal form.

Taunts

 * Up Taunt: Crosses his arms and grins while grunting.
 * Side Taunt: Demon's Wrath, a move used by Kazuya from Tekken 4 onwards (Tekken input: b+3, 1, 4, 1 - back left kick, left punch, right kick, left punch). One of the few taunts capable of dealing damage, uniquely being capable of KOing under normal circumstances.
 * Down Taunt: Transforms into his devil form and roars while spreading his arms and wings out before transforming back to his normal form. Resembles Devil's tag in animation from Tekken Tag Tournament when paired with Kazuya.

Idle poses

 * Enters a stance with one arm pointed towards the ground, and the other one curled to the side of his midsection.
 * Briefly waves his hands in circular motions in front of himself.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses
Uniquely, Kazuya is the first fighter in Smash history to not have a victory theme. His victory screens feature the announcer from Tekken 7 (voiced by Josh Keller) saying "Kazuya Mishima wins" instead of the standard Smash announcer. This is a reference to Tekken's win screens, which do not feature any victory fanfares; instead, depending on the installment and game mode, the stage's current music either gradually fades out, continues to play at full volume, or stops immediately during victory animations. If Kazuya wins a team battle as the leader, the regular announcer will call for his team, but no music will play.
 * Left: Crosses his arms, then looks off to the side (similar to Fox). Based on one of his victory screens in the original Tekken.
 * Up: Performs two roundhouse kicks, then stomps his foot on the floor while turning into his devil form. He then reverts to normal before holding a fighting stance. Based on one of his victory screens in Tekken 5 and Tekken 6.
 * Right: Flying kicks in, then punches towards the screen in his devil form, before transforming back to normal while holding the punching pose. Based on one of his victory screens in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection onwards.



Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Kazuya players (SSBU)


 * - Co-mains Kazuya alongside and is the best Kazuya player in the world, as well as a top 10 player since mid-2022. He is currently the only player who has won majors primarily with Kazuya, doing so at  and.
 * - Co-mained Kazuya alongside for most of 2022 and is the best Kazuya player in Europe. He has used the character to place highly at several majors such as 9th at  and 13th at . He was ranked 69th on the UltRank 2022 with the character. He has since relegated Kazuya to an occasional counterpick.
 * - Co-mained Kazuya alongside from 2021 to 2022, and was considered one of the best Kazuya players in the world, rivaling Riddles in performance, and was a top 10 player in 2022. Tea notably used Kazuya to help him win . However since 2023, he has relegated Kazuya to a counterpick character.

Tier placement and history
Even prior to his release, Kazuya gained notoriety for his immense moveset relative to the rest of the cast, along with the inclusion of his near frame-perfect Electric Wind God Fist; Many stated that this would give him an unprecedentedly high learning curve among Ultimate's roster, and could take a long time before his full potential is realized in the competitive scene. While his representation is below average, he has seen notable results from select players such as, , and displaying how effective Kazuya can be with his extreme power, versatile toolkit, and great endurance, which has shown him to be more than capable of pulling off zero to deaths and difficult comebacks. As a result, Kazuya has received positive reception from competitive players, often being considered a top tier fighter due to these factors. On the other hand, his aforementioned learning curve and unorthodox play style have limited his tournament representation and he does have weaknesses such as his slow mobility, abysmal air speed and his high weight and fall speed making him vulnerable to combos and gives him a hard time getting out of disadvantage, leading some to claim that he's only a high-tier at best. Regardless, he is considered a strong fighter in the right hands and his extreme power and comeback factor are not to be underestimated, making him ranked 7th on the first and current tier list.

Ban discussion
Kazuya has been the subject of a serious discussions for a ban from competitive play, although not as widespread compared to. Discussion heightened starting from early 2022 with a sudden rise in Kazuya players and results, such as, , and most notably.

Proponents of Kazuya's ban argue that his strengths make for games that are more campy and less enjoyable to fight against or watch. This is due to Kazuya's movepool, which proponents have criticized as being broken due to the generous intangibility on certain moves and abundance of zero-to-death combos that either kill or deal massive damage, regardless of weight or percentage. This has led proponents to believe that there are little effective counterplay against Kazuya other than "don't get hit", as a single mistake could potentially lead to death.

On the other hand, opponents to a ban argue that Kazuya has noticeable flaws that can be crippling to the character, such as his poor disadvantage state and linear recovery, and the difficulty of executing such zero-to-death combos in high pressure tournament settings. They also point out how Kazuya's representation at a top level is lower compared to other characters perceived as "broken," with Riddles being the only player who saw consistently strong results with Kazuya, and even then he not only still maintained as a co-main, but was also still prone to random upsets and underwhelming performances.

While no serious Kazuya ban has been implemented nationally, every power ranked local in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas region has banned Kazuya (along with Steve) as of April 16th, 2023, for the health of their competitive scene following a large amount of Kazuya and Steve results.

: Fighting Fists with Fists
Kazuya's route features opponents that, like him, specialize in. Aside from Round 6 and the Final Round, the first 5 Rounds feature stamina matches as a reference to the Tekken series. Uniquely, if playing with 2 players, the AI will have 150 HP instead of 100 (in Round 4, Donkey Kong and King K. Rool will have 100 HP each instead of 70). The name of Kazuya's route also references how "Tekken" translates literally to "Iron Fist" in Japanese.

Note: Every stage plays a track from the Tekken universe, no matter what universe the stage originates from.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Kazuya has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Due to his status as downloadable content, Kazuya does not have a legitimate role in World of Light. Instead, he is unlocked for use in the mode after freeing 10 fighters from Galeem's control. If loading an existing save file that meets this condition prior to downloading Kazuya, he is immediately unlocked.

Spirits
Kazuya's default fighter spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Kazuya has been downloaded. Unlocking Kazuya in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Unlike most fighters, this spirit only uses its artwork from Ultimate rather than artwork from a previous appearance, making him the only DLC fighter with this distinction.

Kazuya's coat outfit also has a fighter spirit of its own, available through the shop. Unlike his default outfit, his coat fighter spirit uses artwork from Tekken 7.

Trivia

 * Kazuya's internal codename is "demon", a reference to his demonic heritage of inheriting the Devil Gene across his family line.
 * Kazuya is coded to have a rapid jab alongside its finisher in his character scripts (named Attack100 and Attack100End), but they go unused due to him having no animations for them.
 * In Kazuya's character presentation, Sakurai noted that Kazuya's inclusion was difficult as he wanted to capture the essence of Tekken in Smash despite fundamental differences in their gameplay. This reflects a previous comment Sakurai made about Heihachi, whom he turned down in Smash 4 for similar reasons.
 * By this token, Sakurai has explained Kazuya was chosen over Heihachi due to the Devil Gene allowing Sakurai to give Kazuya special moves, smash attacks, and a midair jump via Devil Kazuya, leaving room for Kazuya's normal attacks and basic movement to be as similar to their Tekken counterparts as possible.
 * Kazuya's side taunt is the only damaging taunt that can stale.
 * The splash art for Kazuya is the second that uses a font other than DF Gothic Japanese, the first being that of . This does not apply to the splash art used in the Japanese trailer, which uses the DF Gothic Japanese font with the usual "Joins the battle!" tagline.
 * The 3D text for his "Gets Ready For The Next Battle" tagline is taken from Tekken 7's battle loading screen, albeit with "Get" being replaced with "Gets" in order to be grammatically correct.
 * Kazuya is the third fighter in Ultimate to speak Japanese in all regions. However, unlike Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, whose Japanese speaking is likely because of union issues with their English voice actors, Kazuya's Japanese speaking is in line with his home series, as most characters in the mainline Tekken games (with a few exceptions, such as Alisa Bosconovitch and Sergei Dragunov) are only voiced in their native language (Japanese in Kazuya's case).
 * The European versions of the Super Smash Bros. website say "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate x Kazuya" instead of Tekken in his newcomer banner. Likewise, the website was updated to remove the series names and logos for all characters in the "Sort by Series" section. This is in line with the pattern that European marketing does not include the names of crossover games with a higher PEGI rating than Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Tekken 7 is rated 16). However, the European video presentations still show the Tekken name and logo.
 * With a weight value of 113, Kazuya is the heaviest DLC character in Ultimate.
 * He is, however, the third heaviest newcomer overall, behind with a weight value of 116, and  with a weight value of 133.
 * It appears that some of Kazuya's animations were pulled straight from Tekken 7, such as a quirk regarding Spinning Demon causing Kazuya's back to appear twisted for a few frames.
 * Kazuya is the only fighter who:
 * Does not have a universal 3-frame jumpsquat, with it instead being 7 frames.
 * Does not suffer from hard landing lag when landing from a fullhop, due to his low jump height.
 * Has a crowd cheer which features an instrument (a drum).
 * Vocalizes during their pummel attack.
 * Does not have a victory theme.
 * Has a default spirit which includes only the render from Ultimate, but also has an alternative spirit that features artwork from a previous game in addition to the render from Ultimate.
 * Despite using orthodox inputs, Kazuya's neutral attacks, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, and dash attack are all simply referred to as command-input moves in the Tips, likely due to overlap with unorthodox inputs.
 * Kazuya, Dark Pit, Lucas, and Wii Fit Trainer are the only playable characters in Ultimate that do not appear in a Nintendo Switch game outside of Ultimate.
 * Masahiro Sakurai showed pre-release material of Kazuya in a YouTube video and showcased several changes made before the final version:
 * Kazuya's eyes and eyebrows were pull upward to look more angry.
 * Sakurai decided to use a unique knocked down animation that resembles Kazuya's knocked down animation in the series.
 * The position of Kazuya's wings while airborne was altered to make the posing more energetic while retain a bat-like silhouette.
 * The story mode for Tekken 7 was used to inspire Final Blaster almost 1 to 1.
 * Kazuya's wings during Final Blaster were initially too rounded and Sakurai suggested they be made more angular.
 * Kazuya's wings during Devil Blaster were adjusted to catch the wind during startup, than release the wind and flutter upon activation.
 * Kazuya's wings during Devil Fist were repositioned so players could see the punch connect.
 * Sakurai suggest adding a line that goes through opponents during Devil Fist to add atmosphere.
 * Kazuya's wings were initially only visible for two frames during his landing animation, which Sakurai suggested extended to make the land more impactful.
 * Sakurai suggested that Kazuya should immediately enter his damage animation when hit by a Final Smash.