Kazuya (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Kazuya ranks 11th out of 82 on the current [[tier list]], placing him at the top of the A+ tier. Kazuya possesses various strengths, the most significant being his large moveset, having more than double the moves of a usual fighter thanks to his diagonal inputs. He has an excellent grounded combo game courtesy of moves such as [[Electric Wind God Fist]], down throw, uncrouching attack and down-back tilt, all of which allow him to keep opponents locked in vulnerable animations for long periods. He also has high overall damage (which can be further boosted when under the effects of his character-specific [[Rage (Kazuya)|Rage]] buff at 100%) and a wide array of powerful finishers fitting his heavyweight status, and most of them are able to be combo'd into. Overall, this grants him reliable [[zero-to-death]] combo potential once his inputs are mastered, with some such as Electric Wind God Fist being almost inescapable. His moveset has significant utility in other areas: [[Crouch Dash]] grants a safe approach option, double dash attack acts as the strongest [[Reflection|reflector]] in the game, down smash is a fast [[meteor smash]], [[Gates of Hell]] is an harsh [[semi-spike]] that can [[gimp]] opponents with poor recoveries, up throw is one of the strongest of its kind, most of his attacks have [[intangibility]] on parts of his body, [[passive armor]] lets him shrug off very weak attacks, and he gains [[armor]] during his smash attacks. Kazuya's special moves carry good utility as well, with [[Devil Blaster]] being effective for edgeguarding, [[Devil Fist]] granting a burst option and combo starter, [[Devil Wings]] being a powerful [[out of shield]] option and good vertical [[recovery]] that does not cause [[helpless]]ness, and [[Heaven's Door]] allowing him to punish shielding opponents, which is further boosted under the effects of Rage (which turns it into [[Rage Drive]], granting it [[super armor]] and extremely powerful KO potential). Finally, Kazuya has excellent staying power due to his heavy weight (being the 8th heaviest) and surprisingly good recovery for a heavyweight courtesy of his high [[double jump]] and Devil Wings, allowing him to make use of Rage even more. Combined, this makes Kazuya very dominant on the ground, as he is able to perform very damaging, difficult-to-escape combos from one opening.

However, Kazuya suffers from several polarizing weaknesses, the most significant being his poor frame data, extremely slow mobility, and poor defense. Almost all of his attacks, from combo and KO moves, come out on at least frame 12 and have very high ending lag, making most of his attacks unsafe on shield outside of grab or Electric Wind God Fist (which come out at frame 7 and 8 respectively). He is also among the slowest characters in the game, possessing slow ground speed, air speed, and mobility if he is not constantly using Crouch Dash. When coupled with his low range and very slow jumpsquat (which is uniquely 7 frames instead of the universal 3 frames), this forces Kazuya to actively approach with grounded options and gives him a poor disadvantage state, due to his jump being a poor disengagement option while also lacking effective aerial combo breakers. His advantage state is also mediocre, as he primarily relies on connecting combos to succeed: if his combo drops halfway, he usually has to win neutral again, and his offstage abilities are sub-par due to his slow speed and few aerial options, which prevents him from netting early kills offstage outside of certain ground combos (such as down throw into multiple neutral aerials). Rage, while powerful, gets lost after he takes enough damage, enough time passes, or too many uses of Rage Drive are attempted. Lastly, Kazuya's recovery, while somewhat flexible and able to be stalled with Devil Blaster and Heaven's Door, is exploitable due to its overall high lag allowing opponents to punish him if he is careless.