Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Mr. Sakurai Presents Kazuya: Information and Reactions

Today, Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai gave his video presentation on Kazuya Mishima, the latest character to grace Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a downloadable fighter. This was the penultimate presentation, with the game’s final bonus character still unknown. But whoever it is will have a “devil” of a time competing with Mr. Mishima in the realm of complex, large, and all around intimidating movesets. Here’s the skinny:

Fighter #81: Kazuya

Release date: June 29
The fighter has many special characteristics inspired by Tekken:
- As is the case in his own series, he has more moves than any other fighter
- He also faces his opponent in 1-on-1 fights, like the other fighting game characters
- Generally, Kazuya has low attack speed (as coming from Tekken), making it sometimes harder to fight enemies with faster attacks or multiple opponents at once
- His initial jump is poor, relating to Tekken‘s general lack of an air game on the level of other fighting games’
- He also has stronger armor than most characters, as well as negligible hitstun
Kazuya’s Rage is more powerful than that of other characters (and it’s unclear if it stacks with that or outright replaces it), though it activates in a similar way (going above 100% damage or below 25 HP). It will go away after taking too much damage. It increases his damage by 1.1
- While suffering Rage, Kazuya can use an especially powerful throw, Rage Drive, through three methods:
  - Simply grab an opponent; this executes the throw automatically
  - Use his down special, which turns into Rage Drive
  - Use the “Shoruken command” (forward, down, down-forward), which is somewhat stronger
- All of these methods automatically end his Rage, whether or not he connects with it
Kazuya’s special moves all use his Devil Gene:
- Neutral special: Devil Blaster, a high speed laser beam that can pass through multiple opponents. However, it weakens with every fighter it passes through and can only hit certain opponents if aimed up or down
  - This move is useful for forcing opponents to come close, allowing Kazuya to use his better melee game
- Side special: Devil Fist, a fast, rushing punch. It goes through opponents and has different properties depending on when you use it
- Up special: Devil Wings, a very basic recovery attack that mitigates his poor first jump. It also doesn’t put Kazuya into a helpless state
- Down special: Heaven’s Door, a move similar to Bowser’s Flying Slam. Turns into Rage Drive
- Final Smash: Final Blaster, a stream of lasers from his role as the final boss of Tekken 7’s story mode
To translate Tekken’s many moves, Smash decided to incorporate the secondary diagonal directions on the controller – a first for the series, but something that’s central to Tekken. Kazuya also has several command inputs that change or extend some of his “regular” moves, though many of them are different from the Street Fighter and Fatal Fury commands
- This also adapts Tekken’s control scheme to only using one button for normal attacks
- Neutral combo (either holding or pusing the button): 10 Hit Combo. Final attack has strong shield breaking power
- Alternative neutral combo (attack, attack, delay, attack): Flash Punch Combo
- Dash attack: Leaping Sidekick
- Forward tilt: Oni Tront Kick. Like Ganondorf’s side tilt, but slower
- Forward, forward, attack: Left Splits Kick. Has reflection properties
- Up tilt, then attack: Twin Pistons
- Hold up-forward and attack four times: Roundhouse to Triple Spinkicks
- Hold down-forward and attack twice: Tsunami Kick. The second hit does tremendous shield damage
- Down tilt: Neijiri Uraken
- Down-backward and attack: Stature Smash. Knocks opponents down
- Back tilt: Flash Tornado
- Up-back tilt: Jump Side Kick
He also has Crouch moves that are separate from down tilts and require Kazuya to be properly crouching first
- Crouch, then down-forward and attack: Tombstone Crusher
- Crouch, then down and attack: Crouch Jab
- Crouch, then down-back and attack: Crouch Spin Kick
- Crouch, then attack as Kazuya is halfway up from standing after the crouch: Demon God Fit
His smash attacks also use both the Devil Form and super armor
- Side: Glorious Demon God Fist, comparable to Falcon Punch but weaker when right next to the target
- Up: Devil Twister, a powerful and functional move
- Down: Lion Slayer, which has a meteor effect and anti-shield properties but is more useful for starting combos or setups
Aerials
- Neutral: Jumping Knuckle, which looks and has a meteor effect like other fighting game characters’ aerials
- Forward: Searing Edge
- Back: Jumping Sobat
- Up: Rising Toe Kick
- Down: Demon Scissors, which has a sudden drop but can be canceled
Uniquely, Kazuya’s grabs cause a zoom in one-on-one fights
- Pummel: Sternum Smash, noticeably slower than other pummels
- Forward throw: Double Face Kick
- Back throw: Steel Pedal Drop
- Up throw: Air Inferno, which uses the blaster
- Down throw: Stonehead
- Down-forward, down, down-forward throw: Gates of Hell
Kazua also has many separate moves with command inputs that fit in their own category, all based around his famous Crouch Dash move
- Forward, down, down-forward (the “Shoryuken” command): Crouch Dash
- Attacking while doing Crouch Dash: Wind God Fist
- Pressing the attack button at the exact moment of the Crouch Dash down-forward input: Electric Wind God Fist
- Pressing and holding the attack button while using Crouch Dash: Dragon Uppercut. This changes to the stronger version of Rage Drive while Kazuya is powered by Rage
- Using the special move while doing Crouch Dash: Spinning Demon to Left Hook. Has some invincibility frames
His side taunt is also an attack, the largely weak (though stronger than other damaging taunts, for whatever that’s worth) but fun Demon’s Wrath
Uniquely, Kazuya also has no victory fanfare at all, instead using the announcer from Tekken. His victory animations come from Tekken 7, 5 and 6, and 1
During early testing, the staff found Kazuya to be very weak and had to work to improve him. His speed and power were increased as a result

Stage: Mishima Dojo

Like King of Fighters Stadium, the walls – and, uniquely, the ceiling – are initially walled off. Attacking or launching foes into them breaks them open. They will, however, repair themselves over time
Heihachi stays in the back and reacts to K.O.s. The stage also features a small inscription that references part of the backstory to Tekken and the Mishima family
There’s also very little distance from the stage to the Blast Zone, creating a sense of immediate danger and tension

Music: 39 Songs Total! (remixes in bold). This covers Tekken’s long history

“Marine Stadium, Japan” (Tekken)
“Chicago, U.S.A.” (Tekken)
“Kyoto, Japan” (Tekken)
“Heihachi Mishima, the King of the Iron Fist” (Tekken 2)
“Kazuya Mishima, Devil Kazuya” (Tekken 2)
“Kazuya Mishima, Devil Kazuya” (Tekken 2)
“Emotionless Passion” (Tekken 2)
“Attract -Embu- / Character Select” (Tekken 3)
“Hwoarang” (Tekken 3)
“Jin Kazama” (Tekken 3)
“Heihachi Mishima” (Tekken 3)
“Opening Movie” (Tekken Tag Tournament)
“Jin Stage” (Tekken Tag Tournament)
“Kitsch” (Tekken 4)
“Bit Crusher” (Tekken 4)
“Red Hot Fist” (Tekken 5)
“Moonlit Wilderness” (Tekken 5)
“Poolside” (Tekken 5)
“Snow Castle” (Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection)
“Into Nirvana” (Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection)
“RESURRECTION” (Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection)
“Ethno Evening” (Tekken 6)
“YUKI” (Tekken 6)
“Only One Fight” (Tekken 6)
“Dist Thins Out” (Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion)
“Karma” (Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion)
“Arisa” (Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion)
“Yodeling in Meadow Hill” (Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion)
“Abyss of Time” (Tekken Tag Tournament 2)
“Plucking Tulips” (Tekken Tag Tournament 2)
“Landscape Under the Ghost-Kaminano” (Tekken Tag Tournament 2)
“New World Order” (Tekken Revolution)
“No Easy Way Out” (Tekken Revolution)
“Heat Haze Shadow” (Tekken 7)
“Dojo (Japanese-Style Mix)” (Tekken 7)
“DUOMO DI SIRIO 1st” (Tekken 7)
“Moonsiders 1st” (Tekken 7)
“Desperate Struggle” (Tekken 7)
“Aloneness” (Tekken 7)

Spirits

Paul Phoenix & Marshall Law
Nina Williams
King & Armor King
Ling Xiaoyu
Kuma & Panda
Asuka Kazama
Yoshimitsu
Jack-7
Jin Kazama, who can can be upgraded to Devil Jin
Heihachi Mishima

Mii Costumes

Lloyd, from Tales of Symphonia (and previously sold for Smash For)
Dragonborn, from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Sakurai actively chose to use the English name instead of “Dovahkiin”
Dante, from Devil May Cry
Shantae, from Shantae (includes a bonus music track, “Burning Town” from Half-Genie Hero!)

Miscellaneous

The Min Min amiibo is in development and planned for 2022
Kirby has a number of extra details in his Kazuya hat, such as a red left eye and gloves
After the last presentation, Sakurai is back in the rented office for shooting
Sakurai discussed getting a message from “Heaven” – a joke about a typical reading of Nintendo’s name – demanding he put Tekken in Smash Bros.
He also discussed the struggles of incorporating a 3D fighter into a 2D fighter, with Smash as a “game of location” and Tekken a game based around high, middle, and low kicks crossing an at times slim space between fighters
- The Devil Gene, by extension, became as a sort of all-purpose device for giving Kazuya more Smash-specific abilities to compliment his normal Tekken moves
- This is the main reason he declined using Heihachi, as he lacks the Devil Gene
- By extension, the reason for Kazuya’s uniqueness as a fighter stems from a concern that just adding him as a normal character wouldn’t adequately reflect these differences
For the first time in these, Sakurai outright lost in his showcase, forcing him to redo his Squad Strike match
At the end, Sakurai noted how he’s been working on both Smash For (which started production in mid-2012) and Ultimate (which started production in 2015, before his work on Smash For was even done) for close to ten years, calling it his “life’s work”

Wolfman’s Soapbox: At the end of the presentation, Sakurai showed a montage of all the newcomers from the past two Smash Bros. games (except for Piranha Plant, tragically). I expected to see this in the last presentation; maybe another similar montage will show up there, too. But this kinda hit me.

See, after paying a bit less attention to it for a few years, I jumped back into Nintendo partially thanks to Smash (it was the one-two punch of Rosalina and Lucario that got me especially excited, though I ultimately got my Wii U for Pikmin 3). Since then, while I have genuinely enjoyed much of Nintendo’s work from the struggles of the Wii U to the pinnacles of the Switch, a decent amount of it has orbited around Smash. My original daily blogs that got me invited to join Source Gaming. My various series on it, or my contributions to our site-wide series. The massive retrospective for The Avocado that I wrote (that’s in dire need of revisions, especially when it comes to the Smash community). And while we did slow our Smash coverage somewhat after Smash For well and truly ended, it was always there. But it is going to end soon. We’re close to actually getting this game’s final fighter. I’ll make sure to play at least ten to twenty matches with them (if not far more, in reality), and hopefully we won’t have to go back to this protracted period for at least eight years. We can just enjoy the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that exists as it is, not the one that will be complete “soon,” the one that may or may not have our most loved or disliked character. It’s close to done. We’re close to done.

But as much as this series has impacted me, it’s surely nothing compared to what Sakurai and his various teams have gone through. Smash For started development in 2012, and there wasn’t a long time between when it finished and Ultimate began. It’s been about a decade of Smash. And while we at least had the two years between early 2016 and early 2018, they didn’t. It must be exhausting and intense to be in this kind of headspace, making these increasingly mammoth projects. Kazuya is the eighty-eighth fighter in the entire series. All of that work, all of those special combos and abilities, and he’s still just one character on a giant board.

Compared to all that, Kazuya – as wild and overwhelming as he is – may be just that one character on the board. But still, what a character. It’ll be hard to tell until I can actually play as him, but though I’m sad I’ll never be able to use many of those moves, he seems entirely playable and satisfying at the kind of basic level I walk. I like that he (again, from the outset and as someone with little Tekken knowhow) seems to grab from his series’ entire history. And that song list is quite fancy. As sad as it’ll be to get off this ride, and as happy as it’ll be, too, I’m glad that fighters like him are closing this out.

AShadowLink: Kazuya looks fun. Sakurai didn’t talk about the lore of Tekken as much as I’d have liked him to, but that’s alright. I like how during Kazuya’s gameplay demonstration, Sakurai spammed the laser beam, because it confirms that Kazuya in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is indeed a 100% accurate representation of how that series plays.

The Dante Mii Fighter Costume. Oh boy, so I went into this presentation expecting it. Literally tweeted about it 30 minutes beforehand. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to documenting Devil May Cry for Source Gaming and talking about how cool Dante would be. I’ve even made four movesets for him, the fourth of which you can find here. I just feel numb at this point, hah. I don’t think a single character I’ve been rooting for is going to make DLC.

Shantae getting a Mii Costume was very cool. It was always a pipe dream for an indie to get a playable fighter (Minecraft got its fighter long after it was fully acquired by Microsoft) and the Premium Mii Fighter Costumes are the next best thing. This one looks good for the most part, but I wish they included a full head. The Mii face looks very odd on that body.