Why EVERYONE Plays: Kazuya | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

[@VarsIII]

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[@MrPandarilla]

man you managed to stretch out "his armor and auto combos are broken and he has the 3rd best objective frame data in the game" into 15 mins. well done

[@spencerwasson5877]

Electric Wind God Fist... - is frame 8 - has intangiblity for the entirety of the startup - is 100% completely unpunishable on shield - has 24 frames of end-lag (on-par with most tilts), making it decently unpunishable on whiff - is *+46* on hit - is a pseudo-out of shield option - is a combo starter - is a combo extender - can be combo'd into - confirms into kill moves - apparently combos up to and beyond 300% for some reason - combos into every single one of Kazuya's moves - is not sugarcoated This move is better than most characters

[@marlinmurrell620]

I mean, almost half of those are true for Kazuya's Ewgf in Tekken lol

[@zekeblume566]

Ryu's (Harder btw) input: Changes color from blue to red Does like 5 more dmg than nuetral B or smth

[@slimey_plays5722]

@@zekeblume566 i wouldnt say it is harder as yes the input is easy but the timing is quite hard as you have to press atack in 2 frames by the last move

[@notanerd6838]

@@zekeblume566 Ryu's is so incredibly easy, the timing of kazuyas is significantly harder to get consistently

[@dresean3725]

You forgot that it can combo into itself

[@ExceedRed]

Tekken Kazuya’s best move is also EWGF. It’s almost identical to Smash’s, but they gave it a key weakness by letting you crouch under it, giving you a free punish. It’s something I wish Smash Kazuya had instead of balancing it with “hard input = move you’ll never see”

[@robertgeorge4602]

In T7, EWGF is arguably best move in the game and Kazuya is the most dependent on it out of all the Mishimas. Also, if you transform into devil it becomes a mid so it launches crouching opponents instead of whiffing. But going Devil forces you to give up rage drive, and it becomes - (but safe) on block instead of + if I remember correctly. Making EWGF unable to hit crouching opponents, a true JF input, and -2 on block in Smash would be totally fair. Edit: Since High/low hit detection isn't a thing in Smash, then removing its lower body intangibility is fair so you can CH Dick Jab it.

[@jasonalvarado7029]

and mishimas in general are weak to sidestep left

[@N12015]

@@robertgeorge4602 But also almost impossible to program without causing another kind of bug. The game code only registers between air and ground, not the position and goes with the logic of "If it looked it hit then it likely hit". And no, it would NOT help the situation here, because you can't really move or space while crouching.

[@robertgeorge4602]

​@@N12015 I didn't know that, but it makes since given that there is no high/low ground attacks in Smash.

[@PlebCentre]

Kinda also wished smash had a form of forcing 50/50s as hard as kazuya does in Tekken

[@alviabtahi5440]

You know Kazuya has a few exploitable weaknesses, like his inability to land, weakness to zoning... *Lands EWGF once* Never mind

[@GrimYaeger]

@@LowkeyyLee_ that was the point of his comment

[@throwaway6213]

@@LowkeyyLee_ easy don't get hit.

[@LowkeyyLee_]

@@throwaway6213 aight my bad

[@casablancahunter1606]

Just use Yoshi against him lol. Yoshi can just jump out of Kazuya's combos.

[@Carlisho]

@@casablancahunter1606 or pick Sonic and play as toxic as possible 😂

[@CosmicBright]

"Just don't get hit" Sonic mains: my time has come

[@RNS_Aurelius]

As a Tekken player, I was very impressed with his transition to Smash

[@robertgeorge4602]

Im not a huge Tekken player, but I totally agree. 3d to 2d is already hard but translating Tekken Gameplay to Smash is even harder. Kazuyas gameplay and feel is really similar to Tekken (but I would have liked the ability to KBD, and JF PEWGF). Or do Multi EWGF MASKU combos.

[@ghostyhalo8628]

Same

[@modelotime8225]

Same, Kazuya is the only reason I'd ever bother to even play or watch Smash.

[@TheInfamousWolf]

Why? He's fuckin broken.

[@RNS_Aurelius]

@@TheInfamousWolf Because they managed to transition a character from a game that characters all have over 70 moves to a game where characters have about 20 without making him feel stripped of anything.

[@Richterdgf]

Kazuya has been notorious for throwing people off of cliffs for longer than Smash has existed. Smash is a game where the primary goal is to throw people off of cliffs, and people wonder why Kazuya is so formidable in this setting?

[@HarmonicVector]

This is Kazuya's world. He's just come home to do some housekeeping.

[@-B.L.E.S.S.E.D-]

This feels more like a "Why Kazuya is OP" then "Why everyone plays" ngl. Altough everything you said in the video were facts we can all agree on

[@marlinmurrell620]

Tru. I dont know about everyone playing Kazuya.

[@louievazquez5231]

Every single thing this man said is the reason I play Kazuya.

[@antoniohumberto5510]

“A fight is about who's left standing. Nothing else.”- Kazuya Mishima at the top of a volcano

[@cideofsacae]

I'd argue electric is more than just Kazuya's best move, but just the objective best move in the game. Not a single member of this cast would pass up an invincible unreactable combo-starter approach option that doesn't replace any of their normal moves.

[@randomnobody660]

...wait so is your argument contingent on the fact that it's a command input move? That's kinda strange. Like if we image every other neutral b in the game to be literally useless, would you reasonably argue the only barely usable neutral b is the best move in the game because everybody would pass up switching to it? I'd think not.

[@ricocarpenter2189]

I think objectively the best move is either Steve block or Monado Arts but Ewgf is definitely the best normal

[@compactpizza6337]

Steve block is necessary for the hitstun cancel, meaning it is the best move in the game period. It is the rock if ewgf is scissors.

[@cideofsacae]

I don't know if a bug that's either getting banned or resulting in the character being banned should be included in the conversation, but yes, with all that considered it is the best move

[@cideofsacae]

@@randomnobody660 that fact is what propels it to best-in-the-game. Even without that factor though, EWGF is still the single most rewarding option in smash history (barring... smash 4 witch time I guess) with almost nonexistent risk. EWGF is a comically broken move, a travesty of game design, and being a command input is the icing on that cake.

[@Venom-el5ne]

Can you make “Why Nobody Plays Banjo-Kazooie” next?

[@Rough_Estimates]

I think Nintendo shafted him and Sonic. They made them lame on purpose.

[@Venom-el5ne]

@@Rough_Estimates Yeah. Even though he’s one of my secondaries, I feel he could be better.

[@wisercupid6740]

Because he sucks lmao

[@sandycrash8868]

I feel like a lot of people play him casually but no one plays him competitively because he’s bad

[@N12015]

Because he lacks cohesion on his movepool and is also incredibly laggy without having enough power behind it.

[@danielferrieri7434]

Ryu and Ken: Weak SpongeBob Terry Bogard: Angry SpongeBob Kazuya: Buff SpongeBob

[@nydeity9100]

I also hate how you can be winning each stock and he just grabs you and you die because of his comeback mechanic. I’ve played games where I’m dominating each stock but he gets his rage drive and I die at 70 I re spawn and kill him rinse and repeat until last stock.

[@alexw4482]

I think the biggest issue with him is the insane intangibility on his moves, especially ewgf. Would be much more reasonable to approach him if he didn't just ignore you landing hits on him.

[@WishMakers]

The constant invulnerability is the part of this character that really stings. Heavyweights have them more often than usual - hell, KRool has belly armor on almost as many moves as Kazuya has invulnerability. The problem is that super/heavy armor is not only weaker than invulnerability, it *has a limit*. If Kazuya's invulnerability had a limit like this, then he would be a lot more balanced. Bowser has invulnerability on his arm in his ftilt, but that just makes that move a dedicated spacing tool. Kazuya's kit makes him look like he's a heavyweight the size of Pikachu whenever he attacks

[@rileybrisbane7056]

They just threw away the whole concept of balance for profit

[@darthschradergg]

Kazuya's dash invulnerability lasts 1 frame, and his only move that anywhere near completely invincible is his crouch down-forward, which is his slowest move.

[@baltharaaz9847]

Intangibility is the only way characters with stubby normals fight back against absurd disjoints. I mean, most of the best characters in the game have a sword or other item they attack with, making _all_ of their normals disjointed. If Kazuya, Ryu, Ken, Terry, or any limb fighter had hitboxes on their attacks during the motion they would be *a lot* worse. Mewtwo is the prime example of this being the case.

[@WishMakers]

@@baltharaaz9847 It's true, and I don't think you need to *completely* destroy his disjoints, but it's definitely overtuned... the issue is the potential in the other direction where he becomes bad. He's a bit of a mess

[@BainesMkII]

@@rileybrisbane7056 Kazuya really does feel like they just didn't care at all about balance. They didn't just give him relatively massive invulnerabilities on multiple moves, they straight up *created* a projectile reflector for him and then gave it the highest reflector damage multiplier in the game... Why? That's not reflecting/respecting the source material, and it's not building for a better Smash game either.

[@deskosido4397]

Just one remark: as a Ganon main, I hate that gates of hell is a guaranteed kill at ledge with 40% or so…

[@tb4u646]

The angle is disgusting

[@Skizzy03]

You’re playing ganondorf. He sucks. Half of the cast can do that kinda shit to ganondorf.

[@vivelespatat2670]

Ganondorf, whose entire gimmick is being super slow and hitting "super" hard, is completely outclassed by Kazuya who not only has fast, night-impossible to punish moves, but also gets to kill you as fast as Ganondorf, if not faster.

[@deskosido4397]

@@Skizzy03 he can do that to any character with a bad recovery. I'm just talking from experience...

[@deskosido4397]

@@tb4u646 when I play against a Kazuya that knows that, they do not even try to edgeguard, they know I'm just dead af 😂

[@mythicsword8169]

I think Kazuya is cool and I don't hate his combo game. It might be fun if it had a little more variation but ultimately I think the main issue is just how hard it is to challenge ewgf. If I could punish kazuya for spamming it then I'd probably be fine with the character.

[@TK-ev]

It's hard to punish in his own game. Sakurai got that part right. What he needs is less knockback across the board so that he takes at minimum 2 more interactions before getting a kill

[@freddiesimmons1394]

​@@TK-ev accurate shouldn't mean right

[@thecapitalisticdictator2256]

​@@TK-ev pretty sure the full body invulnerability was a smash ultimate addition. also it's a 1 frame input window in Tekken where as in smash ultimate Sakurai gave Kazuya's EWGF a 2 frame window. So it's not really that accurate to Tekken, the move is just better in ultimate

[@D0ffgc]

@@freddiesimmons1394 its ok imo, the problem is that he get too much in this game of that movement, a nerf like ike nair at the beginning of the game would be very good (english is not my main language, in case i say something wrong)

[@freddiesimmons1394]

@@thecapitalisticdictator2256 to be fair 1 frame windows are... distasteful game design in a lot of people's eyes. Even to me. But even if you did choose violence and give kazua everything you wanted, they could have just given him sephiroth weight, a frame 4 air dodge, an up b that doesn't snap the ledge, etc etc etc. They just didn't

[@matteoschiro7710]

I think an interesting character to look over for nobody plays is Meta Knight. He’s one of those characters that seems amazing on paper, and while he’s not bad by any means, isn’t all too great in practice.

[@GooseCRZ]

People will start to rate him higher and pick him once Leo does

[@StateOfTheMind11225]

@Eternal Indifference this is why I keep saying that if Brawl Meta Knight is in Ultimate he wouldn’t actually be bad because everyone is immensely faster in the air or the ground, we already have characters who already have a lot of moves reminiscent of brawl meta knight(especially pyra mythra) and would been broken if they were in brawl

[@orangeslash1667]

@@EternalIndifference Meta Knight suffers a similar problem as Ridley in that you have to be patient, while using his speed and jumps to get away from the opponent till they make a mistake. Meta Knight has better combo game than Kirby, but Kirby feels more safer.

[@Treydemark]

14:19 I feel like a lot of people don’t know, or forget this fact, but Sakurai stated that he was purposefully overtuned because he was so weak during development.

[@UmaUma-iu4kb]

I went to a local recently and half the players including me played kazuya

[@davidlane1248]

I hate both Kazuya and Steve because of one simple thing: Their mechanics rewrite the rules of the game. Steve exists as a character who's play style rewards avoiding combat. Kazuya is a character who's mechanics disregard smash bros fundamentals, such as challenging and true combos changing with percentage I'll admit Kazuya is absolutely amazing to watch matches of, but that doesn't change the fact that he and Steve are toxic towards the health of the game

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

The combos do change with percent to some extent.

[@Skizzy03]

If kazuya didn’t have invincibility on his electric he would still be pretty damn good but not stupid broken. It would mean that his main combo tool is punishable, out spaceable and therefore forcing kazuya players to weigh risk before throwing the input out, therefore somewhat validating the amount of damage he can do in one combo. I also think they could’ve tuned his damage and move properties down a bit so that it’s a lot more work getting kill confirms. I feel like the ability to rack up tons of damage in kazuya’s kit wouldnt be toooooo bad if kazuya was designed to get that high damage combo then work for a kill confirm or another dmg combo then into some sort of confirm instead of being mostly centralised around his TOD potential. This is just my opinion tho, and I’m just some no name local player… all this being said I’m also a tekken lover and am super biased towards this character. Go riddles!!!

[@gemkid85]

It's on flavor for the character. EWGF is the same in Tekken. The only thing beating it out is another EWGF. Doesn't make it any less frustrating though.

[@LuigiLonLon]

The point of EWGF in Tekken is to reward a small window execution, specially if its running on 60fps. If anything for smash, i'd say to reduce 1 or two frames of invincibility to balance it out, making trades more common and not be a death sentence to be hit by one.

[@TK-ev]

@@LuigiLonLon or straight up make the execution just frame like it is in Tekken. Eith the increased window people are spamming a perfect electric in smash but most wouldn't hit a third of them in Tekken.

[@N12015]

@@TK-ev I'm sure they would hit half because in Tekken is a 2-frame window. And NO, balancing via making stuff frame perfect IS NOT a good idea, is a big reason why fighting games are needlessly complicated to enter into, because it will create a massive artificial barrier.

[@Spacecowboy2049]

@Fernando Vasquez EWGF is a just frame input.. well just stick to smash then.

[@wispperd]

Bro you are insane. Three top tier channels with great analysis, your work ethic is crazy.

[@robertgeorge4602]

Weird Title because Kazuya is a pretty niche character but I do get its to keep consistency with the series. His presence outside of high/top level play is fairy low and even at top level play, there are a handful of legitimate Kazuya mains. Personally, I love Kazuya. Hes very different from the entire cast in play style and is extremely authentic to Tekken. There so many times Im like, hey its just like Kazuya in Tekken. He also causes a lot of salt from players and spectators which is a plus. I do agree that while he is polarizing with crazy strengths and exploitable weaknesses, the odds are stacked in his favor. Even trying to keep distance and win the poke war is tricky even with a character that has great pokes. Overall, really solid video. The fact that you mange 2 other channels is really impressive.

[@TonguelessDanny]

This is the same situation as Akuma from Street Fighter being in Tekken 7, they implemented not only the character but the original games mechanics like fireballs, invincible dp's, 2D style jumps/arial movement, EX moves and supers. And who would've thought that would make Akuma broken compared to the normal Tekken characters.

[@Dark_Tesla]

Two major differences although it might not seem like it are, community culture and perception. Both characters are equally busted as guests but T7 Akuma not only exists in a community with a more les a faire mindset to power, Akuma has historically, always been strong, AND Capcom has gone on record in no uncertain terms to say “We designed him to break the rules of the game, as it reflects his personality of a fighter that will not hold back on doing whatever it takes to KILL his opponent as quick as possible.” Edit: T7 Akuma has an EXTREMELY high execution requirement to the point that trying to do the things that make him broken and failing will cost you that round. Low key I think characters like these are good for the games they inhabit.

[@Stefinater]

I already had some Tekken experience due to me liking all sorts of stuff, and when Kazuya was added it was pretty amusing to watch the whole smash comm attempt to figure out how he works for the first few weeks Lol. I remember trying Kaz out for a bit day 1 and thinking, "Wow, this is really cool actually! It definitely feels like tekken in smash." then going online and everyone's like "What the hell *is* this character?!" Anyways, was fun. Another great Vid Vars, have an amazing day everyone!

[@humblepawn]

Knock back or damage reduction on his kill moves would help increase the amount of interactions he needs to take a stock without effecting his play style. Removing intangibility/super armor would ruin him as they’re there to compensate for his moves being slow to start up

[@shaghilathar3588]

Finally someone gets it

[@Chaos_Vergil]

I'd say that removing some of the invincibility on Kazuya's Electrics like the invincibility on the lower half of his body would be a decent way of nerfing him without ruining him. Also, despite having the strongest reflector in the game, it's also the riskiest one since you have to actively anticipate when the projectile comes out and move toward the projectile. Plus, it's a ground-only move so reflecting in the air is impossible.

[@pon3d120]

What’s really weird to me is that Tekken is one of the few fighting games without any fully invincible moves (aside from Akuma who brought his invincibility over from Street Fighter). I don’t know why he got two really good intangible moves in Smash.

[@igotthemunchies7292]

I love fighting Kazuya feels like a boss battle everytime

[@darkraven5626]

"Kazuya Mishima, wins!" Also I'm disappointed that you didn't add Kirsch as one the soundtracks. It slaps.

[@kevcopo]

Can you do why no one plays lil mac next! I think while peanut has been taking off he is still so under represented and such a unique grounded play style! Love the series ❤❤❤❤

[@killuaxxd458]

Get him off the map and he dies

[@matteoschiro7710]

Platform camping.

[@JazzoBeat]

When you're useless in the half of a battle condition, it leads to a very crippling and often deterrent play for most.

[@Parthian6]

Too many people play Little Mac, even at majors he has more representation than most other low tiers.

[@N12015]

@@Parthian6 That's why I consider him not a bottom tier, just the worst low tier.

[@fco92DS]

A good way to balance kazuya imo is increasing ewgf endlag. That not only will prevent him to spam it that much in neutral to challenge your attacks (meaning they have to at least risk his neck a bit more to win neutral and use this move), but also will give actual counterplay to his tod combos Currently the counterplay to ewgf (if you take away the fact that the kazuya player maybe mess up during the combo) is mixing your di so he needs to guess correctly in order to continue the combo. However, ewgf has very low endlag so kazuya has enough time to dash and cover every di so there is no real escape of the combo. More endlag will at least force the kazuya to read the di since if he dashes the combo turns untrue

[@Deibid38]

IMO Kazuya would be fine if his individual moves did less damage. His typical move does like 15%. His execution requirements end up not being as severe as they should be because he only has to hit you with like 6-8 moves before you’re at kill percent if even that. Kazuya dropping a combo early means you still took like 50%. The fact that electric does 18% on top of everything else is just too much.

[@Mika-xw1xp]

how would he be fine? His 0 to death would still work fine and he could still beat every move at close range. To make Kazuya FAIR and balanced he would need an entire rework. Less Moves with I Frames and ewgf NEEDS to do more knockback at higher % so that the 0 to death is not possible. My biggest problem with the balance in smash bros is character design. Two Example are Luigi and Incieneroar not broken but simply way to cheesy. Kazuya is the same with less weaknesses and more cheese.

[@TheQueensAce719]

I agree. I can deal with the amount of superarmor and intangibility he has, but the damage output on his moves is ridiculous. If they wanted to make it more accurate to Tekken, he should at least have to hit you 12-15 times to kill you, not 6-8. Especially when those hits are all but guaranteed.

[@yurplethepurple2064]

@@Mika-xw1xp incineroar is balanced, just explosive

[@noahmarshall873]

@@Mika-xw1xp his 0 to death wouldnt work fine anymore with that change. he would still have a 0 to death but it wouldnt be the same one since it would require him landing way more moves to reach kill percent. and each added step massively increases the chance of the kazuya player messing up or the opponent getting the right di to mess him up. obviously true 0 to deaths are bad game design but at a certain level of execution difficulty it has to eventually become inconsequential in practice

[@Mika-xw1xp]

@@yurplethepurple2064 never said he was broken or anything like that

[@omegahaxors9-11]

6:35 that is literally the most regressive smash gameplay I have ever seen, with neither player capable of approaching.

[@killercore007]

I mean the over tuned landing lag reduction Nintendo did already makes 60% - 70%of matches like this anyway.

[@andante5571]

This video was well put together. Very accurate and thoroughly explained from an objective viewpoint. Great work as always.

[@hoovybeast0594]

The only way to balance him is to give him less damage output and turn down the knockback. Taking away his invulnerability literally kills him and he can no longer interact

[@marlinmurrell620]

Exactly what I was thinking

[@jaketheglutenphreakharris6620]

Removing his disjoints would go a LONG way to making him more fair

[@lockevalentine997]

Agree with most of this, but using kazuya's reflector on reaction is just not feasible against most projectiles.

[@KatanaRikku]

Man I’m gonna be honest I’ve been bingeing all of your videos. Your content is really dope.

[@lasercraft32]

The thing that really bothers me is that Sakurai _outright said_ that they give DLC characters special treatment because the player has to pay extra to use them. It bothers me so much.

[@Lexicon865]

Why does everyone play Kazuya Mishima? *Simple, he's Kazuya Mishima* And as for me, he was my most wanted character so

[@stormRed]

The fact that his recovery is as good as it is really adds insult to injury...

[@HawkTeevs]

The intangibility is always the most annoying thing to get cheesed by. Because he only has two moves out of *30+* that have full-body intangibility, a lot of the times a move goes through him is just because he happened to use a move that had i-frames right where he needed there to be i-frames. But I don’t know if I’m downplaying or if I’m just having a skill issue or something, but I always found it difficult to intentionally abuse the i-frames on the moves that don’t have full-body intangibility. Dragon Uppercut and Tombstone Crusher are the only two moves I can ever reliably abuse the i-frames with. Either way though: I can accept EWGF combos, but the i-frames is just complete BS (even as a Kazuya main, I never feel like I truly won whenever I just completely ignore a hit).

[@justanothermanontheinternet]

Dash upsmash covers all DI out of electric. Autoturn around makes the upsmash hit regardless of DI. Also, I keep hearing that he has a bad disadvantage and recovery but I really dont see it. I've seen more wario stocks taken from edgeguards than kazuya stocks.

[@redflare4423]

Not to mention a slightly weaker bowsers tough guy super armor, really good recovery, and a good projectile. I’d really love one more balance patch to tone down kazuya and Steve just a little.

[@MerryBlind]

Fyi “super armor” can sustain any amount of damage/knockback. Tough guy is a passive “damaged-based armor” (sometimes referred to as just armor or heavy armor or normal armor).

[@wertnerve]

Phenomenal write up, excellent video, brilliantly succinct! Youre a blessing man

[@LinikoAndrord]

Every time I see Kazuya I think about the time when Sakurai said that he was surprisingly weak in development and was buffed(possibly to where he is now). I wonder if THAT Kazuya might have been a more bearable character, or just a face amongst the crowd of Smash characters.

[@nocturn333]

At his core Kazuya is basically FGC Ganon. He's in a weird spot where his entire design is being held together by one move. I'm guessing all the armor and intangibility are just a rushed attempt at balance.

[@Woopbang]

I play him because he is a Mashima, he is a Tekken, he has many moves, and he has the ultimate voice lines.

[@BingBangPoe]

I still think Kazuya is overtuned, but since're not getting balance patches anymore, it's a matter of adapting, I guess.

[@TheSharkAnt]

Unfortunately, only a select few characters can adapt to Kazuya's game plan.

[@lordclod]

I think it would be nice to see a why no one plays in Incineroar after Skyjay’s run at Collision

[@gebis8515]

“Kazuya has the most moves of any character” Kirby playing all-star mode:

[@shaghilathar3588]

He said most moves he can access at any time

[@StuartFknLil]

I think it'd be funny if Kazuya had unbreakable armour on some of his moves rather than intangibly and during those frames he took 2x or 3x damage. I think that would raise the risk factor of trading with a move without taking his insane potential away. It would still be up to the Kazuya player to not drop the combo, but if they did they just took some big damage for screwing it up or for throwing out the moves too much.

[@stigurna]

Watching kazuya play, I thought it seemed pretty fair as he has to go in but i didn't know he has *that* much intangibiity. I kind of understand why people want him banned now

[@PrimeFlash93]

I think he has way too much power and too many goodies. He doesn't need a 100% trip or reflector and his recovery range is insane. I play Peach and found that you can hit him with a turnip while he's virtually offscreen and he can still fly back. He also has 30 frames of intangibility on roll getup - the highest in the game, and a privilege he shares with every DLC character except Joker and Sephiroth. Why? He's supposed to be big and bulky, why is his roll getup better than Pichu and G&W? (In the rock-paper-scissors of ledge play, why do DLC characters have an objectively stronger rock?) His comeback mechanic is much more resilient than most comebacks, as well. Remove or heavily nerf the reflector, make trip a 50% chance, lower the knockback growth on up smash and up special and/or change their launch angles to be more outwards, and make him lose rage drive after whiffing the grab or taking 10% less damage. Personally, I'd like him and Min Min to get banned alongside Steve. It's okay for characters to have weaknesses and they didn't give that aspect enough thought with the DLC. This is a bit meta, but Kazuya's presence has also had the side effect of making Terry look reasonable when Terry also has insane DLC privilege power.

[@Spacecowboy2049]

He also takes more execution than the rest of the cast. You're literally playing a different game at high level of play.

[@BryGuyJohn]

EWGF is super good, but it’s all of the intangibility and armor that make Kazuya so busted. You literally just don’t have to space or time large parts of your kit around your opponents’ attacks. Then the reward for landing hits by taking advantage of those busted attributes is ridiculous combos no one else has. Kazuya requires high execution skill, but lets you get away with having waaaaay less of EVERY OTHER skill required to be good at Smash. His inherent attributes close gaps in player skill and let you basically just play against yourself even in situations where the person you’re competing against is better at the game than you. This happens at every level. Even Riddles gets that boost.

[@Slithering-Pyro]

I think the #1 thing that people misunderstand about Kazuya are his combos. Can he 0-death in a single combo? Yes, it's more than possible, but if you know what you're doing against Kazuya, it's less than probable. People think that Kazuya can just do the same combo over and over against the entire cast, but that couldn't be further from the truth. If Kazuya could 0-death EVERY single interaction against EVERY single character, he would. The real problem is matchup knowledge. Many of the combos you see Kazuya player's performing are straight up un-true combos against most of the cast. Combos against characters like Fox are completely different from characters like Peach for example. The differences in weight, fall speed, air speed, and size can COMPLETELY change the way Kazuya combos. The Kazuya player needs to be aware of these individual attributes to perform a consistent combo, because the same combos that work against characters like Samus will simply FAIL against characters like Greninja. If the other player know's how to adapt to Kazuya's combo potential by taking advantage of their individual attributes like weight, fall speed and size, they can completely avoid combos that otherwise would've killed without the proper input. If you know how to take advantage of the DI arrow following an EWGF, you can completely avoid platform tech-chasing by DI-ing AWAY from the platform. On the other hand, you can take advantage of Kazuya's poor aireal maneuverability by DI-ing TOWARD a platform that's further away than he can Ferp's to, preventing Kazuya from following up with any true finishers using Ferp's tech. If a Kazuya player N-airs after about 60%-65% (depending on character weight) the attack will send players into a tumble state which allows them to tech-roll either in our out of the way of Kazuya's followups. Not to mention damage staled N-air, which has less hitstun and can allow players to act out of Kazuya's N-air for 0 true followups from Kazuya. Like I said, it's all about matchup knowledge. Practice against Kazuya in your own time so you can get used to the way he combos the characters you main. There IS counterplay, you just have to understand how Kazuya combos your character to unlock that counterplay. Just practice DI-ing EWGF and learn how to predict Kazuya's followups and you can toss him around like a rag-doll. Seeing the clip at 10:30 of Leo Vs Tea is a perfect example of poor counterplay on Leo's part. When Tea follow's up DGF with EWGF, Leo decided to DI INTO the platform which allowed Tea to true punish his tech-roll with a DGF>U-Smash. If Leo had DI'd AWAY from the platform, Tea's N-air would've spiked Leo where it would've been left to a 50/50 chance for either Tea to follow up with another tech-roll punish, or Leo to escape with his life. It's still not guaranteed that Leo would've survived, but at least there would've been a CHANCE to survive. When Leo DI'd INTO the platform, he basically gave Tea a free followup. If he had DI'd AWAY from the platform instead, there would've been a chance for him to survive. It just goes to show how matchup inexperience can completely change the tide of a battle. TL;DR, learn the matchup.

[@figlego]

The player playing Kazuya is also capable of learning matchups

[@TheGreatSammyJack]

We could start with limiting the sheer number of moves that have intangibility. See how he performs after, and we'll come back to the discussion a few tournaments down the line

[@lasercraft32]

So... What you're saying is that Kazuya almost _literally_ forces you to play a completely different fighting game.

[@IAMOP]

ah yes, kazuya from smash.

[@VarsIII]

The title DOES say smash XD

[@KitsunOwisp]

Tekken is really hard to translate into smash I think, but I would find it interesting to compare it to the design of another platform fighter, and most notably heiachi Mishima in PlayStation all star battle Royal (remember that game? It was cool). I don't remember a thing about it, and the two games are very, VERY different, but it may be still interesting to see a Mishima outside of his... Gosh knows the hell is that stuff he seems to continue to pull out

[@yujirohamna2430]

Lol so Sakurai just made a bunch of broken characters and then dipped out lmao.

[@ComboSmooth]

If updates were a thing, I think there would be tons of ways to balance kazuya without making him trash. Like making it so you can only use one electric per combo or giving him bigger hit scaling or giving him less crazy knock back as couple of examples.

[@marlinmurrell620]

I dont know about only one electric per combo. Would lose the feeling of faithfulness to Tekken. I'm cool with less knockback or something.

[@thegamerg47]

The main reason why i play Kazuya is because i like characters that output high damage but requires actual timing and skill to play ,and because my friend fucking hates playing against Kazuya 😂

[@mirramig]

The problem with Kazuya isn’t the fact that he can kill at 50% with rage driver. It’s the fact that he has a reflect AND a stage wide laser… on a heavy combo brawler who has passive super armor

[@phantimganon3369]

Ness and Min Min also kill Seph instantly if they hit his Scintilla with fsmash or usmash (respectively). All a-button reflectors kill him at 0 if they hit his counter. Not sure if hitting Scintilla w/ fox/wolf reflector hitbox would do it too, but it's definitely not unique to Kazuya.

[@TheSharkAnt]

Mario's cape also does well against Scintilla.

[@user-kt1gw7sx4t]

I think the real problem is just fundamentally with his game plan, if he gets taken to 90% from neutral, he’s still even as long as he can hit 1 electric in the same stock. Even if they just made electric less safe and stupid to punish, the character would be way better to play against.

[@Renin_Reyulo]

3:34 Thanks for calling them Shotos and Terry, separating them.

[@9flashfreeze]

The intangibility is bs because he doesn't get that in his own game but as a tekken player i adore the amount of love that was put into him in smash. He should definitely be nerfed but all the legacy moves he has is incredible to watch as a fan of tekken.

[@mastermewtwo5503]

Kazuya had always felt like a strange choice for what's been advertised as a non-competitive game. I have never properly played Tekken, but I think it was a much rougher game to get into as opposed to beginner-friendly Smash Bros. Meanwhile, Kazuya here was made specifically to destroy people in tournaments, with his back-tilts probably meant more for 1v1 rather than free for all play and reliance on inputs that aren't simply "direction + A/B".

[@shaghilathar3588]

Competitive or otherwise, Tekken has a decently sized casual audience and the franchise is simply iconic in its own right to gain a place in smash

[@Lexicon865]

I think this is moreso of a sign of Smash Ultimate's lack of commitment to either being a casual game or a competitive game. The DLC seems to be made with the competitive scene in mind but were placed in the game where practically every other character still have that "casual party game" design in mind, as well as the mechanics. Honestly next Smash needs to be a gameplay reboot, as well as returning characters having better game design and balancing. Ultimate just seems like a mess in general

[@orangeslash1667]

@@Lexicon865 I feel like the only reason Kazuya was added is because Namco wanted to give people a reason to play some of the fighting games they published, like Dragonball fighter Z, Naruto Ninja Storm, and most importantly JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R. When is comes to Sephiroth his is so much fun in casual play, because landing Mega flare or Octaslash is so easy because not everyone is going to focus on you in free for alls. In competitive Sephiroth has to use mostly his sword, shadow flare, and just mega flare, because the two moves I mentioned are too risky.

[@zechariahcaraballo8765]

if nintendo does another balance patch to fix steve then I really hope they dont gut the dlc only small nerfs and more buffs to the mid low and bottom tiers

[@gameboyn64]

The way i would balance kazuya would be the cloud approach. Just make his recovery bad. It's too good for what he can do offensively. Ganon might actually be mid tier if he had kazuya's double jump and up b.

[@DrSwazz]

What’s so special about kazuya’s double jump?

[@gameboyn64]

@@DrSwazz it goes really really high. He can basically always recover as long as he has his jump. In terms of pure distance, he has a top 10 maybe top 5 recovery in terms of distance

[@muby102]

Yes, I hear too many people say his recovery is too slow despite it being able to knock you away very easily. He can recover really low from the stage too

[@DrSwazz]

@@muby102 Having a strong, killing recovery is just that much more of a middle finger to Ganon

[@Battlehammer333]

for me as a casual the most fun element about him is his backstep. it makes spacing soo much easier for me. when playing with other characters i always try to backstep, remember they can't do it and go back to kazuya.

[@RiotSSB]

Did I miss it, or did he not even mention the intangible command grab that kills early and can be used to trade stocks whenever he's ahead?

[@alexgonzalez2050]

I think the two things that could balance Kazuya fairly without outright killing him would be dropping his weight and eliminating the insane push back from EWGF when hitting a shield. Sure its still an insanely good move but can be punished now if miss timed, and the drop in weight would make scenarios like that riskier for him sooner

[@freddiesimmons1394]

Those 0 deaths shouldn't exist, period

[@IHitTheWater]

@@freddiesimmons1394 ??? any character can do a 0 to death so you would have to make every character be able to cancel hitstun to make 0 to deaths a thing

[@michaeldevera6285]

The EWGF pushback on block/shield was present even back in tekken games. Blocking an EGWF in tekken causes a pushback so no need to change it imo.

[@IHitTheWater]

his weight is completly fine.

[@IHitTheWater]

@@michaeldevera6285 huh nice i didnt know that, also his weight needs no change he would probably be close to 300 pounds irl

[@shaghilathar3588]

Imagine if smash players had to deal with Marduk. They'd quit the game in a week

[@coolkid12515]

no way bro is trying to sell smash players self hygiene products

[@coolkid12515]

w video though

[@zubair1149]

Funny how this video came out at the exact same time (to the minute) as the King trailer from Tekken 8

[@ianmccamman3177]

One balance idea is making the EWGF stun more proportional to your opponents percentage so it isn't as broken untill higher percentages

[@yummines]

Never knew about the intangibility on EWGF, that's kind of an odd choice imo. In Tekken 7 the ewgf is safe on block, but can be both ducked and sidestepped, as well as every character in the game having at least 1 hyperarmor move (known as a Power Crush). Also since it is a 14 Frame move (if done perfectly), it will be beat by any move that is faster (notably most jabs are 10F). Here the only way to deal with it is to his for the Kazuya player to just miss it entirely.

[@anzack2551]

Seems like they tried to replicate the safety on block with the pushback mechanic, and it is possible for some characters like Megaman to duck beneath Electric as well.

[@hoagieland3716]

I think a simple balance to Kazuya to make it easier to challenge him in neutral/disadvantage without removing his top tier status would be to remove some of the intangibility on his moves, specifically some of his more commonly used tilts like b tilt, df tilt 1, db tilt, and u tilt 1. Force Kazuya to use moves like ub tilt for anti airs or f tilt/crouching db tilt for longer ranged pokes. Unfortunately, you kinda can’t remove intangibility on electric or any other input moves without significantly nerfing him imo

[@masonmurray4345]

As much as I like kazuya, I'll definitely agree with others that ewgf is too spammable. And so annoying to go up against

[@John12346]

I'm not sure if Kazuya needs to be nerfed, but if I were to make suggestions on how to balance him, I would actually be willing to keep the insane neutral and punish game that he has; that raw offense is what defines him as a character and I don't think that necessarily needs to change. Provided something else around the character were to change as a trade-off for this. What I would more recommend in terms of changing Kazuya is finding a way to make his disadvantage state *more* exploitable somehow, to better balance out the extreme offense he has packing. And for that, my immediate suggestion would be to make it so Kazuya's UpB can't auto-snap to the ledge, similar to Terry's UpB. Kazuya already has an issue with getting down from juggles, so that doesn't need to change. When he's recovering, though, he has enough in the way of timing mixups, the hitbox size on his UpB, and the fact his UpB doesn't put him into specialfall, that pressuring him while recovering isn't entirely feasible for a large majority of the roster, and he's not in a terribly large amount of danger when returning to the stage. If Kazuya were able to be significantly threatened from both primary aspects of disadvantage (juggles and recovering offstage), I think it would be much more reasonable to accept the ridiculous amount power he's packing as a character.

[@PrimeFlash93]

I think you've done a great job describing an issue that goes overlooked in his kit.

[@johnnyboi290]

I think they should also give EWGF a little bit less invincibility

[@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63]

What if you replaced Kazuya's intangibility with armor? EWGF is still a bitch with super armor, but at least now it can be challenged with grabs and he now has to treat his health like a resource.

[@UnusuallyLargeCrab]

I’m not gonna sugarcoat it

[@alvinchristopherg.marananj6540]

He got me when he said that "Even Bowser, King K Rool and Dong King Kong Look weak"😂😂😂😂

[@vbarreiro]

Okay I know it’s been a while but even if your sponsor is Manscaped, but maybe “You need to step up your grooming game” is not something we say in a competitive Smash video anymore

[@CATLOAFMAN]

love this series keep it up!

[@CapFlipGaming]

So if you run into him online you might as well just turn your Switch off lol.

[@verbage432]

It's so funny how Kazuya is just better than the shotos in nearly every way to the point where I question if the team even tried ryu before giving kazuya this kit

[@castonyoung7514]

Yeah, I was a Ryu main, but now it's like, what's the point?

[@Slithering-Pyro]

Ryu at least has better zoning tools though

[@lockevalentine997]

I agree, but they're also not really comparable as they play completely differently.

[@MugetsuKurosaki92]

Yeah and why use ken/ryu when there’s terry also that character is crazy too.

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

The shotos are a bit more agile.

[@arthurdurham]

Glad to see the same bs Kazuya has in Tekken is in smash as well.

[@SuperHalo-rn4rr]

Kazuya Mishima is Kazuya Mishima. It wouldn't be fair to take away his strength because that's literally ripped from Tekken itself. Which is kinda funny in a way. In Tekken 7 for example, Kaz is usually considered B tier. In Smash, he's considered S tier (going by the official rank). Kaz finally found a place where he's on top and there's no Jin, Akuma or Heihachi in sight. 😂

[@DseanSupreme]

I really feel like the best balance factor they could implement is adding staling on his full body intangibility frames. The window on a move should stale the more its being thrown out in neutral. Connect or not. It should be treated like spot-dodging mechanic wise. Only smart and patient kaz players should be using those attacks via hard reads to mow through their attacks and get that big damage conversion.

[@Giaroscope]

As a Tekken player, I know smash did him right because we are also afraid of ewgf

[@kadnhart6661]

You play Kazuya because he's good. I play Kazuya because the Wooden Plank Studios webcomic showed him as an adorable stoic daddy to a baby Piranha Plant.

[@MagnusDerg]

also why does he have like 2 jumps and a side special to recover. He has like 0 weakness, hate watching him play lol

[@shaghilathar3588]

He has one jump which is the slowest and and shortest in the game

[@marlinmurrell620]

Bruh, every character has two jumps lmao

[@nightwithoutk5679]

3 things i can think of are like making his weight to 109-110 since he needs to be heavy. another thing would be that push back that EWGF does on shield. and make if EWGF WHIFFS he cant just do another one he has to wait a bit, if it lands then its just the normal EWGF we are used to.

[@SonicTheCutehog]

I like how he was a character no one played before and now everyone plays him

[@Sergio-wc1wn]

Kazuya isn’t even played that much. He is played less than Joker which you put in the why no one plays video

[@randomcatname7792]

Can't expect people to research the videos the put out

[@daimajin266]

Next video idea: "Why everyone sucks with Kazuya"