Sakurai Presents Kazuya: Everything You Need to Know

Kazuya Fighter Intro

This morning Smash fans were given a ton to digest with the roughly 40 minute livestream that is Sakurai Presents Kazuya. While we learned of the Tekken fighter: Kazuya Mishima joining Smash during Nintendo’s E3 Direct, we got a ton of new information about the fighter today. These also tend to give fans other tidbits of info, so here’s everything you need to know!

Kazuya Mishima

The vast majority of the Sakurai Presents presentation, as is the case with the past few, was showing off an in depth look at the new fighter’s moveset. While I’m not particularly a fan of Tekken, I’m certainly aware of the prestige it holds and feel Kazuya is a fantastic addition to the Smash roster who sets himself apart from other fighting game characters like Ryu, Ken, and Terry in notable ways.

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Tons of work was put into making sure Kazuya felt like a Tekken fighter, and this can be seen from his huge moveset which uses all 8 directional inputs the left stick allows for, lack of hitstun during attacks and combos, and small things like his crouching dash which resembles the home games.

Personally, my brain is probably a bit too small to play Kazuya, but he certainly looks fun to mess around with casually. The focus on half his moves being great combo starters or mid combo juggles and the other half being raw power to KO opponents is an interesting one and allows him to scratch the itch of fans of both types of characters. His Demon moves also look to be interesting and generally not too broken, perhaps aside from the air command grab.

I can’t really do the character justice here, so the Sakurai Presents Kazuya itself is certainly worth a watch.

Credit: NIntendo
Footage starts around 29:34

Stage and Mii Fighters

As is commonplace for these types of showings, the stage and music is also shown off, as well as a brief section with Sakurai going toe to toe against the AI with the new character. All this is shown off in the stream and fairly par for the course.

The stage itself, the Mishima Dojo, is one in which all sides of the stage have walls, so KO’s aren’t immediately possible. Upon using high damage or knockback moves relative to the character being launched, that wall will break for a time and allow you or your opponent to get KO’d. Unlike other stages, however, this one has next to no outer blast zone past what can be seen initially and the camera won’t accommodate for characters being knocked around. With 39 songs from the Tekken series coming to Smash, the Mishima Dojo can certainly be a fun casual stage.

sakurai presents kazuya mishima dojo
Credit: Nintendo

Lastly, the new set of Mii Fighter reveals were up and I am a pensive emoji given life. While I’m glad Lloyd, Shantae, Dragonborn, and Dante are able to make some kind of splash, the first was already paid DLC in Smash 4, and I was partial to fully playable Dante myself. Still, adding Burning Town from Half Genie Hero is a nice bonus for Shantae fans.

The Final Character

And with the knowledge that Kazuya comes out tomorrow(!), Sakurai left fans with something of a sobering thought: The next Smash Ultimate DLC character is the last one. Unless a huge surprise is pulled down the line, we’re finally at the end of the Smash news cycle that’s been insane since the early Wii U and 3DS leaks.

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Even so, the Sakurai Presents Kazuya stream was an interesting one that once again shows the love that goes into making new characters and movesets. Here’s to the final character, whoever it may be!

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