Kazuya (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Kazuya does suffer 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 down throw 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 edgeguarding abilities are sub-par due to his slow speed and few aerial options, which prevents him from netting early kills offstage. 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.

Overall, Kazuya's attributes provide a unique gameplay style in ''Ultimate'': mastering his kit grants access to a hard-hitting ground offense with heavy punishment and comeback potential, and consistent combos that can start from a single move. Utilizing him at his strongest is difficult, though Kazuya's strengths have been showcased through excellent results from players such as {{Sm|Riddles}} and {{Sm|Tea}}. However, Kazuya's strong punish game and strengths have led some to call for his ban, with the efforts to ban Kazuya being widely unsuccessful.