TEKKEN 8 fighter

Kazuya

TurtleDefensive and mixup-oriented Mishima

What beats Kazuya?41% of this movelist is punishable

Moves

135

Punishable

Defining strength

Mishima Bloodline

As a Mishima, Kazuya has access to their excellent suite of specials and command normals. EWGF, Hellsweep, wave dash and Parricide Fist are all best in class tools and make him well rounded.

Best on block

+11

highest on-block advantage in the movelist

Turtle

Defensive and mixup-oriented Mishima

Kazuya is a defensive and mixup-oriented Mishima-style character. He boasts the strongest, most complete punishment kit in the game, making it dangerous to do anything unsafe against him. His Mishima kit allows him to enforce a strong neutral to force an opponent's respect, and an opponent thus conditioned has to deal with his terrifying 50/50 between a safe launcher and a knockdown hellsweep that sets up the same 50/50 again. Kazuya is a specialist character who demands strong execution, defense and fundamentals, but rewards it with explosive mixups, high damage, and the feeling of utterly outplaying your opponents. Kazuya is prone to being pressured, and lacks panic moves to overcome a player's lack of defense. His demanding execution makes it difficult to be consistent with him. His explosive 50/50s can blow up in his face if his opponent guesses right on them.

What defines them

Mishima Bloodline

As a Mishima, Kazuya has access to their excellent suite of specials and command normals. EWGF, Hellsweep, wave dash and Parricide Fist are all best in class tools and make him well rounded.

Where they lose

Weak To Sidestep Left

As with all Mishimas, Kazuya is very weak to being stepped. EWGF in particular has this baked in as a weakness.

Stances

CD (Crouch Dash) – f,n,d,df
DVK (Devil Kazuya) – While in Heat

Heat Smash

i18 - l,m,th

Grants Devil Transformation
Can perform EWGF without precise input.

Strengths

Mishima Bloodline
As a Mishima, Kazuya has access to their excellent suite of specials and command normals. EWGF, Hellsweep, wave dash and Parricide Fist are all best in class tools and make him well rounded.
Mixup Machine
Parricide Fist and Hellsweep combine to give Kazuya 50/50 mixups at all times. Both options lead to good damage and can even allow him to loop setups if given the chance.
Incredible Punish Game
Flash Punch Combo is one of the best i10 punish string in the game, and his i13 and i15 punish tools (ws1,2 and EWGF) both lead to exceptional damage.
EWGF
Arguably the single best move in all of Tekken. Good range, plus on block, deals chip, and launches for a full combo. Keep out and pressure extraordinaire.
Devil
Kazuya's Heat gives him access to unique extensions for greater damage and good reversal . His Heat Smash is also an improved Hellsweep for better mixups.

Weaknesses

Weak To Sidestep Left
As with all Mishimas, Kazuya is very weak to being stepped. EWGF in particular has this baked in as a weakness.
Bad Pokes
Kazuya has many minus strings and his pokes are very stubby. It can be difficult for him to make his way in without taking substantial risk.
Devil's Finesse
Kazuya's gameplan requires unconventional execution to be performed very consistently. While his execution is not too far beyond other characters (unless you want to consistently WS cancel from wavedash), Kazuya demands a higher level of consistency than almost any other character on the roster, making him difficult to play. His players must have a basic ability to wavedash or perform EWGF to survive at higher levels of play.

Moves to learn first

Signature and situational picks come from the guide; the fastest launcher and best unpunishable poke are derived from this character's own frame data.