Kazuya counterplay

General advice

Kaz still has the same weaknesses as the previous game, Tekken 7.

Majority of his moves are weak to sidestep / sidewalk left. For example his hellsweep.

His poking game is relatively weak. He can be pressured up close by certain characters, due to his poking being rather slow or having bad tracking.

A good Kazuya player needs to rely on timing their attacks with the timing of their opponent to ensure moves are not sidestepped. The same goes for their counter hit tools such as df2, ff4, 4 etc, they require to match it with the timing of their opponent when they retaliate. Consider changing your timing when you sidestep & throw out attacks if you are losing to Kazuya.

Do not whiff moves with long recovery at range 1-2. Kazuya and mishimas in general can use EWGF to whiff punish moves, it is fast, comes from a crouch dash and the hitbox for this move covers a lot of distance.

Okizeme

Kazuya has incredible okizeme. f,F+3 and f,F+2 are great and safe mid options, while d+1+2 & CD4,1 are riskier lows.

The important thing to understand when defending against Kazuya is that you can just keep laying down. However if you do he'll keep hitting you with f,F+4, but that is very sideroll-able, -9 on block mid and a lot less painful than the other options.

So once you've conditioned the Kazuya player to always go for f,F+4 you're in a much safer place, as Kazuya is taking his most powerful situation and blunting it a lot.

You also have to understand the knockdowns.

• - 1,1,2
• - F+4 Spike
• - CD4,1
• - b+1,2

The really important one here is 1,1,2. Because it's fake. You're pushed too far and there's not enough frame advantage to get in and mix you. f,F+2 is too slow to beat get-up kicks, so feel free to use them to tell the Kazuya player off. There's the risk of the Kazuya player whiff punishing those getup kick, so only use them if they've gone in after 1,1,2 before.

Throws

Has only 2 command throws.

Stonehead which is a 1+2 break.

Gates of Hell (from full crouch) which is also a 1+2 break.

Strings

All his string attacks have weaknesses:

1243, the 4 can be low parried.

Df1,2. The 2 is a high and can be ducked (although he can mix this with df1-df2, which is a mid-mid string)

Uf4444. The 2nd 4 is a low can be blocked and launched.

Df34, 1, 2 is -19f on block

Df3,2,1 is -14f on block but Kazuya can hold the 1 for massive plus frames. This can be interrupted if they hold the 1

Heatsmash

His heatsmash is a low sweep that tracks both sides. -14 on block.

Devil Form

Kazuya gains new moves in Devil form:

db3+4 a low hitting stomp which he can cancel into a crouchdash. Expect a hellsweep if this hits. Stomp is launch punishable on block.

1+4 a power crush which can wallsplat but will burn through most of Kazuya's heat.

SS2 a 17f launcher which is launch punishable on block at -15.

Kazuya also gets an extension from his hellsweep that does additional damage and breaks floors.

His heatsmash is a fast unseeable low, which can track both sides & can wall break and is -14 on block.