********************************************* ********************************************* * * Kazuya Strategy FAQ * * * * Version 1.5 * * * * By Exar Kun (Nicholas Seemungal) * * * * exar30@hotmail.com * * ********************************************* ********************************************* This guide is written using WordPad using Courier New (Western) Font 10. 1234567890 .......... If the dots and numbers are aligned then it's properly formatted. ************************************************************************************************ Legal Stuff. ************************************************************************************************ Unpublished Work Trademarked (tm) and copyrighted (c) Nicholas Seemungal 1999, 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004. All Rights Reserved. IMPORTANT: YOU MUST READ AND AGREE TO EVERY PART AND EVERY WORD TO THIS DISCLAIMER. USE OF THIS FILE CONSTITUTES ACCEPTANCE TO THIS DISCLAIMER. 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Nicholas Seemungal also acknowledges and respects all copyrights, patents (pending or not), and trademarks of ALL OTHER FAQ AUTHORS (whether if it's Kao Megura, John Culbert, Henry LaPierre, Josh Harring, Mark Kim, or otherwise) and if for any reason I MUST USE any or all of the document, it will be mentioned somewhere in this document, commonly in the Acknowledgements section of this document. If for any reason you must use any or all of this document for your own FAQ, please properly give credit where credit is due. IF FOR ANY REASON YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS LISTED AT THE URL AFOREMENTIONED ABOVE AND/OR IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS DISCLAIMER, then you must destroy this document at all costs. Tekken, Tekken 3, Tekken Tag Tournament, Kazuya Mishima and all other related events and objects are registered trademarks and copyrighted (c) Namco. All Rights Reserved. This document was carefully prepared and created by Nicholas Seemungal in respect to all Namco Properties, as no copyright infringement was intended. I'll make this clear: This document is MINE and there is NO UNAUTHORIZED USE of this document at any cost!!! You are free to mirror this document at your web site, but IT MUST BE SHOWN IN ITS ENTIRETY AND IT MUST REMAIN 100% ORIGINAL AND UNTOUCHED. Feel free to distribute this document BUT IT MUST BE DISTRIBUTED ELECTRONICALLY AND FREE OF CHARGE. I didn't create this document so that some lamer will come around and steal this work and/or have a Gaming Mag Company (namely EGM, who's been making blood money from some Tekken 3 FAQs back in 1997) print this document into a magazine. NO MONETARY COMPENSATION CAN BE MADE FROM THIS DOCUMENT AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE. ONE FINAL FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE DOCUMENT MUST BE FREELY ACCESSIBLE WHICH MEANS NO PASSWORDS, NO USER ACCOUNTS, NO CHACHI CAN BLOCK ACCESS TO THIS DOCUMENT!!! Game Cave: KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THIS FILE AT ALL COSTS!!! I'VE HEARD THAT YOU'VE BEEN MAKING BLOOD MONEY OUT OF SOME PEOPLE AND WE ARE GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR MISCHIEF. THIS WORK IS MINE AND IF YOU EVEN DARE USE THIS WORK TO MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT, I WILL TELL YOUR PROVIDERS TO SHUT YOU DOWN FOR GOOD. Note: This copyright is shared with Kao Megura's and Mark Kim's well-placed copyright except that Mark decided to make the copyright a little more severe. Notice that Mark Kim as well as I acknowledges ALL of Kao Megura's works and admires his work and I wanted to imitate his copyright. This copyright that you see is similar to Mark Kim's copyright on his LA Machine Guns Anti- Terrorist Manual. ************************************************************************************************ Table of Contents. ************************************************************************************************ Why Use Kazuya? Kazuya, The Boy, The Man, The Devil. The Purpose of this FAQ. Revision History. Kazuya's Strengths and Weaknesses. 1)Strengths. 2)Weaknesses. 3)Is he worth it? 4)Kazuya's Play Style. Things you should know. Move List. Move List Explanations. 1)Throws. 2)Special Arts. 3)Unblockables. While Standing Moves. The Art of Crouch Dash. 1)Dash Buffer. 2)Instant While Standing. 3)Is the Mix-up dead? Tagging. Juggles. 1)Conventional Juggles. 2)Stun Juggles. 3)Class 1 Juggles. 4)My Favorite Juggles. 5)A Quick Hit. 10 hit strings. Offense 1)Attacking. 2)Countering. 3)Okizeme. 4)Throws. 5)Chickening. 6)Custom Strings. Offensive Style. 1)Poking. 2)Pitbull. 3)Turtling. 4)The Keep Away Game. Defense 1)Block or Side Step. 2)Interrupting Moves. 3)Reversal and Parry. 4)Getting Up. Positioning. More Advanced Strategies. 1)Reading your Opponent. 2)Movement. 3)Wave Dash. a)Fake Dash. b)Snake Dash. c)Dash & Wave Wind God Fist. Putting it all Together. V.S. CPU. V.S. Human 1)Character Specific Strategies. Tag Partners. 1)Good Partners. Putting it all Together. Conclusion. PS2 Stuff. 1)Secret Stuff. 2)Tekken Bowl. Tekken Sites. Acknowledgements. ************************************************************************************************ Why Use Kazuya? ************************************************************************************************ Aside from the fact that I think Kazuya has the most substance of all the Mishimas, why? I mean he has the least moves of all the Mishimas, doesn't have the juggle ability of Heihachi or the fancy inherited Jun moves of Jin. However, Kazuya does have his excellent array of WS moves and a better Wind God fist punch and in my book that makes him real good. He has the standard Mishima moves, the same Wind God Fist as Heihachi. His Hell Sweeps are standard, two low hits that I think come out faster than any other Mishima, though he doesn't have the kind of options that Heihachi has available from his. His Thunder God Fist is the same one Jin has. The first time I saw Kazuya back in T2 and saw his Demon Gut punch double over someone I just said hell yes I love that move. As a WS move, you can get it to counter after a ducked high attack, perfect especially for those people who practice the religion known as 10 hit.The Demon Gut Punch isn't as good as it was anymore and he's been weakened down since Tekken 2(I never used him back then) but regardless of that fact I still believe him to be one of the game's strongest characters. If you can use any other Mishima characters then you won't have much trouble learning Kazuya. One thing that I believe should be emphasized, Kazuya Mishima is not Jin. He is similar in some ways but Kazuya's style is more streamlined along the lines of standard Mishima moves while Jin's is more based upon moves inherited from his mother and original moves. Kazuya's essence is in his outstanding Wind God fist while Jin's Wind God fist seemed to have been taught to him while he was under the influence, the only way to describe the lame ass manner in which he learned it. ************************************************************************************************ Kazuya, The Boy, The Man, The Devil. ************************************************************************************************ Okay, maybe that ain't true but I thought since you're going to use him you might as well know what Kazuya is about. Kazuya is the son of Heihachi Mishima, CEO of Mishima Financial Enterprises, a mega corporation. Kazuya's mother died giving birth to him and this left Heihachi grief stricken and turned hi into a bitter old bastard Kazuya was physically abused during his childhood by Heihachi, who beat him during training to bring out Kazuya's strength. At age 5 Heihachi threw Kazuya off a huge cliff and left him with a huge scar across his chest. This left him bitter and hateful towards Heihachi. Heihachi later adopted a boy Lee ChaoLan and an intense rivalry formed between the two. Kazuya became jealous of Heihachi's close relationship with Lee. Later when Heihachi chose Lee to go to America to study business over him, he left Mishima Zaibatsu to search the world and formulate a plan to overthrow Heihachi. He was confronted in his dreams by an entity called Devil who offered Kazuya almost limitless power. Kazuya accepted Devil's help in exchange for his soul. In 1995 Heihachi organized a competition called King of the Iron Fist. The champion of the tournament would receive a very large cash sum as well as becoming Mishima Zaibatsu's new owner. Kazuya fought Lee first and beat the snot out of him. But before he could land his killing blow, he was stopped by Armor King. Kazuya then confronted Heihachi and defeated him, throwing off the same cliff that Heihachi threw him off of when he was a boy. Kazuya became the new CEO of Mishima Zaibatsu and began corrupting it with his evil power. Kazuya began hiring new bodyguards in the form of Bruce Irvin and the former sumo Ganryu. In 1997, the organized the Second King of the Iron Fist tournament and offered an even larger cash prize. He also learned of Heihachi's survival. Directly before his final confrontation with Heihachi, he and Jun Kazama were drawn together by Devil's supernatural force. Later, when he finally faced Heihachi, Heihachi defeated him and threw his body into a volcano. Tekken Tag Tournament is not a part of the Tekken chronology story wise. But considering Kazuya was the favorite character everyone wanted back not to mention strong evidence that he is alive, the hit he ordered on Eddy Gordo's father, the fact that Ogre/Toshin shares the gut punch with him and that the amulet from Michelle's family he was after is the key to controlling Ogre, I believe that Namco will resurrect him in Tekken 4. In the latest, Namco has released the first set of miages of Tekken 4 and, good news everyone, Kazuya is there and accounted for. Tekken 4 seems to be a great eparture from the norms of Tekken introducing walls to stop the infinite gameplay arena and to stop the turtles who just love it. ************************************************************************************************ The Purpose of this FAQ. ************************************************************************************************ Well, this is my first FAQ, so don't go too hard on me. In this FAQ I want to try to cover the more strategic aspect of Kazuya, especially against specific characters. This FAQ is not meant for Tekken newbies. I'll assume that at least have some basic Tekken knowledge be it from TTT or even T3. I'm not going to teach you how to run and block or cross chop whatever. This FAQ is dedicated to teaching you how to play humans, the only part concerning the CPU will be noted. A lot of Tekken FAQs today focus too much, in my mind on move lists and stating juggles, rather than telling you how and when to use them. They may say TGF, X% damage on counter, but does that mean you should walk around Thunder God fist every 10 seconds...Hell No! Most Tekken players nowadays just use the same tired routine over and over (where I play anyway). If just one person can improve his/her game from this FAQ then I'll be happy. Why another Kazuya FAQ? Although Reverend C's FAQ is out there which I believe to be one of the best FAQs there is, there's more than one way to do anything. My style of play differs from the Rev's so I thought that I had something to share with the rest of the Tekken community. Not to mention that I wanted to touch on some of the finer points Reverend C's FAQ missed. Anyway allow me to introduce myself, I'm 16 and have been playing arcade games since back when TMNT2 Arcade was the rage. I'm from Trinidad, which I'm sure no one has heard of. I go to school at Presentation College. I generally play in the arcade by the Center Pointe Mall food court in Chaguanas if any Trinidadians are reading. I'm usually there on Saturdays after lunch. You really can't miss me. If I'm not trying someone new in TTT I'm kicking ass in Soul Calibur. Challenge me unless you're in that 10 hit till you drop crap. Anyway, I'm no Kazuya messiah or something like that, but I'm pretty sure I'm qualified to teach most of you how to use him. Like most characters it's mostly just timing. If you have any questions don't hesitate to e-mail me, as I'll respond to any and all e-mails. Just make sure you put something Tekken related as the subject so I don't dump it as junk, I'm really serious about that. ************************************************************************************************ Revision History ************************************************************************************************ Version 1.0 First Version. Looking back on this I have to apologize for releasing this version. It wasn't fully ready to be released. I was just anxious as this was my first FAQ. Most of these errors were cleared up in version 1.1. Released February 20,2000. Version 1.1 Big revision. Basically added a little to everything, added conventions as well as stuff you should know, poking section put in as well as turtling and tagging. Revised a lot of the FAQ. Version 1.2 Small update turned big. Added Wave dash and put the Haha and crazy step in the specific characters section as well as added Pitbull to offensive strategies. Fixed Grammar errors. Put in a format on offensive style. Added the fact that the DGP is escapable. Added crouch section. Guess it's not so small after all. Finished putting in the rest of the conventions. The only thing that'll probably be added later is custom strings since I'm just learning to use these. Added rankings on partners. Rewrote/Revised some stuff. Added Kazuya's story. Probably the last update until the PS2 version is released unless I happen to think of something else. Version 1.3 Small update. Turns out Wind God Fist actually isn't reversible. Go ahead and gloat KazMishimaKazama. Added some more Tekken sites and multi-throw escapes in the versus characters section. Version 1.4 Changed quite a bit of stuff. Added in stuff contained in PS2 version, Strengths and Weaknesses. I like Twin Pistons a lot more now and Demon Gut Punch a lot less so some re-writing had to be done. Added a whole new level to sections on crouch dash thanks to stuff I learned in Dohee Kim's Wind God Style Tutorials. Added a lot more juggles. Added some PS2 stuff. As usual fixed some errors in the FAQ. Version 1.5 Final Version. The changes in this version are very few, it will look almost identical to the previous version with a few changes here and there as touch ups. ************************************************************************************************ Kazuya's Strengths and Weaknesses. ************************************************************************************************ Strengths. The main strength most people see in Kazuya is his stuns. This very true, he has the best array of stuns in the entire, if you can get them to actually connect on someone. These stuns allow for some of the most vicious combos in the game, most of which come out of the infamous Demon Gut Punch stun. Kazuya also possesses the same gift of all Mishimas, their great array of moves off a crouch dash. Wind God fist is arguably the greatest move in the entire game and Kazuya has the best of them. They allow him great juggling prowess. In addition, Kazuya's Hell Sweeps are, I think even faster than Heihachi's even though they are not as versatile. Kazuya's crouch dash mix up is the best in the game. No other Mishima has what he has, not even the much praised Jin. Heihachi and Jin, you can both afford to block their crouch dashes low and you'll get away with it almost every time. But Kazuya's crouch dash is different. Using methods like quick WS from a crouch dash, Kazuya can use his mid hitting Twin Pistons to keep an opponent blocking high. This role has been reprised from the now Sm hitting Wind God fist. This allows for an effective Hell Sweep game. He has his Mist Step which allows for a great deal of diversity in his game, you can cancel it into a crouch dash even faster than actually doing one. It also sidesteps and from there the possibilities are almost endless. Shining Fist, gut punch, whatever you want, the Mist Step is Kazuya's tool of confusion. Kazuya's juggles, while not overflowing with finesse get the job done. His juggles are not as powerful as some of the better jugglers in the game, but even in their simplicity they still manage to do a good deal of damage. The true damaging nature of Kazuya stems from his stun juggles which rival even monsters like Bruce Irvin in terms of damage done. Not one day has passed where I go to the arcade and someone does not marvel at Kazuya's strength. Weaknesses. Kazuya has a severe lack of moves. This is a double edged sword. On the plus side, you don't have much to learn and the moves he does have are very effective. But the greater down side is that this lack makes Kazuya predictable against better players. Kazuya does not have any attack reversals or a command parry. All he possesses is the lever parry everyone has, which is very risky to use. Therefore Kazuya's defense relies mostly on counters and interrupts. Kazuya's throws mostly suck. Aside from throws that are standard, he has but one command throw, which doesn't even do that much more damage than a standard throw. If you rely on throws then you're in trouble. Kazuya cannot use tag slide, cross chop or jump kick nor does he possess any throws that you can tag your opponent into like Bruce's 1+3~5. The only exception is his special throw with Jun Kazama and the standard 2+5 tag throw. A Kazuya/Devil team really sucks. Due to his exceptionally unique relationship with Devil i.e. he was possessed by him, Namco saw it fit to make this team morph during a tag, this takes very long and leaves you very vulnerable even though at a point in the morph you are invulnerable. A Kazuya/Angel team also is not possible in the arcade version although you can select this team in the PS2 version. Due to his nature, Kazuya doesn't seem to care much about his partners status shown by the fact that he takes 7 hits on average to get a Netsu power up in comparison to the average of 5 for most characters. However I believe that this is a rather small weakness. I mean, it's only two hits more, right? Is he worth it? Most definitely. Your game with Kazuya will mostly be overpowering your opponent's attacks with your strength and using your powerful stuns to counter opponents. That is where Kazuya's true damage potential lies. Of course doing so isn't exactly easy to do. Regardless of what you've heard from other people, like I said, Kazuya is well equipped for juggles. While he isn't among the elite in terms of damage, he gets the job done and that's what's important. If you want big juggle damage with Kazuya then you have to connect with a stun juggle. Kazuya's Play Style. Kazuya's style of play basically revolves around his crouch dash, which his best moves come from. This is what makes him essentially different from Jin Kazama whose crouch dash produces inferior moves. Kazuya is not a turtling character and is not meant to be played as such. His style is a balance between hard on offense and an excellent countering game due to his stuns. Juggling will also be a big part of how you play as Kazuya's Wind God Fist is second to none in this field. His array of punch strings also makes him able to keep consistent pressure on the opponent and his array WS moves makes opponents hesitant to attack him after his d+1. Kazuya's mix should be balanced between the two fields, countering and offense. For early on when you have advantage offense is obviously the better deal, lots of damage, keeps pressure on the opponent and you won't be on the receiving end much. If you're up against a superior offensive force such as Changs or Bruce then you have to switch to counter mode where you can take them out with interrupts with your Wind God fist and stun attacks not to mention Twin Pistons. ************************************************************************************************ Things you should know. ************************************************************************************************ Tap f when knocked down face up, feet toward, for quick get up. Tap b when knocked down face up, feet toward, for quick back roll. Tap f when knocked down face down for an instant straight get up. Tap f when sent rolling by a power strike to stand after first roll (very useful so you don't get hit with a running move) Tap 5 early in a standard stun to interrupt stun animation and tag out. When you've been Ultimately Tackled 1 - Right Punch Block, Kickoff 2 - Left Punch Block, Kickoff 1_2 - Back Tackle Flipoff 1+2,2,2,2,2 - Tackle Arm Lock Escape 1+2,1,1,1,1 - Tackle Leg Lock Escape Multi-Throw escapes. Don't worry they're in the V.S. characters section. If a flying cross chop (WR+1+2) is blocked below the knees, you can juggle the opponent with a simple jab attack. Kazuya's frame data. You should be aware of just about all of it. I'm not going to print it, take your ass to Tekken Zaibatsu and check it out. You gots to do some work too. ************************************************************************************************ Move list. ************************************************************************************************ Conventions. 1 - Left Punch 2 - Right Punch 3 - Left Kick 4 - Right Kick 5 - Tag button f - tap forward once b - tap backwards once d - tap down once u - tap up once d/f - tap down/forward once d/b - tap down/back once u/f - tap up/forward once u/b - tap up/back once F - hold forward once B - hold backwards once D - hold down once U - hold up once D/F - hold down/forward once D/B - hold down/back once U/F - hold up/forward once U/B - hold up/back once h - attack hits high i.e. can be blocked high m - attack hits mid i.e. can be blocked high l - attack hits low i.e. can be blocked low sm - attack hits special mid i.e. can be blocked high or low ! - unblockable i.e. can't be blocked (duh) H - hits high and grounded opponents M - hits mid and grounded opponents L - hits low and grounded opponents + - Commands must be input simultaneously , - Move to be done following the previous one _ - Or i.e. either command may be input ~ - Command to be input immediately after the previous one (and I mean immediately) FC - Fully Crouched WS - While Standing from a crouch N - Neutral joystick i.e. no movement SS - Side Step WR - While Running < - Command may be slightly delayed CD - Crouch Dash i.e. f,N,d,d/f or with Mist Step f,N,d/f OB - forces opponent's back to face you OS - forces opponent's side to face you OSB - forces opponent's side to face you when blocked JG - juggle starter BN - bounce juggle starter RC - recovers crouching after a move CH - requires a counterhit DS - double over stun FS - fall back stun LS - lift stun GS - gut stun KS - kneel stun HS - hunch over stun TS - trip stun CS - crumple stun CFS - crumple fall stun CF - crumple fall BS - block low stagger SH - stagger hit GB - guard break big - big character combo i.e. Jacks, T.Ogre, Kuma WGF - Wind God fist EWGF- Electric Wind God fist TGF - Thunder God fist cc - crouch cancel Command Name Escape Damage Property 1+3 Bitch Kicks 1 30 2+4 Hip Toss 2 28 f,f+1+2 Stone Head 1+2 33 #1#2 FC_d_db+1+2 Ultimate Tackle 05 #3 1+3_2+4_2+5 Steel Pedal Drop 1 40 #4 1+3_2+4_2+5 Skull Mash 2 40 #5 1+3_2+4_2+5 Reverse Neck Throw n/a 50 #6 2+5 Tag throw. 2 30 #7 f,f+1+2~5 Stone Head to Tag Armbar 2 25 #7#8 #1 Opponent can quick recover after this throw. #2 Jun can tag in after this throw can finish with Reverse Arm Bar. #3 Same as general tackle everyone has, except Kazuya can only continue with ultimate punches. #4 Left side-throw. #5 Right side-throw. #6 Back-throw. #7 Tag throw. Partner will enter. #8 Must have Jun on team. Special Arts. Command Name Range Damage Property 1,2 Double Punch h,h 5,10 =<2 Demon Slayer h 18 #1 =4 Stature Kick l 17 1,1<2 Shining Fist m,m,m 5,8,18 #1 WS+1,2 Twin Piston m,m 12,15 JG d/f+1 Entrails Smash m 17 HS f,N,d,df+1 Thunder God Fist m 29 =3 Mid Kick m 10 =4 Hell Sweep L 12 f+1+2 Glorious Demon Fist m 26 CFS f,N Kazuya Mist Step n/a n/a =df+2 [~5] Wind God Fist [tag] sm 25 JG =df+1 Thunder God Fist m 29 =df+4,4 Hell Sweeps L,L 12,12 WS+2 Demon Gut Punch m 25 DSc JG df+2 Gut Punch m 21 JG CFSc 2,2 Demon Back Hand h,h 12,21 f+2 Soul Thrust m 30 GB GS KNDc f,n,d,df+2 [~5] Wind God Fist [tag] sm 25 JG f,f+3 Split Axe Kick m 23 f,f,f_WR+3 Leaping Slash Kick m 30 GB f+4 Axe Kick m 27 GB KS WS_df_f,n,d,df+4 Rising Kick m 10,18 =4 Tsunami Kick m 13,18 #2 f,n,d,DF+4,4 Hell Sweep L,L 12,12 BS uf+4,4,4,4 Spinning Demon h,L,L,h 25,15,12,25 BS 4~3 Demon Scissors M 25 #3 db+4 Stature Kick l 17 ************* *Unblockable* ************* Command Name Range Damage b+1+4 Lightning God Fist *!* 40 B+1+4 Lightning Screw God Fist *!* 80 ************************************************************************************************ Move list Explanations. ************************************************************************************************ KEY Move Name Command to execute move Range i.e. where it hits Damage Rating Description. * A utterly pathetic move that should be avoided like the night shift at a 24hr convenience store. These moves usually lag very badly, take a long time to start, will connect only if you're playing someone brain-dead or the payoff they give (if any) is worth it. These moves should not be used period, I know what I'm talking about. The only time this should come out is by accident. ** This move is not very useful as it may be hampered by ease of it getting blocked, lack of range, better options exist which nullify it. They may or may not have uses under certain situations but should generally be avoided unless you're playing to test something. Avoid using these moves for your conventional game. *** A good move that may be hampered by certain weaknesses such as they're hard to do, better options exist or they may take long to execute. These moves aren't useless and should be employed in your mix up game and while they're not stunning, they do have their special uses. **** A very good move that you should frequently employ in your everyday play. These moves will most of the time recover well and on a hit will do good damage and/or leave you at a tactical advantage. These are the better half of his moves so don't be shy about using them. ***** Showtime! One of Kazuya's most kick ass moves in the game. They should be used very frequently as they will definitely help you win games and may probably win the game for you. Moves rated five stars are highly recommended and comprise mostly of the moves handed down through the Mishima Line. ************ * *Throws* * ************ Bitch Kicks 1+3 Escape: 1 30 *** Just your basic run of the mill average throw. It does normal average throw damage. After the throw I believe you have a guaranteed d/f+4. It's nothing special, easy and even accidental escapes from this throw are commonplace. But if you use a standard throw, use this one. Hip Toss 2+4 Escape: 2 28 ** This looks so pathetic. You have a small window of opportunity for okizeme after the throw. Use the Bitch Kicks instead of this. Stone Head f,f+1+2 Escape: 1+2 33 ***** Kazuya's only true command throw and the best choice for a forward throw. As it requires a f,f motion, it is ideal to use in your crouch dash mix-up by using the dash buffer. The opponent is able to tech-roll after this throw. However according to the Jjt and KOFTEKKEN advanced FAQ a UF,N+3, the stunning kick is guaranteed if they tech-roll the throw. If Jun is one your team, by pressing tag, she'll come in and finish a tag throw, total damage being equal to 30. Ultimate Tackle FC_d_d/b+1+2 Escape: 2 or 1+2 before hitting the ground. 5 (5 optional punches which do 5 damage each) * This really sucks. Anyone with half a brain can escape this with ease. And even if you catch them, the punches are easily escaped and Kazuya doesn't even have an arm bar to mix things up a bit. Also you can be completely reversed even if you do tackle them. This sucks, this really sucks. It's best use is to waste some time against a new player or to get them angry if they can't escape it for the life of them. Steel Pedal Drop 1+3_2+4_2+5 (left) Escape: 1 40 *** It does more damage than a standard throw, but a smart opponent will easily escape it unless you catch them by surprise which is usually the case with side throws. Skull Mash 1+3_2+4_2+5 (right) Escape: 2 40 *** It does more damage than a standard throw, but a smart opponent will easily escape it unless you catch them by surprise which is usually the case with side throws. Reverse Neck Throw 1+3_2+4_2+5 (back) Escape: N/A 50 **** It's good in that it can't be escaped but it's damage is really mediocre for a back throw. It should come up to a lot more than this. But at least it can't be escaped. ****************** * *Special Arts* * ****************** Double Punch 1,2 h,h 5,10 *** These two punches come out quick, as all jabs do, and if they're blocked, recovery is not an issue as you'll be perfectly safe. It's good to use against most characters but since this is a Mishima you're playing with here, you can always use his 1,1 which is faster and has guaranteed follow ups if it connects. The best reason to use these is in your poking game as they're ideally suited for that use and for going into one of the follow, actually if you're going to use a follow up, just use Stature Kick since the backhand one is very useless. Demon Slayer 1,2,2 h,h,h 5,10,18 ** This is a really bad move. It hits all high and it has a long recovery. The only good thing I can see about this is the fact that if the last hit connects, you see some nice lightning. If all three hits connect, no knockdown occurs. If you must use it then use it to juggle. Although it does crap damage there as well, if you can't juggle worth a damn, this is a good place to start getting your timing skills right. Stature Kick 1,2,4 h,h,l 5,10,17 ***** This is actually good enough to use. The best finisher after the 1,2 jabs. The first two punches come out fast as usual and the kick hits low and comes out fast as well. Players would usually block just the first two punches high and then eat the Stature Kick that does fair damage. The ending kick is structured in such a way that it's hard to see coming out so most people usually eat it. Of course the stealth associated with the kick ensures that it doesn't do much damage but nevertheless all the tick damage adds up in the final analysis. It's also good to mix this up with 1,2,d/f+2 for people who have a reflex for the stature kick. Thanks to KazMishimaKazama for this. Shining Fist 1,1,2 h,h,m 5,8,18 ***** The best choice for punches The first two punches come out very quick and are quite impossible to counter. The last one also executes very quickly, the only thing being that if the last hit is blocked there's a bit of a slower recovery. If you're poking at your opponent the 1,1 is a good bet and if it connects you can always end with the 2 since if the first punch connects the rest is guaranteed. You can also delay the final punch. I like this sequence for retaliation against an opponent when they wiff or if they get stuck in recovery time. It's good for when there's not enough time for Wind God fist or (Demon) Gut punch. It's also good to use after a side step or even better in Kazuya's case, his Mist Step. Twin Pistons WS+1,2 m,m 12,15 JG ***** I've recently seen the light with regard to this move. Until recently due to Chinky-eye's posts on Zaibatsu and seeing Jang Ik-Su use it I thought this move was just average. This move just plain rules! It's execution is just as fast as the Wind God fist and if it's blocked it's only as 6 frame disadvantage. The only thing is that this can be reversed. It juggles very well, enough for you to drop a good WGF,d/f+4,4 down after it. Twin Pistons are more useful for higher level play however. Since at this level you can use a crouch dash/ wave dash to do quick WS moves: f,N,d,d/f~b+1,2. Also since at this level, players escape Demon Gut Punch religiously. If you're not playing high level opponents then Demon Gut Punch is a better option since you'll get more damage off of it. Also using this in a crouch dash has advantages since it discourages people from blocking the crouch dash low, still allowing you space to use your Hell Sweeps freely. The only weakness of the twin pistons is its lack of range, the Demon Gut Punch beats it out in this regard. Using Twin Pistons is just like using any WS move, you mainly use it after a d+1, ducking a high attack or throw or you can use the crouch dash cancel to throw it straight out. After high attacks and throw are the most guaranteed usage as the opponent will have some lag time on him/her allowing you to take advantage. Also, due to the Twin Pistons' speed, you can use it to easily knock opponents out of ten strings. Entrails Smash d/f+1 m 17 HS ** I never use this. It doesn't have a great range and it looks dumb. If heard that it is good for stopping crouch dashes and from it's look, it'll catch side steppers good. If anyone knows how, e-mail me and I'll put your strategy up and give you credit in the FAQ. But it's still pretty useful at close range. Not useless enough to warrant one star. Glorious Demon Fist f+1+2 m 26 CFS *** If this hits it gives a good stun. The only thing is well...it's pretty damn slow and it recovers like crap. When I just started using Kazuya I used it quite a bit and got punished every single time. If it hits it does do considerable damage though and it leaves room for you to tack on a little something extra and it is possible to juggle from it. Another use of this is for finishing stuns, it's a lot easier than going for something BIG like Thunder God fist, which is a lot harder to do than Glorious Demon Fist's simple forward maneuver. Probably the best time to use this would be when you can sense that the opponent is going to tag so you can catch them helpless as they come in. It can lead to some great damage if it connects.A f+1+2,u+(4),4,4,4 can do wonders for you. But use the move sparingly it can screw you up royally if you decide on using it too much. Mist Step f,N =d/f+2 Wind God Fist =d/f+1 Thunder God fist =d/f+4,4 Hell Sweeps ***** This is by far one of Kazuya's best features. This little maneuver is what gives him somewhat of an edge over other Mishimas. I mean, he just has so many options available to him after the f,N! He can do any of the standard Mishima punch combos, he can do a regular crouch dash f,N,d,d/f or he can tap d/f into the Mist Step. Not to mention that the f,N gives him a little sidestep. If Kazuya does this on an odd frame number, he will sidestep left, if on an even frame number, he'll sidestep right. Why I told you this is because some people try to sidestep and then use Mist Step to move even further, but since the direction in which you step cannot be foretold it's unknown as to whether you move further or closer to your opponent's front. One of the good uses of this unpredictability is that it gives you a double sidestep. Just tap f,N and which ever way you sidestep to do another step in that direction. Cool,no? When you choose to use crouch dash moves from the Mist Step, it's harder for the opponent to see what coming from the crouch dash. It's also possible to execute moves more quickly. For example the Wind God fist. If you cancel the Mist Step into the Wind God fist (f,N,d/f+2) quickly enough then you'll save 1 frame of execution time on the WGF. No, this doesn't mean that you get a 10 frame Wind God fist, which is what I had originally thought. A Wind God fist executes in 11 frames after the command is entered. The time in which it takes to enter the command, at best speed, this would be 4 frames, 1 frame for each command, which would be a 15 frame total. However since Mist Step relieves you the need of inputting one of the commands, you would get the WGf in 14 frames. of course this is only if you can cancel the Mist Step that fast, which most people can't. This is because by using a proper Mist Step cancel what you are essentially doing is subverting the 'd' command which saves you on time. However, realistically I don't know if it's humanly possible to move that quickly for a 10 frame Wind God Fist, I doubt it. But, it's a nice fact to know if you want to impress someone who cares about these things in anyway. Many thanks to Reverend C for this and also for explaining to me my error in deducing what it meant. Wind God Fist f,N,d/f+2 or f,N,d,d/f+2 Sm 25 JG ***** My favorite Mishima move! Kazuya's Wind God fist has the same properties as Heihachi's, although I think it comes out a bit faster, although after it connects Kazuya doesn't have the kind of options that the juggle king has from his. Kazuya's WGF is in my opinion the 3rd best launcher in the game with Devil Jin's Wind God fist coming in first followed by Heihachi's Electric Wind God fist. The Wind God fist has also received one the worst weakens since Tekken 3. You see the Wind God fist now hits special mid meaning that it can now be blocked either low or high, which really sucks. Especially because I used Wind God fist a lot to attack. The Wind God fist/Hell Sweep guessing game has now been totally killed. Of course it's still much better than Jin crappy high hitting Wind God fist. Of course the move still rocks. It juggles to a great height and it comes out really quick so don't think it's worthless. I use it a lot now to counter whenever I see a hint of movement. So use you it a lot to counter moves and interrupt moves since it has good priority. Actually when I think about it the Wind God fist is probably the best launcher in Tekken and one of the best moves period up there with powerhouses like Paul's Phoenix Smasher. Wind God Fist is also great against reversal scrubs as it can't be reversed at all so you can just drop a barrage of Wind God fists down on them and they'll just keep eating them wondering "What am I doing wrong?" It's really hilarious as they keep trying to reverse you and keep getting juggled. You'll never know this joy until you experience it first hand. Thunder God fist f,N,d/f+1 or f,N,d,d/f+1 =+3 Mid Kick M 10 =+4 Hell Sweep L 12 m 29 ***** Pretty useless by itself since it's slow as hell and can be seen coming from a mile away. Then why the hell did it get 5 stars, right? Because this is one hell of a juggle ender and a great stun finisher. This thing and a tacked on mid kick or sweep give your opponent a one-way ticket to the land of major hurt. Of course it's only possible to do this on big characters (I think) and after a class 1 tag. Using it as a stun finisher requires a bit more speed. When you anticipate a tag you can use it as well but I don't really recommend it over a Glorious Demon Fist or Wind God fist. But, aside from the uses I've just pointed out please never use this. Don't use this much in the regular game though as if you start to go off with this move you will get and fully deserve some major blows. That doesn't mean it's totally useless in versus games. Wait for a rushing opponent then throw one out. I get this to connect at least once or twice a round at 100% the time I use it. The trick is to know when to use this move as if you throw this at the wrong time, like I said you'll get beat up major. Hell Sweeps f,N,d/f+4,4 or f,N,d,d/f+4,4 L,L 12,12 ***** Kazuya's hell sweep, it seems comes out a bit faster even than Heihachi's. His Hell Sweeps consist of two low sweeps. A lot better, in my opinion than Jin's low mid alternative. Unfortunately, Kazuya doesn't have the repertoire of moves available during the hell sweeps like Heihachi does, which makes Heihachi's still superior in my opinion. You get the no frills version, no Tsunami Kick or Thunder God fist. The worst part however is that if it's blocked low Kazuya will sort of stagger for a bit which I guess adds realism but weakens it a lot. If it connects, you can usually hit with another one as your opponent is grounded which makes it good for okizeme. Hell Sweep is also good for what I like to term a 'guard breaker', not as in a stagger. When someone is just blocking everything you do high and mid and we all know it happens, throw this out and they'll probably be so mad that they'll re-enter the attack phase where you can dominate them. When you do this with Mist Step it comes out of nowhere and I can't even remember the last time someone blocked it. I like to use it with Mist Step a lot, it's one of my main offensive weapons against people who can't block low. Two sweeps put them on the ground and then another sweep for okizeme. I just love to hear them complain after they eat this combination time and time again. Of course they then go and call me cheap saying I only use the same move which I don't, just a few times a round it's just that they can't block low, if they did I'd definitely stop doing it. No reason to do a move that doesn't connect. Demon Gut Punch WS+2 m 25 DSc JG FS **** This is one the reasons why Kazuya is feared. This thing stuns for a long time. I mean seriously long. Everyone loves this move. I loved it ever since Tekken 2 was out. This move stuns, and stuns, and then it stuns some more. Seriously it stuns for a while and Kazuya recovers quickly so he can pull off some damaging moves. There's Wind God fist if you want to go for the jugg(le)ular and finish him off with a nice fancy juggle. Thunder God fist if you want to get it sweet and simple, can you say half off. Or there's Glorious Demon Fist after which you can add a few hits and the ease of doing it. Or even a simple roundhouse can end this with major damage. The catch is demon gut punch is a WS move, meaning you have to be crouched in the first place. This is one of the reasons why I hate WS moves. They're just one of those things you have to get used to I guess. If I am doing this I'd rather get into crouch by using another move (like d+1 or d+3_4) and then executing it since I don't like WS moves one bit. If they're doing a move you know can be ducked, do so and counter with it like with Hwoarang's d+4,4. The Demon gut Punch is the reason why Kazuya's stun juggles rival the damage of jugglers like Heihachi in terms of damage. Now that I've finished kissing this move's ass, there's an awful truth about the Demon Gut Punch, see, it kind of sucks. At high level play, that is. At mid and beginners level this move will be your best friend. It'll work wonders and you'll marvel at the damage it does. But go to a higher level of play and you'll never connect this. It's slow and if it's blocked, you'll get badly punished. Not to mention the fact that Demon Gut Punch's stun is escapable. Did I mention that? Yep, the Double Over Stun, the longest in the game and the stun that is yours on a counterhit, is escapable. The opponent can just press tag and leave, inherently screwing up whatever you had planned. Of course you could anticipate this and lie in wait but smarter players won't tag out. They'll just hold 'f' and fall down quickly, again screwing your Thunder God fist or Wind God fist. For these kinds of people, just go for a short lightning unblockable (b+1+4). Thanks to KazMishimaKazama for this. But this still doesn't' make the attack totally useless as for most of us this attack will work against 75% of all opponents we play unless that is you're from Korea or play in SHGL or Playmax in Japan. You see now why this'll do you no good against worthy opposition? Take my advice, use the Twin Pistons, they're much, MUCH better, that's why all the ultra-high level players, i.e. Korean masters, use the Twin Pistons so religiously. So basically while the move has been extremely toned down that still doesn't make it completely useless. If they hold 'f' you have the tip up there and if they escape you can WGF the tagger as they come in. Other Kazuya FAQs make this move sound like it's totally worthless and one of his most horrible moves. I tend to think that although it can be escaped that isn't as bad as it may seem, if they tag you get a free hit in, if they hold 'f' you can do the short unblockable. This move would still rank above average even with its current properties. Gut Punch d/f+2 m 21 JG CFSc ***** It looks exactly the same as the demon gut punch but its crumple stun isn't as long as the double over the demon gut punch has. Does that make it worthless? Hell no! I like it more because it can be performed without any fancy pre-maneuver. It's a good juggle ender and it recovers fairly quickly. Use it to counter when you can and, when it connect you can rain a great deal of hurt down on your opponent as they lie there, including a short unblockable. It's probably the best move from the standing position not counting CD moves. Gut Punch is best used just out of throw range when opponents are likely to be gearing up for an attack. It's also a great round starter as it counters whatever the opponent was coming at you with and it's very fast as well. Seems that the stun the this gut punch isn't escapable. This in my opinion gives this a great edge and makes it better than the Demon Gut Punch. Demon Backhand 2,2 h,h 12,21 * Why is this move here again? It hits all high has slow execution and recovery and it has so many better alternatives. If someone tried this move on me I'd quicker think his hand slipped than he meant to use this. Again the best feature of this move is the lightning that you see if it hits. And once again, you can try it in juggles if you like. Not recommended though. Soul Thrust f+2 m 30 GB GS KNDc *** Not exactly great range wise but it's still pretty good. On counter it puts the opponent head away face down. It can be used as a juggle ender but when it is used it pushes the opponent a good distance away, too far for okizeme unless you maybe use a tag slide. I used this a lot when I just started now I just throw it in now and again or use it to end juggles against big opponents since if I wanted to use a move from the standing position I'd rather use the standing Gut punch. Split Axe Kick f,f+3 m 23 * If this connects on a counter hit it will knock down (that's it) but it's hard work to actually get it to connect in the first place as you have to do a double forward tap to initiate it and that the kick itself is pretty slow and it you have that kind of space available to you why not just Wind God fist? Unlike Jin and Heihachi however, Kazuya is not able to add anything in a juggle to this move. Leaping Slash Kick WR f,f,f+3 m 30 GB ** This is the same running jump kick that everyone has, if you haven't run far enough to shoulder ram use it as if it's blocked it'll stun them good and leave you safe from retaliation. But when running in I prefer to use the slide anytime. You can also execute this faster by doing f,N,d,d/f~u/f+3, basically a crouch dash followed by jumping forward with '3'. Axe Kick f+4 m 27 GB KS ** It gives a little stun and it staggers when it's blocked. I don't use it mostly because it's speed sucks and I rather Tsunami kick to it any day. However if you catch a crouching opponent with this, it stuns them long wnough for you to snag them with a Wind God fist. You have to be moving mad fast to pull it off however, no simple task. Rising Kick WS_df_f,n,d,df+4 =4 Tsunami Kick m,m 13,18 ***** A very good move. It's a good juggle ender, does good damage. I think it can be used for okizeme but when you have hell sweep which can be done so easily why this which takes some good timing. The first hit of this I use like most Hwoarang's or Yoshimitsu's d/f+4, in a keep away game. The first hit can also be used to start a juggle after the Glorious Demon or fist or like just when an opponent hits the ground after a launcher. Spinning Demon uf+4,4,4,4 h,l,l,h 25,15,12,25 BS ** This only works against new players or the low blocking impaired. I don't use this anymore unless I find a newbie and couldn't be bothered to play him fair. But if you're playing some Eddy button masher there's nothing better to get rid of him with. This move can be parried and reversed so be careful when you use it. Its best use for a regular game is in juggles as after Glorious Demon Fist or Gut Punch on counter hit, it does good damage. Demon Scissors 4~3 m_G 25 ** Hits mid or grounded opponents. If you wiff Kazuya'll take some damage unlike Jin( Kaz is getting old I guess). I rarely use this except against the CPU after a juggle as they always roll forward. Use it now and again for variance. If you do u/f right before the 4~3 it'll come out immediately instead of the delay when you do it normal. It's also a good juggle ender if your Wind God fist connects on a counter hit as they flip over and can't tech-roll, giving you this opportunity. Demon Scissors is also very useful against Lei and Eddy scrubs. As they always like to lie down, move in stances and keep moving very unpredictably, use this to take them out from afar. Stature Kick d/b+4 l 17 ***** I just recently realized that this takes 20 frames to come out. Doesn't seem to matter much though. The nature of this move is that it's hard to see coming so it connects almost 100% of the time. Of course if a move connects this often something has to be wrong with it. Not really, the Stature Kick just does minimal damage but all the tick damage from jabs and this kick add up in the final analysis and could help win a match for you. Use this a lot in your mix up. If you find that the opponent is getting all your high moves and you know he'll stop your hell sweep, stature kick. He'll probably get hit by it and when people start taking hits they tend to go offensive which carries the game right back to you and your counters. Just don't wear this move out, it's a very good asset. *************** *Unblockables.* *************** Lightning God Fist b+1+4 *!* 40 **** You're probably like "Four Stars for an Unblockable! Is he mad?!". But this is, in my opinion one of the best unblockables in the game, up there with Hwoarang's Dynamite Heel and in Kazuya's game, this move will come in very handy. It is very fast for an unblockable and although it only does 40 points of damage compared to the 80-100 most unblockables do, this is the price you pay for it's speed. After a d/f+2 Gut Punch (CH) stun or a WS+2 Demon Gut Punch you can use this to end the stun, it's easy and it does a lot of damage. After the d/f+2 gut punch on CH this is your best option as a Wind God Fist won't launch as it's not a clean hit Can't seem to time that Thunder God Fist after a class 1 launcher? Use this. It's easier to time and although you won't get the same kind of damage you'll still score big. It's good to use normally as well when you're at mid range, you can throw it out sometimes or after you've gotten a knockdown. I connect with this quite often. But still remember, this is slow so be careful how you use it. Lightning Screw God Fist B+1+4 *!* 80 * What can I say. It's almost twice as slow as the previous one and although it does twice as much damage, it's well slow. When I used to try for this a lot, I got it like 1 in every 8-10 rounds. After a juggle and you know they'll tag, use it and you probably get a hit and most likely a round win, but a better bet is to just use a delayed Thunder God fist. The only time you can use this in a juggle is if a big character is skied by a Devil Twister. Now let's move onto the really good stuff! ******************************* * *************************** * * *While Standing Moves (WS)* * * *************************** * ******************************* While Standing moves are an integral part of Kazuya's game as two of his most useful attacks come from the WS position, Twin Pistons and Demon Gut Punch. There's also a quicker way to do WS moves than waiting for Kazuya to crouch and then waiting for him to get up. By inputting d~d/b,N or d~d/f,N and then the button, the WS move comes out quicker than just doing d,N alone since in d,N the computer has to register that you're crouching and not side stepping before you can do the move. The d~d/b skips this check so the move comes out quicker. Thanks to Josh Turpen and Dong Lee for their Advanced Techniques FAQ which taught me this. This is very useful as it allows you to throw out your Twin Pistons right there in the middle of the game relatively quickly. Incorporate this technique into your game, it will help you out so very much. Another alternate method of doing WS moves is by jumping and then inputting the buttons when you land. As you land you end up crouched and so while rising you have the opportunity to do the WS move. Get accustomed to doing WS moves as they'll be a big part of your Kazuya game and they also encourage you to crouch more which means soon you'll be evading high attacks with ease if you can't already. **************************** * ************************ * * *The Art of Crouch Dash* * * ************************ * **************************** The crouch dash is the most essential maneuver to master when using Kazuya, or for that matter, when using any Mishima. You must be able to consistently pull of a crouch dash, at any speed, fast or slow, be able to delay, cancel, buffer with it before you can become a true Kazuya master. Crouch dash starts, conventionally, four of Kazuya's key moves: 1) Wind God fist 2) Thunder God fist 3) Hell Sweeps 4) Tsunami Kicks Every last one of these four moves are completely essential to Kazuya's arsenal. If you can't do crouch dash, then stop wasting your time and go find someone else to play with. Wind God fist is by far, Kazuya's greatest asset, so you're fooling yourself if you think you can do without it. Another thing about crouch dash is that it ducks under high moves and some mid moves. So while Bryan is throwing out that Mach Punch you'll be dashing under it and come right up to pop him into the air with a Wind God fist. Also since you can execute the move at any time during the crouch dash, you can choose to delay the move, execute it immediately or to totally abandon the crouch dash. Crouch dash also has many tricks associated with it. The rest of this section is associated with showing these tricks to you. A very big thanks goes out to Dohee Kim from http://www.tekkenzone.com for writing the tutorials from which I learnt most of these tricks and to Bob for translating the tutorials from Korean to English. ***************** * *Dash Buffer* * ***************** The first art of the almighty crouch dash is the dash buffer. Dash Buffer allows you to do moves that utilize a f,f or b,b command right out of the crouch dash. Doing a f,f moves just out of the blue, the conventional method, does the job well enough but range is one limiting factor in doing it this way. As we mentioned before, crouch dash has a lot of range and can be delayed easily. Let's say you wanted to do a stonehead throw but the opponent was out of range for the regular f,f+1+2 to work. Walking up to them and then doing the throw would be risky but if you used crouch dash, they might believe that you were going for a crouch dash move and block, when you'd actually be using dash buffer to throw them. This would be done like this: f,N,d,d/f~f+1+2 Basically a 'f' plus the button is added at the end of the crouch dash, meaning that the crouch dash in itself acts like the first 'f' of the move. Other moves Kazuya has which can use this is his Left Splits Kick (f,f+3). Dash buffer can also be used to buffer for moves that have just 'f' or 'b' which gives access to Glorious Demon Fist and more. By using dash buffer your crouch dash arsenal is increased significantly. Kazuya doesn't have any move that can be used with back dash buffer but later on we will see how using this is just as useful as the forward buffer. **************************** * *Instant While Standing* * **************************** As you should realize by reading the movelist, Kazuya is a demon when it comes down to while standing moves. Demon Gut Punch and Twin Pistons are both two of his most important and valuable assets. Doing a while standing move the normal way of crouching and getting up is fine if you're already in a crouched position. But what if you're not? Quick WS works pretty well, but what about range? Quick WS can't be used effectively in an attacking pattern. So how do you use While Standing moves for attack? Well, that's another of the crouch dash tricks. Doing a crouch dash cancel into WS move is a simple yet complex matter. Simple in that the motion doesn't take a genius to decipher. Complex in that it's very difficult to get the motion down to perfection so you can use it as an effective tool in your game. The motion itself is simple enough, let's just do a crouch dash cancel twin pistons: f,N,d,d/f~d~d/b~b+1,2 f,N,d,d/f~b+1,2 f,N,d,d/f~d/b+1,2 All three methods work but the last two have very hard timing to get down. It's obvious to see the advantage of using twin pistons in this. Twin Pistons has wonderful recovery, it juggles, it executes as quickly as Wind God fist and it hits mid unlike WGF's Sm. ************************ * *Is the Mix-up Dead?* * ************************ When TTT first came out, people were appalled by the Sm hitting Wind God fist as they realized that the old crouch dash mix-up was now dead. But time went on and Korean techniques common knowledge to them since Tekken 3 became known to us, it was realized that the mix-up still lived for two Mishimas anyway, Jin and guess who? Since Wind God fist can now be blocked low and high the only choice you would have had for a mix-up is with Tsunami Kicks as TGF was way too slow. Not anymore, with the crouch dash cancel to Twin Pistons you can have the old mix-up as Twin Pistons is a mid attack. So you can still use the mix-ups that made the crouch dash so feared, once you reach the required level of skill, the only problem being that once you reach that level, you probably won't really need to mix anything up again. ************* * ********* * * *Tagging* * * ********* * ************* Well this is Tekken Tag isn't it? The obvious reason for you to tag is to switch your characters. We all have to do this at some point. But tagging can be done in many other ways as well. You can tag to get off the ground and bring your partner in. Most people do this when their life is low and mostly after a juggle or knockdown move(obvious, you're getting off the ground ain't ya?). But the thing is most players know to expect this and they counter your character who's helplessly running in like a fool. You'll take a Deathfist from Paul for this mistake or a shoulder charge if you're at range. Tagging off the ground should only be done if your opponent tries to okizeme you, if you tag then you should be safe. Another way to use it is with the tag throw. There are two, the normal 2+5 tag throw where your other character comes in and lands on your opponents after you shoulder flip them away and then there's the one that's character specific. Kazuya's only character specific is with Jun: f,f+1+2,5. This is a good way to get your other character in without them taking damage, rather you'll be sharing damage out. The other way to use tagging is with your other character in a tag combo where you can call in your other character to finish a juggle and whatnot. The best part about this is not only does it look cool but the damage inflicted by a tag combo is NOT recoverable. Tag advice. 1) If you're tagging out, make sure you're not under any pressure. The best time to tag is if you're at range or if your opponent is grounded. Alternatively you could tag throw or do a tag combo to get your other player in safely. Tagging carelessly will get you hit, by an unblockable or a power move. I can't recall the number of times I've seen people tag out close up and run in just to get hit by an unblockable or a Phoenix Smasher which is just as bad because it takes about half your life away. The worst time to tag is after you've been juggled and are on low life. Try to knock your opponent away first, with a rising sweep or kick, then tag. 2) In the same fashion, punish anyone who tags in recklessly. After a juggle and they're low on health I sometimes go for Kazuya's short unblockable (b+1+4) and they get hit. Or you can Wind God fist them or go for Demon Gut punch. 3) Use tag slides and cross chops! These can save your life as you tag in and will most likely do your opponent some damage as well as help to break their habit of trying to counter as someone tags in. Also use the run in cancel (u,u/b) if your character is able. Unfortunately this will only apply to your partner as Kazuya isn't tag slide or cross chop capable. 4) Don't only tag when you're low on health. Obviously if you're low you should tag to your fresh teammate but tagging at that stage is very predictable as well as if you tag earlier you may be able to get more recoverable life back and that character will still be able to come back without you worrying that one Deathfist will kill him. ************************************************************************************************ Juggles ************************************************************************************************ The first step in a juggle is the launcher. Everything after that is just free damage for you to pick up, like bonus points. Kazuya's doesn't have many launchers but they're effective in that he won't need anything but those. I mean c'mon he has Wind god fist! Is anything else really necessary? Most or more like all these juggles were taken off Tekken Zaibatsu so Castel and the Zaibatsu staff deserve all the credit for finding them. Wind God fist The launcher of choice! The Wind God fist in case you haven't realized is maybe Kazuya's best asset next to the Demon Gut punch. It also launches to an ideal height and should be one of your main moves. Learn to execute this fast so you can pick up on any small chance you may get to use it. Twin Pistons. Launches to about the same height as the Wind God fist. It launches them a bit more forward though, but powerful juggles are still possible from this. Doesn't give much to Wind God fist in terms of connecting, Wind God fist is still better but this is your only choice from WS position. Also note, tag juggles are not possible from this move. ************ *Important.* ************ You'll realize that a lot of the juggles have a lot of jabs in them. You must be wondering "How the hell am I supposed to know that if I haven't gotten that far?" And I apologize for that. Anyway, it seems that Kazuya's f+1 gives you a +1 frame advantage but his F+1 gives you a +3 frame advantage. Aaaahhhh, right. Anyway, what this means is that you use F+1 for the jabs, it's quicker, gives you more time, nuff said. Okay maybe not nuff yet. For those juggles where you see a lot of jabs the jabs are performed by doing: f,F+1 Otherwise you won't have enough speed to finish all the jabs. Thanks to Josh Turpen and Dong Lee for this in their FAQ. ************************** * *Conventional Juggles* * ************************** These juggles are possible off a Wind God Fist, Twin Pistons or a class 2 tag. 1,1,1,2,4 Decent damage not too flashy though. Don't be alarmed if the right punch fails to connect, it's not supposed to. There's no reason for you to ever go for something like this unless you're in the presence of someone who will recognize how damn hard this is. 1,1,1,1,WGF Better choice than the juggle shown above but this is just as hard. Kazuya has MANY better juggles than this. Don't waste your time, unless you want to show off. WGF,d/f+4~4 Your best choice from the standard launcher. Best damage combo you can get from it. WGF,1,WGF Timing is really hard! But if you can pull this off consistently you've got a very good reliable juggle on your hands to use. It's damage isn't great, its best use is as a show off combo. 1,1,d/f+2_f+2 Very easy to do and it does decent damage, using the f+2 puts them a good distance away while the d/f+2 puts them a bit closer and if they roll forward afterwards you can tack on a 4~3 or a tag slide which looks very flashy. d/f+4,WGF Looks really cool but the last WGF needs to be timed properly, you'll need to Crouch Dash a bit to nail it. This juggle gets a 9 in the looks division. 1,1, f,N,d,DF+4,4 1,1, d+1, WS+2 1,2, WGF 1,2, df+4,4 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4 1, 1,2, WGF 1, 1,2, df+1 1, 1,2, df+2 1, 1,2, db+4 1, 1,2, f,N,d,DF+4 1, 1,2, 1,2,4 1, 1,2, 1,(1),2 1,2, f,N,d,DF+4,4 1,2, 1, df+1 1,2, 1, d/f+2 1,2, 1, db+4 1,2, 1, 4 1,2, 1,1,2 1,2, 1,2, df+4 1, 1, 1, df+1 1, 1, 1, 1,(1),2 1, 1, 1, 1,2 1, 1, 1, 4 1, 1, 1, db+4 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,(2),4 (big) WGF, df+4,4 WGF, 1,(2),4 WGF, 1,1,2 WGF, WGF, df+2 df+4, WGF df+4, df+2 df+4, 1, WGF df+4, 1,(2),4 df+4, 1,(1),2 ******************** * *Counterhit WGF* * ******************** 1,1,1,WGF,uf~4~3 Cool looking and damaging choice. 4 Simple and damaging. Bang for the buck. 1,2, df+4,4 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4,4 1,2, WGF 1,2, df+2 1,2,4 1, 1,2, df+4,4 1, 1,2, df+2 1, 1,2, f,n,d,DF+4 1, 1, f,N,d,DF+4,4 1, 1, 1,1,2 1, 1, 1,2,2 1, 1, 4 1, 1, 1, 1,2 1, 1, 1, db+4 1, 1, 1, df+4,4 1, 1, 1, 1, df+4 1, 1, 1, 1, df+2 ************************* * *Glorious Demon Fist* * ************************* You must be wondering: this is a launcher? Yep, after this connects you can do a crouch dashed rising kick and then do a little juggle. Nothing special like the Wind God fist's or the twin piston but it still counts. It's hard to time the rising kick though, normally I'd just for go the whole thing altogether and just do a Tsunami Kick to get it over with. f,N,d,d/f,f+4,1,1,f+2_d/f+2_WGF Same damage as the WGF versions. d/f+4,4 u+(4),4,4,4 4~3 WGF f,n,d,df+4,4 df+4,4 f,n,d,df,f+4, 1, 1, df+4,4 TGF,3_4 *Big Characters only* d+1,WS+2 *Big Characters only* f+1+2 *Big Characters only* b+1+4 *Big Characters only* ****************** * *Stun Juggles* * ****************** You can get a whole heap of damage this way. The damage you get from stun juggles rivals the damage that even master jugglers like Heihachi can get from a juggle. The stun drains them and then the juggle just adds to insult. This is where Kazuya juggles get all their damage from. However getting the stun down is much easier said than done in practice. ********************* * *Demon Gut Punch* * ********************* The stun of choice. This does big damage especially on counter and some of these combos drain more than half the bar. Even though it's hard to hit with, it still is the best stun to connect with overall. Any of the Wind God fist juggles shown before will work here as well. You'll just get the added damage that the stun causes. TGF,3_4 Very deadly. I like Mist Step here with the Thunder God fist since my crouch dash isn't very fast and the TGF has to be executed quickly. 4 Not really a juggle but hot dog this thing does great damage for the effort you put out. Any Mishima can do this as well as Ogre and I think it does something like 82 points! I first discovered this on Practice Mode when T3 just came out for the PSX and was basically amazed at the damage two hits could do. Just to calm anyone who's thinking Kazuya does exist in T3, no I did it with Ogre. WGF,any combo The WGF must be down quickly to launch tem otherwise it'll just knock them down. 1, 1, f,N,d,DF+4,4 1, 1,2, WGF 1, 1,2, df+1 1, 1,2, df+2 1, 1,2, df+4,4 1, 1,2, 1,2,4 1, 1,2, 1,(1),2 1,2, f,n,d,df+4,4 1,2, 1, df+1 1,2, 1, df+4 1,2, 1, db+4 1,2, 1, 4 1,2, 1,1,2 1,2, 1,2, df+4 1, 1, 1, df+1 1, 1, 1, 1,(1),2 1, 1, 1, 1,2 1, 1, 1, f+2 1, 1, 1, df+2 1, 1, 1, df+4,4 1, 1, 1, 4 1, 1, 1, db+4 1, 1, 1, 1, WGF 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,(2),4 TGF,3 TGF,4 b+1+4 1, 1, 1, 1,2,4 *Big Characters Only* f+1+2 *Big Characters Only* *************** * *Gut Punch* * *************** If you can't get the Demon version, why not this? It's easier to do and more likely to hit since it can be done more quickly. U+(4),4,4,4 This is your best choice by far. It's easy and it does the best damage. Great combination right there. b+1+4 Probably the 2nd best choice. You have to do it immediately though. So be ready to execute it. It does great damage for the effort you put out which is next to none. d+1, WS+4,4 d+1, cc, 1, df+2 d+1, cc, 1, WGF WGF df+2 df+4,4 f,n,d,DF+4,4 u+4,4,4,4 f+1+2 *Big Characters Only* TGF,3_4 *Big Characters only* ************************* * *After a Class 1 Tag* * ************************* After a class 2 tag Kazuya can do the same stuff in the previous section. However after a class 1 launcher e.g. Yoshimitsu's 4~3 or Hwoarang's CD+4 Kazuya can do some special stuff that does big damage. Just a good reason to have a class 1 capable character with you. TGF,1,f+2_d/f+2_WGF Excellent damage ,looks good too. You'll have to buffer the crouch dash as Kazuya goes in. Just don't execute TGF too fast or it'll go right under the person and you'll come out the other side with a total wiff not to mention you look really dumb. TGF,3,d/f+4,4 About the same damage as the previous. WGF,4 Very good damage. b+1+4 Good damage and easy to time. Just make sure you do the short one and the long one will have them hit the floor and you'll still be going. WGF, BT 4 f,f+3 , BT 4 f+1+2 TGF, BT 4 (big) UF+4, 1, 1,2, WGF UF+4, 1, 1,2, df+1 UF+4, 1, 1,2, df+2 UF+4, 1, 1,2, df+4,4 UF+4, 1, 1,2, db+4 UF+4, 1, 1,2, f,n,d,df+4 UF+4, 1, 1,2, 1,(1),2 UF+4, 1,1, f,N,d,df+4,4 UF+4, 1,2, 1, df+1 UF+4, 1,2, 1, df+4 UF+4, 1,2, 1, db+4 UF+4, 1,2, 1, 4 UF+4, 1,2, 1,1,2 UF+4, 1,2, df+1 UF+4, 1, 1, 1,(1),2 UF+4, 1, 1, 1,2 UF+4, 1, 1, 1,2,4 UF+4, 1, 1, f+2 UF+4, 1, 1, df+2 UF+4, 1, 1, df+4,4 UF+4, 1, 1, 4 UF+4, 1, 1, db+4 UF+4, 1, 1, 1, WGF UF+4, 1, 1,2, 1,2,4 To Tag or not to Tag. This one basically depends upon your situation. It all depends upon the kind of damage you can cause with the said player. If you WGF with Kazuya and your partner is King, hell no! You don't tag. But if you have Heihachi or Jin or Bruce as your partner, by all means tag in and combo them, you'll get more damage and it'll look cool. Of course tagging in means you'll have to change player so make sure you're ready to use that player before you tag. Some attacks when tagging out Julia : f,f+1,f,f+1,f,f+1,d,d/f+1,2 Bruce : b+3,b+4,3,4 b+4,3,1,4 Jin : b,f+2,1,d+2_2,f,f+2 EWGF,EWGF Hwoarang: 3,3,3,3 or 3,3,3,4,3 or 1,2,4 A.King : 1,1,d+1+2 Heihachi: f+1,b+2,1 1,1,f,N,d,D/F+4,4,N+1 EWGF,EWGF Devil Anomaly. With Kazuya, if you have Devil as your partner, then you won't be able to use any tag combos. This is because instead of the tag partner running out, Devil 'morphs' into Kazuya and vice versa. This looks very cool and at the point of changing they execute the equivalent of Jin's force block which also rocks but the sequence takes too long for anything worthwhile to happen as well as the fact that it leaves you open to attack if you do this outright. ************************** * *My Favorite Juggles* * ************************** I thought that after that whole listing thing, you might want a quick list you can go to for actual good combos instead of wading through unnecessary junk. 1) WGF,1,1,d/f+2_f+2,d/f+4~4 A good, easy reliable combo to use. You can't go wrong here. This is a good juggle for a beginner to Kazuya to start off with or if you need assured damage. I use this when I'm not getting the crouch dash down too well or if I don't want to chance a higher damage, but harder juggle. 2) WGF,WGF,d/f+4~4 Definitely the juggle I use most. It's Kazuya's best damage juggle from the Wind God fist and it puts you in a fairly good position to set up for more moves. As long as you have crouch dash down fairly well, you can pull this one off with fair ease. This combo is your best choice if you want good damage for relative ease. 3) CH WGF,1,WGF,uf~4~3 Best bet after a counter hit Wind God fist. Since on counter hit it turns them upside down, they land on their face and therefore cannot tech-roll making this combo possible. You have to be quick on the Demon Scissors however or they'll be able to get up. This combo does great damage. 4) WGF,4 Simple, quick, good damage. You can do this regardless of how the Wind God fist hits. It'll knock them a good distance away so you'll have plenty of space to do whatever. Most of the Korean Kazuya players I've seen use this so it can set up for more wave dashes. 5) WGF,WGF,WGF You know it had to be in here. Only a couple of points away from WGF,WGF,d/f+4~4 in terms of damage but it's more stylish to do. This combo has been totally butchered in TTT, it's so bloody easy to do it's not even funny anymore. No longer a great combo this one, of course since Kazuya has no good combos, a better light shines on it. 6) CH d/f+2,b+1+4 Easy to do as long as you don't get caught by surprise that the d/f+2 stunned. It's damage is about half the bar so you know it's good. It's looks nice too as it's an unblockable you're using to end the combo. 7) CH WS+2,TGF,3 Ouch!! This is the old favorite for just about everyone. Lots, and I mean LOTS of damage from this. The only problem is connecting the WS+2 which is a bitch to do. You want to do this combo, you NEED to use this combo if you get the chance. Of course if the opponent holds 'f', then you're screwed. 8) CH WS+2,WGF~5 (Bruce),b+3,b+4,3,4 I just had to put this one in. If number 7 was ouch then this must be mega-ouch!! Depending on the machine damage setting, this baby WILL KILL the opponent if Bruce is Netsued when he tags in. The WGF must be pulled off very quickly, though. You gotta love it man!! ************************************************************************************************ A Quick Hit. ************************************************************************************************ This is actually quite useful for tacking on an extra hit to your juggle. If you have a partner that can tag slide or cross chop, after you complete the juggle tag out and slide kick or cross chop. But beware with cross chop you have to have an exact distance between the opponent and yourself. Chances are you'll nail him just as he's getting up. Another good use of this is as follows. Let's say you're using Kazuya/Hwoarang. Hwoarang launches them with his CD+4, Kazuya tags in and does a TGF,1,f+2 or something then he tags out and Bob runs in with a slide that puts them back down. You get to revert to your original character without any risk. Surprisingly, this slide technique is something I've never seen used except by Douzono in some of his exhibition videos. ************************************************************************************************ 10 hit strings. ************************************************************************************************ f,f,N+2,1,2,2,,3,4,4,2, Ten string f,f,N+2,1,2,2,3,4,4,3,2,1 Ten string f,f+N+2,1,4,4,2,4,3,2,1 Nine string I personally don't use 10 strings. I think they should be removed altogether from Tekken. Kazuya has 2 10s and a 9 string. The two tens start with 4 high hits, so a low jab can easily interrupt. The nine is better though since it only has two highs then a low I think also the last hit is a stun like one of his 10s. After the stun you can continue the string or just plain do something else. Something else being better. I haven't tested this out yet but in theory if the stun connects you could actually do b+1+4 instead of pressing '1'. They seem to execute same speed and the b+1+4 will do more damage. These strings shouldn't be used against even intermediate players as they'll make you regret it each time. These should only be used against beginners if at all during a Tekken versus match. ************* * ********* * * *Offense* * * ********* * ************* ************************************************************************************************ Attacking. ************************************************************************************************ You'll realize that I don't recommend turtling anywhere. Why? Because although I think that sometimes turtling is important against some characters who'll massacre you if you get up too close, I believe that Kazuya is a very attack oriented character. He has lots of quick, fast, high priority moves. Use his hell sweep to give yourself some room if you're being hounded and then return with some offense of your own. Even against characters like Nina and Anna who have fast strings and even when they attack I prefer to go for the jugular with Wing God fist. And you know what, it almost always connects. Then I tack on a little juggle damage. Another move I like for offense is his d/f+2 gut punch. Get up close and most likely your opponent will be trying to attack you and then you'll gut punch him on counter. The first hit of his tsunami kicks I also like to use since it has good range. Stature kick while not powerful almost always hits and helps KO your opponent. When you're crouching Twin Pistons should be your attack of choice to punish people. Just don't go crouching outright as no one in their right mind approaches a crouched Kazuya. Such is the fear of Kazuya's WS arsenal which includes the stunning Demon Gut Punch. If the attack comes in really quick use d+1, there was this one time I was playing a Hwoarang guy and he kept charging with mid kicks, some low jabs and he got interrupted every time. If the move they attacked with has a bad recovery go for Shining Fist since it damages and knocks down so you can get into position. You need to be the aggressor since Kazuya isn't a very defensive character, you don't want to have block a lot since once you block once, you basically have the case of an opportunity wasted right there. ************************************************************************************************ Countering ************************************************************************************************ Well, Kazuya's major moves for countering with are the Wind God fist, Demon Gut Punch, Twin Pistons and his regular Gut Punch(d/f+2). They can all hit for a lot of damage and both can be followed up into even more damage. With countering all you really have to do is wait and time everything right...or anticipate the move. After some time you'll come to know it as second nature. And it is necessary; you can't just block any and everything that comes your way. Of course if you miss you'll get a nice reminder not to miss again...course what kind of Tekken player are you if you're not willing to take risks? Plus counter hits do a lot more damage and with gut punches you get stuns you can follow Wind God fist This is probably my favorite counter move, it's so fast and it opens up so much. You really have to know the other player and read how he plays. If he likes to play it close and then dash, stay a minuscule further than he wants and Wind God Fist. Since Wind God fist constitutes a crouch dash it'll go under a lot of high mover so characters who have many high based attacks like Bryan Fury should be cannon fodder when he uses his Mach Punch as you'll go under and when you come up he'll be movin' on up as well. Others like Paul you have to be more careful with as the possibility of retaliation with Phoenix Smasher is very real but it all comes down to your opponents style of play. Some players like Hwoarang are quite easy to Wind God fist since a lot of his moves come in strings and that's what a lot of people use, unless you're playing Seok, in that case just pray :). As he starts that string nonsense, Wind God fist. In the end it all comes down to practice and your experience. Demon Gut Punch Demon Gut Punch is a good and bad move for countering. On the good side, it does crazy damage and presents many opportunities but then on the flip side it's slow as hell to initiate and it's almost impossible to get this off against a seasoned player. But if you're playing against less experienced competition then by all means use this but use it well. Learn the attacks that hit high so you can duck and counter. Hwoarang and Baek, Yoshimitsu and Kunimitsu too all beg for this. If you see a Jin coming at you, go to low block in case he goes for hell sweeps and if he goes for WGF, counter! Against a better Jin ,you'd never be able to do that, but since novice players rarely use dash buffer, Tsunami Kicks and since they cannot initiate quick while standing, it's a safe bet. Any string of high attacks, duck and counter, a single high attack duck and use the recovery time. No one can withstand two of those mistakes. people who like to 10 hit combo a lot are also good to go after as their string is set and once you know where the weak points are you can take them down easily. Use the Demon Gut Punch well grasshopper. One point that weakens the Demon Gut Punch, substantially, it's escapable. They can tag out of this or tap f,f to fall over quickly, ensuring that your Thunder God fist will wiff. When you find someone that does this, many people are unaware of this feature, instead of using Thunder God fist use Lightning God fist. Twin Pistons Like a diamond in the rough, the wonder of the twin piston is only there for those with a keen eyesight good enough to realize it's greatness. Up until a few months ago, okay maybe a month or so ago I had always thought of the twin pistons as average. Believe me, it's anything but average. You have Demon Gut Punch to counter the novice and then you have Twin Pistons to counter the advanced. It's execution is beautiful and although it doesn't juggle as well as Wind God fist, it does it's job well enough. Its only real weakness is that it has pathetic range, not as much as Demon Gut Punch anyway. Countering with the twin pistons should be done just as it would be with the Demon Gut Punch except that you now have a better chance of connecting on it heh heh. Twin Pistons are also better to use in countering 10 strings as windows of opportunity in 10 strings are very specific and if you miss you get hurt, and since this executes faster it's a much better bet. Gut Punch This is a different kind of counter, and can easily become reflex since you'll be standing. When someone is recovering from a move, gut punch. If they get too close, gut punch as you see them twitch. Basically it's the same usage as the demon version but with the added ease of motion. and the fact that you're standing. I use this to counter a lot. After you connect this on a counter hit, do a short unblockable and you'll get a lot of damage, about 40-50%! While some may argue that the damage you can do from this is not up to Demon Gut Punch level, you're more likely to hit with this than with it's big brother and plus the stun is guaranteed to stay unlike Demon Gut Punch's escapable stun. Other Counters 1,1,2 f+1+2 f+2 d/f+1 They all have their uses but the four listed above are those I believe to be the best. Shining Fist, depending on how you look at it, is by far the safest bet but since I've emphasized it's usefulness throughout the FAQ, I saw no reason to do so again. ************************************************************************************************ Okizeme. ************************************************************************************************ For okizeme, Kazuya doesn't exactly have many options. But those he does have get the job done well enough. Kazuya isn't exactly going to keep them grounded forever but you will be get the tick damage that adds up. Mainly as far as okizeme goes, Kazuya has the Hell Sweeps and the Stature kick, oh; I guess you can count the Demon Scissors as well. Maybe not, since it takes too much time, only use it if you see a forward roll and are at close enough range since if you wiff you'll take damage. Both the hell sweep and Stature Kick should be used as your main form of okizeme. Get in at close range and once you see movement, execute them and put them back on the ground or if you just want the damage just do the move and hit them. If you are close enough, Tsunami Kicks are also a good option, but you have to get the timing right, wait for when they start to roll. This is a good way to get people who like to tech-roll all the time, the value of staying grounded is one few people have realized. Try them all and decide what works best for you then stick with it. Just don't try too hard or could get caught with a rising move. There are other moves that can be used for okizeme but I don't think any of them work as well as the two I listed up there. If you're at a more advanced level, wavedash works very well here, not as the okizeme in itself but in taking them as they get up. As they are grounded, just start wavedashing at them and the minute you see them twitch WGF or hell sweep them. You'll have to be dashing fairly quickly for it to work as you have to be able to take advantage of a split second of lapse time on your opponent's part. You should be relatively safe from an ankle kick interrupt about 33% of the time as that's the period in which you'll have the d/f motion input to parry the ankle kick. The only way they'll probably get away from this is if they tech-roll after you hit them. So basically while Kazuya's okizeme isn't going to make anyone pull their hair out it's still free damage that Kazuya can cash in on. To summarize, your best bets for okizeme are: f,N,d,D/F+4,4 d/b+4 f,N,d,d/f+4,4 WGF TGF,3 Each of the above moves have their own particular usage. One thing you should watch out for in okizeme is an ankle kick which will allow a safe rise if it connects. It's sp fast you really are powerless against it but if it wiffs then you can drop a WGF or some Tsunami Kicks down. For forward and back rolls you can simple crouch dash up and use Wind God fist or Tsunami Kicks yet again to drop them down. For forward rollers Thunder God fist is better as it has less a chance of wiffing on a forward and it does some mad damage. Tech-rolls are a trickier subject. However if you know you opponent is going to tech-roll you can get them as they get up with a move with a sweeping arc like say a roundhouse or you can use crouch dash's tracking to Thunder God fist them. ************************************************************************************************ Throws ************************************************************************************************ Kazuya isn't exactly a throwing character. He has no multi-throws nor does he have any special command throws that do big damage. The only one he has is Stone Head which I guess is good in that it requires a two button escape but it does barely more damage than the regular throws. A word from the wise, don't EVER use the Ultimate Tackle, just about everybody in the world can escape this and Kazuya doesn't even have an arm lock to keep things interesting, not to mention that you could get reversed. Of course if you get reversed you can always escape it but well it's not worth the bother. But throws still have their uses. If your opponent keeps blocking everything you do, rush or crouch dash at him and throw him. They usually don't expect a rush throw and many have fallen for it in the past. Also throws are always good for variance as predictability can be your downfall with Kazuya who lacks a large amount of moves. Throws give you the chance for a free move, okizeme, which gives you the chance for free damage, 1+2+3+4 power up or to tag. The bottom line is throws are useful for more than variance but don't get too dependent on them and you should throw whenever you get the chance. Oh, and don't feel cheap doing it, in Tekken throws aren't cheap as all of them can be escaped and well it gets your opponent angry and no one who's angry and frustrated ever played properly. The best way to use a throw is to use dash buffer to buffer a Stone Head into your crouch dash if your opponent is blocking a little too much. ************************************************************************************************ Chickening. ************************************************************************************************ Well this is always good to demoralize a reversal happy opponent. Chicken is a big insult against a fellow player. I don't really try to lure people into chicken because my chickening ability is far from perfect but if you're going to you can do f+2, d/f+1, d/f+2, f+1+2, 1,1,2 or 1,2,2. Again it depends on reading your opponent since some players may read into your trying to bait them and interrupt with low jabs. And in case it wasn't blatantly obvious only buffer chicken against reversal capable characters. Thanks to Tekken Zaibatsu, we now have a reversal chart. The following list contains moves that cannot be reversed. All other high and mid moves obviously can be reversed as low moves can only be low parried. 1) f,N,d,d/f+2 2) f,N,d/f+2 3) d/b+1+2 *Only King may not Reverse* 4) f,f,f_WR+3 5) 4~3 *Only King may not Reverse* ************************************************************************************************ Custom Strings. ************************************************************************************************ You won't much information on these here since I don't use 'em much, I don't really know why maybe I'll start someday. But in case you want to use them I'll post a few that I picked up around the place. f,f,d+1,d+3,f,f,d+1,d+3,f,f,d+1,d+3,f,f,d+1,WS+2_WS+4,4 1,d+1,WS+4,df+1,1,1,d+3,WS+2 d+1,d+3,f,f,d+1,d+3,f,f,d+1,d+3,f,f,d+1,WS+2 1,1,d+1,WS+4,1,1,f,n,d,df+2,d+1,WS+4,f,n,d,df+2,f,n,DF+4,4 1,2,4,d+1,WS+2,1,1,1,2,4,d+3,WS+4,f,n,d,DF+4 Anyway, there they are. Custom strings are basically used so you can set up your opponent for a bigger more damaging move. If/when I ever start using these, I'll put up a good strategy for them. ********************* * ***************** * * *Offensive Style* * * ***************** * ********************* ************************************************************************************************ Poking ************************************************************************************************ Poking is just one of the basic techniques you'll have to master if you want to be able to compete at a high level. You won't always have big opportunities coming at you and a good poking technique can be used to make opportunities happen for you. Poking is well suited to be used with a good movement chain as you'll be dodging and maneuvering your opponent as well as getting a little damage in there. Pokes usually consist of fast quick attacks that most of the time do little damage but recover very quickly like 1,2 jabs or 1,1. A good way to determine good pokes is to look at the frame data on the attack. These are available at www.tekkenzaibatsu.com. Poking is a good way to basically be a fly in your opponents face and will keep pressure up on your challenger. If you keep him/her too pinned down with your fast quick strikes, you'll give them no chance to retaliate against you and if they try you'll most likely get the interrupt with your quick attacks. And if they block you then you should still have no worries as your attacks are fast recovering enough for you to be safe. Just ensure that when you poke, you don't use slow recovering attacks, if you do you'll lose your frame advantage and could get hit by a faster move. Another reason to use pokes is so that you can get a frame advantage you can use to set up bigger and more powerful attacks. Like if one of your pokes connect, you'll recover quickly and will get a chance to add another strike due to your opponents frame disadvantage. The simplest example of this is when you poke with 1 or 1,1. If it connects you can always finish the rest of the Shining Fist as it'll be guaranteed. Normally if you just pull Shining Fist out of thin air and it gets blocked, the last hit has a longer delay on it. So by waiting like this you reduce the danger to your character. A lot of people also start to lose it when they keep getting ticked by these pesky attacks. Normally when they're in this position, they'll do something stupid and then, well, you punish them appropriately. Good Pokes 1 2 1,2 1,1 1,2,4 d/b+4 d+1 d+3 d+4 ************************************************************************************************ Pitbull. ************************************************************************************************ This, for me is the way for Tekken, and Kazuya to be played. I mean Tekken IS a fighting game, fighting meaning the majority of the time offense. Anyway, in this style, you just have to be all over your opponent, all the time. Keep pressure on them by using a variety of quick moves, the same kind you'd use in your poking game to set them up for a big shot like a counter hit gut punch. I've found using the standard jab strings work very well or you could go with the first 4-5 hits of one of Kazuya's ten strings but don't use the whole thing or you'll pay. If you get a knockdown, like from a hell sweep or something, stay close and keep moving around, gives people the feeling that you're itching to put down some more hurt, and as they get up, be all over them again. Use wave step, if you can, to stay up in his face with WGF and when he/she tries to respond, hit em' with a Shining Fist or gut punch or a simple low jab. Just remember to keep the pressure up on them. ************************************************************************************************ Turtling. ************************************************************************************************ First off, let me just say that I don't think Kazuya is meant to turtle all day as he is a very offensive character and he doesn't have any reversals to boot. The only character I believe that can play like this indefinitely is Forest Law with his parrys. But if you use Kazuya like this you should know by now what to use here. Wind God fist is good to get them with as they come at you and should provide your platform from where you'll build damage. Demon Gut punch or better yet, Twin Pistons them as they come in at you with high moves. Shining Fist also works wonders in this department as well. The low jab is also good to interrupt them if they start upping the tempo too much. But like I said I would shy away from playing like this as Kazuya is a much more offensive character and shouldn't be turtling all the time. ************************************************************************************************ The Keep Away Game. ************************************************************************************************ The Keep away is sort of a strange mix between the pitbull and turtle. Basically you want to stop your opponent from getting too close to you by either running away or via the power of suggestion a.k.a Wind God Fist;) This is where the Rising Kick (d/f+4) really shines due to it's great range and speed. Kazuya isn't as good as this as Heihachi since Heihachi has his Shadow Steps but Kazuya makes good on it as well. This can easily turn to a countering game as your opponent may try a mad blitz to break your game up and then you drop a stun on them. Or it may be the opposite, you see a weakness in the opponent's game and you blitz them. The problem is you must only blitz for a few hits then return to your game. If you get too caught up in attacking then your pattern is broken and you play his game. But when the opponent finally rushes you have to make it a good one otherwise you'll just turn to simple pokes and every round will end in time outs. When they charge, you want to go straight for the jugular. How you do this is up to you. Stuns, juggles or whatever else you have planned is fine as long as it works. The attacks you use for keep away really depends on your style and your preferred keep away distance. ************** * ********** * * *Defense.* * * ********** * ************** How can there be offense without defense. Although your defense will most of the time consist of blocking there's always these other techniques to use. ************************************************************************************************ Block or Side step. ************************************************************************************************ Side step is very underrated. Kazuya has a very good Side step and so he should use it as much as possible. Of course blocking is the safe conservative option it always was and is always an option. Although one block usually leads to another, right? So I'd rather go for the interrupt or the side step. Of course going for side step is a double edged sword isn't it? You could get nailed if the move your opponent executed sweeps the area like Yoshimitsu's '3' roundhouse. The best attacks to sidestep are those which come in one dimension like Thunder God fist and Jin's Laser Cannon electric punch rush. After the sidestep some good moves to go for: Shining Fist (1,1,2) - This is very quick and will interrupt them as they're performing their move. Due to it's speed, you'll catch them in the act and get a counter hit. This move is good to use anytime you perform a sidestep. Wind God fist (CD+2, f,N,d/f+2) - A good choice as long as you can execute it fast enough to interrupt your opponent and since it juggles you'll have the chance for some free damage. Stature Kick Combo (1,2,4) - The two punches will hit then the stature kick. Of all the ones listed this is probably the best chance to hit since even the opponent has a chance to block, the stature kick will most likely get him for good damage. Gut Punch (d/f+2) - I'd probably choose this over the rest because all it requires is a simple motion and its comes out fast as well as the fact that if it hits while they're in the act, you'll get a stun and an opportunity to do some more damage. Throw - You really can't go wrong here. No need to explain this, you all know what a throw is. Blocking is just one of those things that are as simple as breathing, but people still manage to mess it up. High moves shouldn't be blocked if you can help it. Duck under all high moves and respond with a Twin Piston. Psychologically, if the guy you're playing sees that he's missing all the time and you're dodging everything, it gives you an edge against him, he'll be less inclined to use that particular move. ************************************************************************************************ Interrupting Moves. ************************************************************************************************ Kazuya is a very good character for interrupting moves with. His Wind God fist, of course, which comes out very quickly and has great priority and of course allows you to juggle. Then of course there is the soup de'jour, the Demon Gut Punch for interrupting anyone who's stupidly trying to do high attacks against the mighty Kazuya. Twin Pistons may be a better choice here though as its speed is much greater and so you'll take full advantage of any window that you may have. The regular gut punch can be used as well at close range when you can't Wind god fist fast enough or can't crouch and is one of my favorites to use in this area. And then of course there's the d+1 low jab. Very fast and interrupts hem almost all the time. I did that to a Hwoarang player 5 times in a row before I decided to let him be. After the low jab you can Demon Gut punch or Twin Pistons to further add to the carnage. Or use can use old Mishima favorites like 1,1 or 1,2. The Shining Fist (1,1,2) is really good for interrupting because it's really fast and all that has to connect for the whole thing is the first jab. But be careful remember interrupting isn't guaranteed. You may try to do it and then find yourself in a very sticky situation. But of course it's more rewarding than blocking. ************************************************************************************************ Reversal and Parry ************************************************************************************************ Basically you don't, Kazuya has the universal low parry (d/f) but I really hate this because a lot of the time I have trouble finding the diagonal and to do it you have to leave the safety of your block to do it. Also I find that it's pretty hard to time the damn thing unless you get cut and dried cases as in a 10 string. So you'll basically have to block any strings you come across and hope there are some high hits so you can low jab or do a Twin Pistons or parry it if there's a low hit (if you can). But I guess it's not so bad that Kazuya doesn't have a reversal as reversals can be chickened except for Kings, Wang's Left hand reversal and then Law's parrys, if he had those that would rock. ************************************************************************************************ Getting Up ************************************************************************************************ One of the most integral parts of the game is actually getting up while avoiding countless okizeme attacks. If you're not careful about how you get up, you'll continuously get pounded right back into the ground by a tile splitter or Jin's b+4. The information here can be used for just about any character. First there's the '3' sweep kick. The move of choice against average players as they rarely block low moves. Against higher level players they usually anticipate someone going for a sweep so they block low or parry as they come up. If the sweep connects you have the perfect opportunity to continue with your own okizeme, tag out or position yourself for another move. Then there's the '4' standing high kick. This is best alternated with the low kick, to confuse your opponent. Or this kick should be used against the people who aren't necessarily pitbulls but more like rushers to take them as they advance. Then there's Kazuya's b,b+3+4. This is one of the worst choices unless your opponent is coming in at you as a lot of times this is anticipated and plus there's a delay before the move is actually executed. Also if this is blocked, you see some retaliation. Stay away from this one most of the time. Then there's the f,F+1+2 option. If you have some range then this is a good choice as the cross chop stuns so you should be safe as well as if it hits it's good damage. This will also catch people who tag out after the knockdown and so when their partner comes running in, they'll get caught by it. Then there's the ankle kick (d+3_4 can't remember). One of the best options just for giving you time to move. It's very fast and even though it does negligible damage, it'll give you enough of a frame advantage to get up. If you can get the timing down well enough, you can stop running attacks. After a power strike that sends you down the screen a lot of people charge in for a slide kick, cross chop or shoulder in case you get up or a simple trample. If you time it just right you can get the ankle kick to stop a slide or trample which is very useful. Then there's the tag out. This is highly advised against as people are always ready to get your helpless partner with a Deathfist or Wind God fist or the like. Even if you're low on health try to use '3' or '4' to get a knock down and then tag out or your other partner could end up with a disadvantage as half his/her life would have been taken by the Deathfist. Then there's plain rolling to get up. Using '1' to roll sideways is one of the best options you have as you'll be relatively safe. Don't roll forward/backward or get right up unless you have enough room to do so. Of course, I can't forget tech-roll. This is probably the best option as long as you don't get too dependent on it. It'll give you instant recovery from the attack and people who use non-guaranteed juggles will beasically be screwed over. Just don't get too predictable with it otherwise, they'll wait and get you as you bounce up by sidestepping along with you. Always remember before you get up to observe what's going on. Sometimes staying on the ground a few seconds longer may be the best option if an unblockable was being charged in case you would have been over zealous. Like the old proverb always said "Look before you Leap". ************************************************************************************************ Positioning. ************************************************************************************************ This is one new area I thought I'd put a bit of stress on. Many people when they get into a new position that they're not accustomed to, they have absolutely no clue as to what to do and just mess up what could have been a potentially devastating (for the opponent) situation. Since Tekken is a 3D game with sidesteps and with oddities that may arise from tagging and moves wiffing, there are different positions that a player can find themselves in: 1) Close Range. 2) Outside Throw Range or 'f,f' Dash Range as it is called by Tragic. 3) Far Away. 4) Side of Opponent. 5) At Opponent's Back. ***************** * *Close Range* * ***************** This is one of the more common ranges that a player may him/herself in. Close range is not one of Kazuya's stronger areas due to his lack of an 8 frame jab. You poking punch strings are the best bet in these close quarters. Up this close crouch dash is risky but possible though interruption should not be discounted. Counter attacks such as Gut Punch are good to use in this vicinity but again due to the range interrupts can become common. Your best bet here is to try to put some more distance between your aggressor. This is the range at which characters such as Julia Chang rule over. **************** * *Dash Range* * **************** This is Kazuya's range of choice. At dash range Kazuya has the space and freedom to properly execute his crouch dash moves without fear of interruption. Also at this range Kazuya can use his Gut Punch efficiently. This should be your standard range for attack and a little outside it if on defense. Basically from here everything will work out fine, all moves will hit at proper range, however delaying crouch dash moves won't work here as for the crouch dash moves to hit as they reach the required range, they must be quickly executed. ************** * *Far Away* * ************** Well there really isn't much Kazuya or for that matter anyone else can do from this range. At maximum range you may find people charging at you to connect with the shoulder unblockable but you can easily escape this with U/F+2+4. Normally if I have a standoff at this range I just dash in until I'm just outside dash range or if I'm playing less skilled opposition, I may go for a slide kick or a shoulder charge myself. ********************* * *Opponent's Side* * ********************* From the side your options narrow down to what you can do and what's smart to do. Wind God fist from here will flipover the opponent allowing for WGF,1,WGF,uf~4~3 which is very damaging. The most commonly performed move from this position would be the side throw. This is generally a good option unless you're playing against the few people who can escape throws on a whim. ********************* * *Opponent's Back* * ********************* Ahh, the coveted back turned position. This is by far the most advantageous position to yourself. A back throw is a good choice for easy damage although Kazuya's back throw isn't as damaging as those of other characters. Wind God fist from here will launch as normal, no flipover at all. The throw is probably the best option overall. ******************************** * **************************** * * *More Advanced Strategies. * * * **************************** * ******************************** ************************************************************************************************ Reading you Opponent. ************************************************************************************************ This is something you'll have to break into on your own. Reading your opponents style of play can help you more than you might think. By reading an opponents style of play you can adjust yourself to combat him. Some of it is very obvious; don't turtle against whose defensive. Don't rush an aggressive person. At higher levels TTT is very psychological. You have to be ready even before the fight. If you see he likes to charge in a lot, then you'll want to make use of Wind God fist and low jabs to interrupt. Against a defensive person you'll want to poke a lot. Your opponent's style of play also comes into consideration when you're deciding the first thing to do in a match. This will be discussed later on. Part of reading your opponent and his style is because you want to be able to control the pace and style of the match. To control your opponent, you must first understand your opponent. Then when you know how they react to certain changes in the game, you can begin to manipulate them and make them go your way. They'll eventually reach a point where they have no idea what to do as they're afraid you'll get them. Basically at this point you've won the match. While novice players are easily manipulated, expert players tend to mix their game up a lot to prevent predictability which is what you should to do as well to safeguard against this same tactic. ************************************************************************************************ Movement. ************************************************************************************************ Movement is probably by far the most important aspect of the game and probably of the hardest to integrate properly into a game. Movement is the key to setting up any victory against an opponent. Tekken is a 3D fighter, the sidestep is there for a reason, you're not just supposed to wait for things to go your way. You have to keep moving so that the opponent may wiff something that you can get a countering opportunity against them. The primary instrument in a good movement is the sidestep. The sidestep is equal for most characters, Kazuya's sidestep itself is a good one in terms of distance covered but it has the disadvantage of not being able to execute any sidestep specific moves like Jin or Bryan can. It is however the key to evading attacks especially the mid and low attacks that can't be ducked. However each time you use it you put yourself on the spot, a sweeping attack will knock you right out of it while a successful evade will give you a retaliation chance. This brings you to another crossroads, should you take the chance. Nothing has ever been won by playing it safe and the payoff here would equal the damage done so it is definitely worth it to try. The next instrument is the forward and back movements that a character has. The thing about a backdash is that it could be more trouble than it's worth, during the dash and for some time after it you are unable to guard against any attacks leaving your self open. However backdash is necessary for you to get your proper spacing and will get you there faster than walking back so it will all depend on the distance relative to your opponent. The case is the exact same thing for forward and back movements. Putting together the forward, back and sidesteps into one big package can give you a good routine and at any point in the routine you can interrupt it with attacks like a Shining Fist, Wind God fist or go into the Mist Step. The total package might look something like this: f,f~ssl,b,b~ssr,1~1,b,b,ssl,ssr,f,f,b+1 Then there's the harder more advanced movement motions. I'm sure we've all heard of the infamous Lei Haha step which allows Lei to go into an almost continuous backdash. This allows him to control the tempo of the game as the opponent is obliged to follow Lei's lead. What you may not know is that everyone is able to do this same type of backstep. I've seen many different ways of people doing it: b~b~f~b~b~f QCB~N~b The first I find to be very hard to use, I always just mess it up. The second seems to be the better of the two ways listed above, my way of doing it is very similar to the second. My way of doing it is basically a reverse wave dash: b~b~N~d~d/b~b~b~N~d~d/b~b~b It's works well for me so this is the only method I can confirm. The use of this is obvious. To slow down the tempo of the match if you're being out poked or are being totally pitbulled by some Bryan or Julia or even to just waste time if you want to. This brings to the final element of the movement game, the wave dash in actuality. The wave dash is explained in full in the next section so I won't re-state it here. The use of the wave dash is basically the opposite of the pseudo Haha step, the up the tempo of the match and get right in that turtles face. ************************************************************************************************ Wave Dash. ************************************************************************************************ ********* *Warning* ********* Some of the techniques in this section are very advanced and will take lots of practice to master. Since they all have to do with crouch dash, I put them here instead of in the advanced section. While basic crouch dash skills, dash buffer and even crouch dash cancel to WS moves are necessary for a proper game, aspects such as wave dash are best left until all aspects of the basic game are well learnt. Personally I suggest you practice getting the motions and speed down a bit but not to the extent that you cbecome fanatical about it. More than likely, unless you possess tremendous talent, it won't do you a whole world of good. Personally I don't use wavedash because I just don't want to spend that kind of time learning something that advanced until my entire game, not just my speed, reaches to that level. I'd suggest to all new players to stay away from the wavedash but more than likely you really won't care what I say and go try to master it anyway.What's the result? A wavedashing fool who can't even sidestep right outside of a snake dash. Wave dash is just too cool not to like. It sets up for the best stuff in the game, moves quick as lightning and is one of the most effective tools for a Kazuya master. Now when you crouch dash you can cancel it simply by inputting a 'f' command. Therefore after you cancel the dash you can simply do more crouch dashes and cancel them to get a sort of continuous crouch dash going on. This is wave dash. Wave dash is considered inputs the dash command up to 4 times per second. Anything faster than that is considered to be light dash, to be discussed later. Wave dash, depending on the speed it can be input at, is very useful at covering ground as it moves you across the arena very quickly. It also allows you all the standard crouch dash privileges that were previously described above. This means access to regular crouch dash moves as well as dash buffer and crouch cancel WS moves. This makes Kazuya's wave dash in my opinion even better than Jin's, whose wave ranks second. Due to the speed that dashes are executed and canceled at, you can interrupt your opponent as soon as they twitch using wave dash. As soon as you see movement, press '2' or cancel into twin pistons and you'll float them. Using dash buffer, Kazuya doesn't really have many options outside of the Stonehead throw which I guess is good enough. Wave Dash is also good for okizeme. While the opponent is grounded, start dashing and you'll keep riding up and down at their feet. Then, once you see them start to move, use a Wind God fist or Hell Sweep to put them back down on the floor. All crouch dash capable characters are able to wave dash. There are only two true commands for the wave dash. All other are wrong: f,N,d,d/f,f,f,N,d,d/f,f,f,N,d,d/f,f OR f,N,d,d/f,f,N,d,d/f,f,N,d,d/f The second command is commonly used for light dash as it is quicker as you can see by watching the commands and comparing. There is currently are fascination with wave dash. The minute people first heard of it the first thing they did was turn on their Playstations and try to make 4 times per second. But that in itself is not wave dash. To wave dash effectively, you must be able to use all aspects of the dash, including the tricks shown below. Just being able to do the motion doesn't mean you are a wave dasher. Wave dash is a very powerful tool but is best left to the advanced player as using it without the full knowledge and practical ability to use all of its capabilities, wave dash can do more harm than t can good. There are many tricks that are used out of the wave dash and these will be discussed in the upcoming section. *************** * *Fake Wave* * *************** In fake wave, instead of buffering a 'f' into it and so moving your player forward, a 'b' is buffered into it and Kazuya is seen as sort of chopping back and forth while doing his full wave dash motion. What's the use of this? Well, aside from looking way cool it keeps you in position and you at all times have access to your crouch dash. You start doing this and it sort of calls your opponent to attack you. And when they come, as you're using crouch dash to do the fake wave, you'll have full access to your repertoire of moves and will be able to interrupt them as they attack. Here are the commands for Fake Wave: f,N,d,d/f,b~b,f,N,d,d/f,b~b,f,N,d,d/f,b~b OR f,N,d,d/f~b,f,N,d,d/f~b,f,N,d,d/f~b Either way will work fine although the second way is faster though it doesn't push you as far back. **************** * *Snake Dash* * **************** Snake dash is best used in collaboration with the above tools to confuse the opponent. By doing a dash canceling it into a sidestep, it also allows you to sidestep attacks and before you sidestep you also have normal crouch dash options available to you. Snake dash is performed using the following command: f,N,d,d/f~f,SS,f,N,d,d/f~f,SS,f,N,d,d/f~f,SS ******************************* * *Dash & Wave Wind God Fist* * ******************************* Dash Wind God Fist: DWGF Wave Wind God Fist: WWGF Dash and Wave Wind God fist are sidestep killers. That's their primary function. We all know of those chronic sidesteppers who walk all over the place trying to avoid your crouch dash attacks. This is their remedy. Dash Wind God fist is entered like this: f,f,N,d,d/f+2 As you can see this is just a 'f' entered before the Wind God fist. As you know, tapping forward makes you face the opponent, and therefore their sidestep will be cancelled so you can snag them with your WGF. Wave Wind God fist takes longer to execute than DWGF, but since you're using a wave dash, it tracks the opponent better. Needless to say, it's harder to do than DWGF: f,N,d,d/f~f,f,N,d,d/f+2 WWGF in addition to having it's longer range also gives you options while you're in the first wave. *************** * *********** * * * V.S. CPU* * * *********** * *************** 1) Use the d/f+2 gut punch as an opening move, when I use it almost always hits. And if it hits on CH I think you can do it again for guaranteed hits or just do a short unblockable. 2) Tag slides usually do no good here, in my experience cross chops have performed better, but I'd not recommend you use them either. 3) 10 hit strings as long as you don't wiff the first few punches almost always take the CPU, the last hit almost always hits. Take advantage of this. 4) Wind god fist is a good attacking weapon against the CPU. It connects a lot and even if it gets blocked you can defend quickly enough. Just don't wiff it. 5) I've seen this work a lot, Wind god fist ,1,1, unblockable (long). 6) The final boss, Unknown continually regenerates her life that's in the red so keep persistent against her so she doesn't get too much of an advantage by having the regeneration ability. **************** * ************ * * *V.S. Human* * * ************ * **************** 1) Use your knowledge of your opponent's style to determine your actions at the beginning of the round. If you know that they are very aggressive you'll want to either come in with a fast counter, Shining Fist or the d/f+2 Gut Punch or if you can pull off a very fast Wind god fist, or you can dash back. The back dash is obviously your safest option but nevertheless you lose a chance for easy damage (either way). If your opponent would be defensive you can either mimic him or come in hard with Wind God fist or hell sweeps. I prefer hell sweeps with mist step because it's harder to see coming and at the start of the round people seldom block low. 2) Always mix up your moves. Redundancy can be your worst enemy against a human. While the CPU may take that same move 10 time and time again, a human will definitely punish you if he knows it's coming. 3) If you're he kind who likes to use 10 hit strings, I suggest you stop here, Kazuya's 10 hits start with 4 high hits so a simple low jab will interrupt you every time. 4) Remember big guys launch high and smaller ones launch well higher. Know this. Some of your great juggles won't work on the bigger guys. 5) Unblockables aren't entirely out of the question here especially the short one. A lot of people freeze up when they see an unblockable coming at them. A good time to use it is after a knockdown a short distance away. If they roll back you'll wiff and they'll probably be too far to get you. If they stand in position and try to retaliate they'll get slammed. 6) Tag cross chops and to a much greater extent tag slides work wonders here. Most players try to retaliate as you tag in. Here's one you can try, if you're at the other end of the screen and the opponent is standing charge in and press tag at the last second and send your second in with a tag slide. Of course Kazuya can't do tag moves so this is only applicable if your second can do it. 7) Don't forget hell sweeps for people who can't block low, it really does work wonders. Two sweeps put them down and then one for okizeme. 8) Make sure you know all the escapes from (A)King's, Nina's and Anna's multis and if by chance you get grabbed don't be afraid to look at their hands so you'll know what button to escape with. Also learn how to reverse and escape all parts of the Ultimate Tackle. People rarely use this but if it happens, you'll be prepared. 9) Use the options that Mist Step gives you to keep them guessing, will you go for the crouch dash or the good old Mishima trademark punch combos. Moves executed from Mist Step especially hell sweeps seem harder to detect by people. 10) If you can do wave step effectively, then use it! It's one of the quickest ways to cover ground and it's a very confusing art. Your opponent won't have a clue what you're planning on doing and if they try to attack you can just WGF them. ************************************ * ******************************** * * *Character Specific Strategies.* * * ******************************** * ************************************ Basically these will not hold true for every human since we all play differently, but this should outline what you should do against specific. As you gain experience you'll learn your own tactics to use with Kazuya but in the meanwhile here's my suggestions, and I must apologize due to the fact that not every character will be listed here since in my arcade not all the characters are used so I'll know more about some than others, but I'll try my best to round it off. So if you see very limited info on some characters bear with me, I'll try to make it better next revision. These are very basic outlines of each character. While some characters may be rated low in the hands of a master they could do some good damage. The most dangerous characters in a master's hands, in my opinion are the Mishimas. Basically I think you should continually hound them but in some cases it's better to hang back and wait for a mistake to surface that you can use to your advantage. The characters who are reversal and multi throw capable are stated. The characters in alphabetical order: Alex/Roger Difficulty: Easy These two whackos share the same basic style as the Kings minus the multi-throws. Just keep a little distance from them and come at them with Wind God fist, hell sweeps and the like. They do have a couple good points about them however. Their Animal God fist rivals your TGF in terms of damage. Their f,N+1, if blocked, gives them a lot of frame advantage which allows them time to drop a guaranteed combo down or even an AGF. They also come equipped with King's cheesy Ali kicks and everyone should know just to block them and come up with the WS move of your choice, be it a Twin pistons or a Demon Gut Punch. Angel/Devil. Difficulty: Easy Unblockable lasers. Great...shyeah right. Now in the flying version they can go over your head to the next side so just sidestep the beams now. They have a side step uppercut now that is very strong and launches very high, it only fault is it's considerable wind up time that it takes to execute. They share all the Mishima moves with Kazuya so they're dependent on the crouch dash like you are. Anticipate their attacks and interrupt with whatever you can. They have an excellent Twin Pistons which execute very quickly and don't give frame advantage when blocked. It has mor forward momentum than yours or Jin's and Devil players just abuse this to death. You basically have their moves and then some so keep at them, don't allow any room for them to blast at you. Anna Williams Difficulty: Hard Reversal Capable. Multi Throw Capable She's more or less the same as her sister Nina, though I think her sis is better than she is although what do I know about them so I could be wrong. Be prepared for low of little poking attacks and a number of strings. Speaking of strings, whenever you see her a little way off go for the Wind God fist since she probably is going to start a string or go for the multi. You'll want to go for interrupts a lot with your trusty Wind God Fist. Play her as you would Nina, her only real difference is her low super which you can see coming and punish accordingly. Anna's Multi-Throw Escapes: Throw Name Throw Motion Escape _______________________________________________________________ Palm Grab QCF+1+2 1 Rear Chickenwing Lock* ~5 N/A Reaping Arm Bar 3,4,3,1+2 1+2 Standing Reverse Arm Lock 1,3,2,1 1 Falling Reverse Arm Lock 2,1,3,4,1+2 2 Rear Gatelatch Falconwing Squeeze 3,1,4,1+2,1+2 1+2 Gatelatch Throw 2,3,1+2,3+4,1+2 1 Arm Sprain, Standing Cross Lock 1+3,4,1+2 2 Inverted Crucifix 4,3,4,3+4,1+2 1+2 Arm Break, Rear Cross Lock 1+2,4,3,1+2,1+2,1+2 1 ________________________________________________________________ Armor King Difficulty: Medium I just love this guy. For me he's the King I respect. He has a single multi-throw so just learn the escapes for it since you can't afford to duck his crouch dases due to his Dark Uppercut and other impressive moves. His Multi also comes straight out of the crouch dash so he has an excellent mix-up at his disposal with that and he can mix the throws in the crouch dash up. He has an array of power punches. He also has the *drum roll* People's Elbow. That move is so cool; it even recovers on its own. Attack at him but keep some distance since he's a brawl fighter. Use stature kicks to poke at him and counter as he comes at you. He has juggles unlike his apprentice but they're not overly damaging. He has good low attacks includong two cheap ones, the first is the Ali Kicks that we all know and hate and second is his d/b+4 which executes really quickly, but if he wiffs this, then he's totally screwed. One more note. When you're face down he can continuous mount you and without doing any punches, re-mount as you'll be too stunned to get up. What this essentially is, it's a Hand-Cuff where ha can continuously mount you until time runs out. This is very cheap and I doubt many people will use this but if some do, and you're bigger, you ought to beat them down for being cheap bastards. A. King's Multi-Throw Escapes: Throw Name Throw Motion Escape ___________________________________________________________ Choke Sleeper f,N,d,d/f+1+2 1+2 Full Nelson Suplex 2+4,1+2,1+2 1 Waist Lock Sleeper 3+4,3+4,1+2 2 Leg Stretch Muffler 3,4,1+2,3+4 2 Triple Backmounted Head Punches 1,1,1+2 1 ___________________________________________________________ Baek Do San Difficulty: Easy He's more of a Tae Kwon Do simple person and isn't as flashy as Hwoarang is and is also to my eyes less dangerous. He was my favorite from Tekken 2 but his old moves aren't meant for 3D game play so keep moving and then charge in when one of his little strings miss. He doesn't have the kind of confusing type of strategy Hwoarang has and everything is pretty much cut and dried. You should be able to easily overpower him and counter him a lot, especially his d+3,3,3 as last shot hits high. So, just like his student look out for the high kicks and counter them until he falls. He seems a bit more string oriented than Hwoarang though, so use this your advantage with interrupts. He possesses a very fast jumpkick (3+4) which sends you flying and can also be easily used in juggles, but it hits high so if they try to abuse it then he's screwed. Bruce Irvin Difficulty: Hard Another of my T2 favorites. Be very careful against this Muy Thai master. His mid kick to double uppercut 3,2,1 juggles on the third hit and if blocked he can sweep you with a '4'. The thing is if the mid kick hits on counter the next two are guaranteed. If you get launched get ready to cry as he slams a Triple knee combo down on you. Don't try to attack him head on or you'll get slammed with that combo. His pokes are very annoying and very effective as well. He has a very large mix-up from his 1,2 double punch with hits that can go just about anywhere. His Nightmare Mach Punch can parry punches but the timing has to be exact for this to happen. His right jab also has great range so he can poke at you a lot. He has an extreme lack of low power blows although he is amply equiped in low ticks. Go at him with hell sweeps and stature kicks and if he'll take it mix the sweeps up with Thunder god fist from a distance since he'll normally be trying to hit you with his long legs. Wind God fist when he starts coming too close. This is a tough battle to win. Try to out power him with your juggles. Like I said this is tough to keep ticking at him. Bruce's Multi-Throw Escapes: Throw Name Throw Motion Escape ____________________________________________ Embracing Knee {1+2}f,N,d,d/f+1+2+4 1+2 Tumbleweed 1+2,1+2,1+2 N/A Left Knee Strike {2}(3_4),1+2+3 2 Turning Knee 1,3,1+2+4 N/A Rising Knee 2,4,1,1+2+3 N/A ____________________________________________ Bryan Fury. Difficulty: Hard Good Lord! You're going to feel real pain against him. Be very careful about your moves since if you wiff them, he'll give you a good Mach Punch for your troubles. A lot of his moves cause a stun on counter which means you're going to fell again. The only consolation is that all his moves have some initial movement involved (f,f,). Try to detect this and counter accordingly. Some of them require a back crouch dash, when you see this go for the Wind God fist and counter. Most of his power strikes can be blocked high with the exception of his power sweep, which you can see coming (hopefully). His new b+1, if buffered with a tag gives him guaranteed ticks at you if blocked and most players will definitely abuse this a lot. He has the best array of WS moves in the game and so use caution when approaching him. You shouldn't have to worry much about being countered with his WS+3 as Kazuya doesn't have many moves that can be ducked. That of course doesn't mean it isn't a threat. Of great importance is his punch parry which, if the player can use it, will give you no end of trouble. The Parry is irreversible as all parrys are and since it's a Punch parry that means that he can totally, in theory, shut down your Gut Punch and Twin Piston game. Eddy Gordo or Tiger Difficulty: Medium Owner of the coolest 10 string in the game. There are two kinds of Eddy users, button mashers (common) and the ones who can really use him. One uses the kicks like it's some kind of messiah. They'll normally end up using his 'break dance' kick where he sweeps low twice then follows up with two kicks where he sort of rolls towards you. Now here's the deal, it's actually very easy to deal with this move. If you can, you can parry it or Wind God fist if you have the space, just don't get hit. And then there's the choice of kings. Block low and after the last hit (they're 4 in total, two sweeps and two roll kicks) go for the Demon Gut Punch. No two ways about it he'll either try to get up after the kicks (without blocking) or stay low and get nailed with the Demon Gut Punch, on counter hit! Then do with him as you please. An expert on the other hand should be treated with respect. Low attacks from him are the catch of the day so get used to d/b. Use the same strategy as before for the low hits but beware of him suddenly going mid and beware of him suddenly turning masher at close range. Wind God fist is also a good use to interrupt since it does hit mid, even if it's special mid. Your best attacks against Eddy scrubs however is simply u/f+4,4,4,4 or Demon Scissors. Forest Law Difficulty: Hard High, low, air parry capable. Be on your guard against Bruce Lee's shadow here. Be on the lookout for his Junkyard kick that hits low second. Also watch for his Dragon Tail attack, it does good damage and it's a knockdown and can be used for okizeme. When you see him crouching, get ready to block low as he can do a slide attack from a crouch. Poke at him a lot with of jabs and Shining Fist when you get a opening. Attack him with hell sweeps and lots of stature kicks. If he's teamed with Paul remember that their tag attack (f+1~2~5,2,2,5,1) can be escaped from the first stun. Law is the best defensive character in the game as he can parry every kind of attack possible and parrys can't be reversed. Watch for his two three hit punch combos, the one that starts with a right punch goes low. If he's teamed with Paul he has a cool tag combo that can be done after the Poison Arrow (F+2~1), although he can do something special with just about everyone after this but Paul's is the worst. The F+2~1~5 causes a stun which allows for some deep comboing. If you happen to get hit with it, tag out and come in with a slide if you can else just hope that your tag messed up the coordination. Ganryu Difficulty: Easy Block his multi palm shots and retaliate. He's the king of slow and he's heavy so you won't get good juggle height on him. I say you take advantage of your speed over him and go after him with the normal mix. Since he's so slow I find that the standing gut punch works well on him. Mix up your high and low game a lot as usual. He has an infinite where he goes on one foot and hops, just block this low until you get pushed back some distance and then retaliate. Gun Jack. Difficulty: Easy Erm, I wouldn't be too worried about this. I haven't yet met a formidable Jack player so don't know much strategy. He's really slow but also powerful. His attacks can be seen coming easily but they are still very powerful. Watch for his low kicks as well as his uppercut rushes. His only real nuisance is the height your juggle starters launch him to and he fact that he takes less damage because of endurance. His slow speed is his undoing, you should be able to succeed easily with your standard array of moves, go offensive here. Heihachi Mishima Difficulty: Hard Automatic Right Kick Reversal if hit with a right kick during his unblockable. The juggle king and one of my favorite characters. If he blocks one of your slower moves look out! His Twin Pistons, unlike your have almost zero execution time and if they connect just prepare your best sour look for the kick ass juggle you're about to receive. Of course if you block it has a long recovery so retaliate with Shining Fist or another move. He has a good high low mix up with his hell sweeps that have a lot of options ranging from Thunder God fist to Tsunami Kicks that can be executed anytime after the first sweep all the way up to the third.. Jab a lot to avoid this. If your opponent can Electric Wind God fist, you're in for a good fight, avoid his launchers like the plague, they hurt really bad after all that juggle! But that's not all, Heihachi doesn't just have juggle ability, he can duke it out as well. He has a power punch like Paul's and his comes out faster as well though it doesn't do as much damage wise. His Demon's Boar (b+2), a lot of people seem to have trouble blocking this, it's not as slow as you might think. Higher level Heihachi players, may use his wave dash, you can do one as well but since Heihachi can do EWGF and some mondo damage from his juggles, you'll have to be especially careful and you'll have to watch for his hell sweep while you're at it as it's capable of some big juggles and big damage by itself as well. Hwoarang Difficulty: Medium His kick strings are particularly deadly. Against intermediate players, you'll want to block a lot and then retaliate at an opening. A good poking game is necessary against him. Another thing, his 3,3,3,3(why do people do this?) has a high last hit, so block the first three, then duck and Demon Gut Punch or Twin Piston him for a juggle. But even if you get caught in the first hit or two, I think that it's still escapable. His d+4,4, many Hwoarang players' favorite launcher, has a high last hit, but get this, even if the low hit hits you while you're ducking, the high one still goes over. So, block the first low hit and as the high executes, Twin Pistons. Just because he's a Tae Kwon Do fighter doesn't mean you should take his juggles for granted, they can put some BIG hurt down on you. Just because Hwoarang's a kickster be aware of his punches, Hwoarang players like to use them to poke at you a lot and to interrupt you when you think you see an opening. His main weakness is the lack of good low attacks, be aware of this. Also some of his attacks LFF 3~4, RFF 3~4 and RFF f,f+4,3 do A LOT of damage so be on the lookout but these are generally slow. He has a really good side step and most Hwoarang players use his triple side step (SS, f+3, SS) to get all the way behind you and then give you a good kick in the back. More advanced Hwoarang users may try a technique on you called 'crazy step' popularized by world champion Seok Dong-Min. It basically where Hwoarang goes into a sequence of sidesteps and forward and back dashes while using his 3+4 stance change ability to cancel the movement giving the illusion that he is hopping about the place. It's a good technique for dodging jabs and such as well as it looks very fancy and may confuse you. Just wait for them to calm down or use a sweeping move like hell sweeps. Jack-2 Difficulty: Easy I'm not going to repeat myself here, just use the same strategy as with Gun Jack, they're basically clones as far as I'm concerned. I heard he has some type of tag cancel which causes a class 1 launcher and that it can be lead into an infinite combo, I also heard that the combo is insanely hard to pull off, some kind of 1 frame window, so I doubt you'll have to worry about that. Jin Kazama Difficulty: Medium Reversal Capable Kazuya and Jun's son so you'll know to expect a mixture of the two. He has your Gut punch but it's not nearly as good as yours. He has the standard Mishima combos like 1,2,2 and 1,1,2. He also has a more powerful juggling ability than you. His main ouch maneuver is a three hit electric punch combo that starts with a gut punch and if it all connects, does a good deal of damage. This same combo's last hit can also act as a launcher but most Jin players stop after the first or second and go for (Electric) Wind God fist. A lot of Jin users fake the third punch and instead go for a throw so be prepared to cancel. Jin also has a (Electric) Wind God fist but it hits high so you what I'm going to say now. When Jin crouch dashes towards you chances are he's going to use Wing God fist or hell sweep, so block this low and if it's a hell sweep you block it low then block the follow up high, if a Wind God fist however, after the attack wiffs, hit him witha Twin Pistons. Of course he could use Thunder God fist or Tsunami Kicks instead. TGF should be no problem; the Tsunami kicks are the only problem and the only risk involved. Just don't let him get you in the air because he can put some major hurt down on you with his juggles. His new b+4 will annoy you forever with its okizeme usage and its ability to cause stuns. Also a high level Jin player will probably use wave dash against you, you have it as well but it's more useful with Jin since if they can do it well, an EWGF isn't far behind and he can use the dash buffer to go into his f,f+2 or a WS+2 juggle starter. And Jin has some mean juggles. One more note, when he's teamed with Heihachi, after a force block he can turn to Devil Jin for a short time. You'll know because he'll be pulsing with lightning. Also in this mode his Wind god fist also hits mid so be aware of this. Julia Chang Difficulty: Hard A lot of people find her tough to defeat. She always mixes up high and low attacks and especially the dreaded overhead hit to low sweep to jump kick that if you don't block the low hit always connects. I would suggest keeping some distance and dashing in and out with pokes, hell sweeps and stature kicks. Interrupt with Wind God fist. She also can keep you in the air for a long time with her elbow juggles, which actually don't do that much damage, since each elbow does around a jab's worth of damage. A good Julia player will keep in your face and poke at you with all her fast little high low attacks waiting for a chance to launch you or connect with one of her more powerful moves. Also beware of her G-Clef cannon, it executes VERY quickly, you couldn't even get a Shining Fist off, and it juggles so she'll start dropping some elbows down on you. Jun Kazama Difficulty: Easy Reversal Capable She's weak but has the pest gene in her. She has little 4-5 hit combos that are relatively powerful but her strength is in pestering. Her double jump kick hits low unlike Jin who learned it wrong. Use the interrupting strategy here to stop her cold when she charges at you. She has the same annoying 1+4 move that Jin has so she'll be able to mix up using this. Kazuya Mishima Difficulty: Medium This match will basically be a test of who's the better Kazuya player. Remember the weaknesses of your own moves and try to exploit that. Use your specialty strategy with Kazuya here be it attack or poke, since he's the same as you you'll want to fight him at your most comfortable. Just remember how each of his moves operate and adapt accordingly. Just remember to lookout because in this battle, your opponent doesn't just accept Demon Gut punch and twin pistons, he can dish it out as well. King the Second Difficulty: Medium Kick reversal capable Multi-Throw Capable I really hate him. He's sooo advantaged over everyone else. An un-chickenable reversal, ground/crouch throws, unblockables that don't need to charge, waaay powerful throws and a Boomerang Kick that does more damage than even a Phoenix Smasher! He also has a set of general moves and the good ole multi throws. I really suggest that you learn the escapes to ALL his linkers so they don't do you in. Speaking of linkers, when you see him crouch dash in, that usually means he's coming in for a throw so duck to avoid and when it wiffs, Twin Pistons. Of course he could lure you to think he was throwing by crouch dashing in and then throwing out a Black Bomb. Also when you see him in the long sidestep, duck and then retaliate as necessary. Look out for the Boomerang kick I mentioned, a side step move, which does 82 points of damage on CH and about 62 on normal hit. It can quickly change the way the game goes. The only good thing about this move is that it hits high so you can duck it and it's easy to see coming. Also beware of the most used follow up to his b+4 kick which makes him end facing back, a low quick foot raise (cheap too, I might add) that does too much damage. I've just been made aware that after he does the b+4 kick use a WS+2 demon gut punch on him to counter. Thanks to KazMishimaKazama for this one. Attack at him a lot so he doesn't get a chance to throw (all his special throws do mega damage, the spinning one does 70 points!). Use Wind God fist as usual when you see him twitch and go for hell sweeps rather than Tsunami kicks which can be reversed and can't be chickened (cheap). He'll try a lot to punish you with his u/f+4 and go for a little juggle. be careful of this, although King isn't a juggle oriented character he can still do some damage onto you. King's Multi Throw Escapes: Throw Name Throw Motion Escape Motion ______________________________________________________________________ Achilles Tendon Hold f,N,d,d/f+2+3 2 STF 1,2,3,1+2 1 Scorpion Death Lock 1+2,3,1,1+3 2 Indian Death Lock 1+2,1,3,1+2 1+2 Romero Special 1,3,4,1+2,3+4 (none) Arm Break 1 f,N,d,d/f+1+4 1 2 Arm Breaks 1+2,1+2 1 Reverse DDT 1+2,4,2+4 2 Arm Crucifixion 4,3,4,3+4,1+2 (none) Chicken Wing FaceLock 2,1,1+2+3 1+2 Dragon Sleeper Hold 2,1,3,1+2+4,1+2+4 1 Rolling Death Cradle 1+3,3+4,2+4,1+2,1+2+3 2 Reverse Arm Clutch f,D/F+1+3_f,D/F+2+4 1_2 BackDrop 2,1,1+2 1 German Suplex 3+4,1+2 1 PowerBomb 1,2,3+4 1 Giant Swing 2,1,3,4 1 CannonBall 2,2,1+2 2 Manhattan Drop 3+4,1+2,1+2+4 2 SuperFreak 1,2,3+4,1+2 (none) TBone PowerBomb 3,1,2,3+4,1+2+3+4 2 Reverse Full Nelson d/f+1+2_d/f,D/F+2+4_SS_2+4 1+2_2_1+2 _____________________________________________________________________ Kuma/Panda Difficulty: Easy Their fighting style is similar to that of the Jacks. They have great big uppercuts and biting and clawing moves and throws. He has a long range over you and he doesn't launch high so most of your juggles don't apply here. He also has some the characteristic Jack pounds like 1+2,1+2 and f+1+2 as well as the low uppercut rushes which can end in different ways. Their unblockable can turn into a rolling move that has an entire screen's range but is blockable. I'm yet to see someone actually use one of them. Don't worry too much, they're great, big, slow animals. Watch for his f+1~1,1. Kuma's f+1 has mad range however and that gives him a big poking tools that you'll see being used a whole lot. Fight them as you would a Jack. Kunimitsu Difficulty: Easy The Yoshimitsu rip off is in my opinion not as good as the real deal. Train yourself to look out for her teleport into mid air with a stab move and counter it every time with Wind god fist, glorious demon fist or whatever you want. Most of her moves are the same as Yoshimitsu's so use the same basic idea against her. She has a plethora of unblockables just like Yoshimitsu does and most of them are very fast but they also don't do much damage. Lee ChaoLan Difficulty: Easy He has a few of Law's moves but strangely doesn't have any Mishima moves. He has infinity kicks, don't be scared when they push you far enough out interrupt or side step throw. He has his own stance now and when you see him beckon you I suggest hell sweeps. Also, watch for his d+4,4,4,4 combo. This has to be one of the cheesiest combos I've ever seen, it comes out fast and the first three hits are low so remember to block this one, Lee scrubs use this a whole lot and even the advanced incorporates it. But he's overall pretty weak so I wouldn't worry. Lei Wulong Difficulty: Hard The king of confusion. Be very careful wit this cop's style. He has a total of twelve, yep, count em' twelve different stances. His Razor Rush is one move you should be especially wary of. This move has four punches and then either a high or low kick. Each one of these hits, aside form the low kick can be transformed into a stance that makes things very hectic. Also look out for his b+1+2 head butt, which avoids attacks, and his sweeps, which are quite fast. Because of all his style, you can get many opportunities to interrupt and counter him. I suggest that you go on an attack against him so he doesn't get time to gather himself and spin his web of confusion. Study how he moves and reacts. A lot of Lei players, when they're a little out of throw range are looking to start the razor rush, so you can go for Wind God fist at that time. He has the best mix up in the game with stances but if you keep at him he'll eventually succumb to his fate, a KO. More advanced Lei players may be employing a technique called the 'Haha Step' where Lei seems to continually back dash. It's executed by inputting b~3~4,b,repeat or b+3+4,b,repeat. By canceling the back turn each time he seems to be on a continuous back dash. I recommend you don't give chase as he can come out very quickly with a Razor Rush. This is seriously one move to which I have no cure, if anyone knows of a solid way to kill a haha stepper please e-mail me and share it, I'll give you credit in the FAQ. I was thinking to charge in then press tag to stop and tag out and come in with tag slide, this will probably fail though. Anyway, I just recently got a strategy against Haha step from bluu. Start wavedashing towards him, your wave should match his Haha for speed. Then, when you see him about to twitch for the Razor Rush, drop a TGF down on him. Ling Xiaoyu Difficulty: Hard She's a little pest who'll constantly tick away at you. Her little ticks do negligible damage, but if it continues, be prepared to lose. Her little stance can evade a whole lot. When she goes into it, take her out with hell sweeps or Stature kick. She has a few strong strikes that do a good deal of damage like her d/b+1 or u+1+2,2,1. She'll poke at you a lot and flip around with her cartwheel and roll so you'll have to stay back and interrupt and counter her little pokes. A good Xiaoyu player will keep in your face and keep poking at you while using her quick movement to move about the place and using her stance to dodge your attacks. Also be careful, she has some mean okizeme. Just don't get frustrated, keep at her and she'll eventually succumb to your power. Wait for her cartwheels and rolls to end before throwing out an attack. Michelle Chang. Difficulty: Hard A lot of people find her tough to defeat. She always mixes up high and low attacks and especially the dreaded overhead hit to low sweep to jump kick that if you don't block the low hit always connects. I would suggest keeping some distance and dashing in and out with pokes, hell sweeps and stature kicks. Interrupt with Wind God fist. She also can keep you in the air for a long time with her elbow juggles, which actually don't do that much damage, since each elbow does around a jab's worth of damage. A good Michelle player will keep in your face and poke at you with all her fast little high low attacks waiting for a chance to launch you or connect with one of her more powerful moves. Mokujin/Tetsujin Difficulty: Depends Everything Capable (depends) Err, well...what can I say? You're either playing a newbie who got enticed by the tree man or someone who studied the way characters stand. However you'd better be able to do it otherwise you'll fall pray and might think it's Jin coming with Wind God Fist and duck when it's Paul with a mid hitting OOOWWWWAAAAGGGG! Well, I think he also get whatever size advantage or disadvantage he gets with being that size e.g. not as strong as Gun Jack when imitating him or not as weak as Ling when imitating her. Nina Williams Difficulty: Hard Reversal Capable Multi Throw Capable Oh boy, I really hate her. Watch for her between the legs kick, on counter you can collect a few more before you actually get off the ground as well as sudden upward roundhouses. Her powerful double palm you should see from afar. Use the same strategies that you would use against Anna as well. If she starts poking then you can either interrupt or go on a rampage although I'd recommend the former. She has a LOT of little strings that'll just make you hate her which she uses a lot to poke at you with. Like I said she also has multis, but don't use the King crouch dash strategy here because she has a lot of moves she can execute from there. Learn how to break all of her multis and it'll save you a lot of life in the actual game. Throw Name Throw Motion Escape Motion _____________________________________________________________ Crab Claw qcf+3+4 1 Rolling Arm Bar 3+4,3,4,1+2 1+2 Achilles Tendon Lock 3+4,4,2,1+2 2 Knee Cross Lock 3,1,4,2,2+4 1 Double Leg Break 1,3,2+4,3+4,1+2 1+2 Palm Grab qcf+1+2 2 Standing Reverse Arm Lock 1,3,2,1 1 Double Arm Break 3,1,4,1+2,1+2 1+2 Falling Reverse Arm Lock 2,1,3,4,1+2 1 Knee Bash, Neck Snap 2,3,4,2,2 2 Octopus Special 1,2,4,3,1+2+3 1+2 Neck Snap 1,3+4,1,2,1+2 1 Shin Smash qcb+1+3 (none) Twisting Arm Lock 2,1,1+2,1+2+3 2 Octopus Special 1,2,4,3,1+2+3 1+2 Neck Snap 1,3+4,1,2,1+2 1 ______________________________________________________________ Ogre Difficulty: Medium He's basically a mixture of characters, Baek's triple low to high kick and WS+4,4, your own gut punch, Lee's infinity and whatnot. He also possesses the standard Mishima 1,1,2 and 1,2,2 combos. He has a variety of unblockables from quick to slow. When you see him glow go for the interrupt immediately or dash away. He can slide without running so be aware. I suggest you go on offensive with hell sweeps and stature kicks and use your WGF and gut punch to counter as usual. Use Gut punch for Baek's kick. Go for the counterattacks from a distance against him. Also use tech-rolls mostly to get up as his okizeme game is very strong. Paul Phoenix Difficulty: Medium Reversal capable I really hate him. There are basically two types, the kind who'll play you a game with his Smasher, Falling leaf and his QCB+3,2,2_1. For him be VERY CAREFUL, don't get too cocky for a moment. I can't emphasize this enough. Try to play a more ranged game against him, as up close you're more vulnerable. You don't want too brawl with him. Tag carefully as well because a Phoenix Smasher can drain 60% and ruin your day. If possible, use tag slides to be safer. Counter him at will with your Wind God fist and gut punch. Look out for his shin kick, which comes out very quickly, when you see him SS he's probably going for it. A good point is that he's not all that great at juggles and his launchers are either QCF+1, which is slow, or uf+4. Take every opportunity to punish him when he makes a mistake. I would go low against him and use many hell sweeps. Remember he'll always be looking to execute the power punch. Although I believe that Kazuya is an attack-based character I don't recommend going for the jugular with an all out attack against Paul since he's a brawl type character. Against the other Paul, if you ever find one, he'll play you using a lot of little punch strings. Try to get to try him for a juggle, usually with the uf+4 launcher by dashing forward and back. Then in the recovery time punish as you see fit. I would use the Wind God fist and normal gut punch in this battle more than the demon gut punch. A trick many Paul players like to use is toteam up with Baek or Hwoarang and do f,f+1+2~5,d/b+3+4. This is very annoying wand was thought to be only escapable by perfet timing of a sideroll but thanks to the KOFTEKKEN/Jjt FAQ, it seems that if you just mash '3' you'll sweep them at the last minute. Anyway, some time has passed and I don't find Paul that threatening again. His deathfist almost never connects. All I can say now is to beware of his Falling Leaf (d+4,2) when at close range. Prototype Jack Difficulty: Easy I consider him the best of the Jacks. He has an almost completely different style; look out when he's tagging in he may come down from above. He has high launchers as well as a power punch. Still though, he can be taken out with the standard Jack techniques of pitbulling until they die. True Ogre Difficulty: Medium My god! If there was ever an advantaged character...First he has flame attacks. Although to your credit they're very easy to detect and avoid, duck for the standing one and sidestep twice for the flying although if you're close enough (rare) run under and counter as he comes down. Like all moves you can always be caught by accident and the fact that it's a projectile is just plain unfair. He also has a teleport from a knocked down position to in the air where he jets towards you with an unblockable horn attack, it's duckable but during any hustle you may have had to okizeme him you could get caught. He also has juggle escape where he sort of turns right side up and flies up a bit higher making your juggles wiff.. He has the same moves as Ogre just with a greatly extended range to beware. On the up side he's slow due to his size and therefore an attacking game against him is recommended. Use the same attack pattern you'd use against regular Ogre. They have the exact same moves except for his flame attacks, his get up unblockable and his horn attack. I suggest you tech-roll all of his knockdowns and you don't want to chance yourself with his crazy okizeme game. Unknown (PS2 only) Difficulty: Unknown...I couldn't resist. Unknown has the ability to play as any character. She changes character whenever she tags back in or whenever the R3 button is pressed. This means that not only your opponent but you yourself must know thw different stances characters take lest you think you're rushing into a weak Jun only to find you were hammered by what was really Paul. Wang Jinrei Difficulty: Hard Reversal Capable He has some borrowed moves from Michelle like her high low punches. He has a variety of power punches. Wang is a very well rounded character but his endurance sucks (c'mon he was Heihachi's father's friend). Very versatile. At least that's what I used to think until I read Reverend C's Anna FAQ about his frame data. So I looked it up, damn man, it's just sad. Not to mention he takes damage like a 90 year old man, oh yeah he is a 90 year old man. Yoshimitsu Difficulty: Hard Don't underestimate Yoshi. He has an insane number of unblockables. A note about one, when you see him pull the sword back for a stab don't rush even if you're close, he could be faking it and go for a sword spin instead. He has a number of spinning attacks most of which go low so be prepared for them, block and counter with a rising attack. His Shark Attack is one move you don't want to get lured into, it does amazing damage and recently there's a trend to execute it after a f+2 turnaround hit. Look out for his roundhouses, duck and respond. Also his 10 strings end in three unblockable hits so interrupt early usually at the spinning kicks which are in almost all his strings. His standing uppercut (d/f+2) juggles to a good height and like everyone's comes out quick so don't wiff your moves or use slow recovering ones (f+1+2) since he can follow with powerful juggles. A good Yoshimitsu is hard to kill as he is overall very solid and if they do his flash counter, it will kill your crouch dash game quickly. Yoshi also has ways out of even your most solid strings. A quick teleport can escape almost anything, even Shining Fists! He has a large assortment of low attacks, some of which he can combo out of. You'll have to play a very balanced game here, too much pitbulling and you'll eat his d/f+2 and too much turtling and you could get in trouble with his unblockables. ******************** * **************** * * * Tag Partners * * * **************** * ******************** It is true that any character can successfully partner with any other character but some characters pair with other better than some. Teams like Kazuya and Heihachi/Jin are always possible and are very powerful but using character of the same type has disadvantages, as some people may be better against one type than against another. A character with a class 1 launcher is good to have so you can take advantage of Kazuya's Thunder God fist juggles. One player I don't recommend is Devil since his and Kazuya's tag is very dangerous to you as he just morphs there. Of course it's your business if you use them. I highly recommend a 'fancy' character like Hwoarang, Lei, Ling or Yoshimitsu since these characters are very fun to use and are great confusers of the opponent. Of course in the end it's all up to you, don't stop using your player just because I said so. Kazuya can pair well with almost any character and having a variety to choose from is great, as your opponent will have a hard time adapting to your style. Personally the teams I use are Kazuya/Heihachi (very strong, just think, Kazuya's stuns into Heihachi powerful juggles, hot dog that's great) Kazuya/Hwoarang (lots have trouble with Hwoarang) Kazuya/Bruce (just started, a good combo as Bruce is a very deadly player and his triple knee just makes things better.) Heihachi/Hwoarang (strong and good confusing ability) Heihachi/Jin (powerful juggling ability and Devil Possession) ************************************************************************************************ Good Partners. ************************************************************************************************ A good partner would be someone that can complement Kazuya well and cover his various weaknesses while Kazuya covers that person's. These ratings will be somewhat biased as it's obviously what I may or may not think. Alex or Roger ** Lack of reliable launchers. I've never really liked them much. I don't think they're very juggle inclined, the only move they really get good damage from is their animal god fist. Kazuya'll basically beat the crap out of the opponent while they just stand there and look stupid. This team gets style points however. Devil ** There's no Angel here unless you're playing the PS2 version. If this was like a normal Mishima team, it would be very highly graded ad the value of two people who can do Wind God fist is very great. But the special tag animation they both have, regardless of how cool it looks is too much trouble. The Devil Twister is just what Kazuya needed but the animation basically killed whatever usefulness you'd get off the Devil Twister. Anna Williams **** Good teammate to complement Kazuya with. I mean she's a Williams. She has powerful juggles, multis, reversals and tons of strings. Great speed and is excellent defensively. She's a good choice for a partner. Anna has been tremendously improved from Tekken 3 and is very powerful overall for someone who was just intended to be a secret costume for Nina. Armor King **** He's tough, just like Kazuya. The combined juggling power of this team however won't be very high. But they'll both set it off on offense. A.King is not really lacking in any area. He has his wonderful Dark Uppercut and a great crouch dash mix up. I just have to say it, A.King has got the "People's Elbow" which is a sure crowd pleaser. This team is very solid for those who are offensively inclined. Baek DoSan *** He has good range and lots of kick strings not to mention a class 1 launcher that launches any size opponent but Baek is hard to use effectively in my opinion. He is made up of numerous kick strings that are easy to avoid and interrupt. His juggling power isn't much to marvel at, his student's is by far better. He isn't very offensive, although he has some good juggles. Better partners exist. Bruce Irvin ***** Bruce can complement just about anyone. He is just a monster. Fast with very good pokes not to mention he has some very powerful juggles make him an ideal teammate for Kazuya or just about anyone else. His b,f+4 launcher also launches very well, not as high as a class 1 though. This team plays hard offense. Bruce's pokes are some of the game's best and you can tag out Kazuya to let him come in and finish with a big juggle. You'll probably take flak for using a lot of knees though, but then again, who cares? Bryan Fury ***** Another who can complement just about anyone. He has an arsenal of high powered moves and power strikes that can make anyone cringe in fear. He also has very good defense as he has a command low parry as well as his Punch Parry which makes him an excellent choice against players who use Mishimas or Paul. Like Kazuya, his most powerful attacks come out from the WS position. Bryan's main weakness is his chronic lack of low hitting attacks but his strengths more than make up for this. Very offensive team. Eddy Gordo/Tiger ***** This rating is based on an expert Eddy player. Eddy cab duck in and out of range very quickly, has lots of low hitting attacks and is a master of confusion. He has auto sidesteps, is very slippery and has tons of mix ups. Just hitting an expert Eddy is a chore. Eddy's movement game is by far the best in the entire game. By far the game's most annoying character, in a master's hands, he'll make people pull their hair out. Not to mention when you pick him, you'll have psychological advantage as people may take you for a scrub. If you're an Eddy masher however change that to *. Eddy mashers get creamed by any half good player 95% of the time. This team would have an excellent balance of offense and defense. Ganryu ** I've never much had a thing for Ganryu, he's slow really. However he does have a class 1 launcher and is very powerful with lots of stamina. I'm yet to see a good Ganryu player at work so I'm not sure what he's capable of. Gun Jack ** The Jack series consist of very powerful, very endurance built individuals. They're also big and very slow. His juggles aren't much to jump up about either. Because of his speed or lack thereof, he's not very suited to hard offense. He'll be more defensive and that totally contradicts Kazuya. Jacks are all about sharing pain with their powerful attacks but they seem to accept more than they give. Heihachi Mishima ***** Excellent partner. Heihachi is a monster. Very powerful with strong fast power strikes not to mention his top of the line juggling abilities make him one of the best choices available. His juggling ability combined with Kazuya's stuns make for a very offensive combo. Also, having two WGF capable players strikes fear into anyone. Heihachi's EWGF is the best launcher in the game. He also possesses other power strikes other than the standard Mishima strikes including a Deathfist. He also has those awesome hell sweeps to back him up. Highly Recommended. Hwoarang **** He has a class 1 launcher and has a very large mix up of kicking strings to call upon. He is also very strong juggle wise. His weakness is a lack of low attacks and that his power strikes aren't very fast. You'll have to hold back a bit on the offense and keep out of throw range for him to work properly but when used properly (he's hard to learn) he can be very deadly. This is one of my favorite teams due to Hwoarang's finesse and the fact that he's more of a fun rather than serious character to use. Jack-2 ** The Jack series consist of very powerful, very endurance built individuals. They're also big and very slow. His juggles aren't much to jump up about either. Because of his speed or lack thereof, he's not very suited to hard offense. He'll be more defensive and that totally contradicts Kazuya. Jacks are all about sharing pain with their powerful attacks but they seem to accept more than they give. Jin Kazama ***** He can achieve just about anything. Although he has the weakest moves out of crouch dash of all the Mishimas his other extras such as his Laser Cannon more than make up for these shortcomings. His new b+4 also has many different manners of usage. He can juggle especially and is a very well rounded character. Jin depends more on juggles than Kazuya however as Kazuya has his hard hitting punch moves. This team is also based on hard offense but Jin also has a reversal for playing defense. Jin is regarded as the best character in Tekken my most of the higher level players. However he is much harder to learn and to use than Kazuya is. Also highly recommended. Julia Chang ***** She's one of the game's most powerful players. She has very fast attacks such as her G-Clef Cannon and she juggles very well as well. She can play good offense as well as defense. Julia is also one the games most annoying opponents. She had an 8 frame jab and her standing 4 can juggle an opponent. Julia is blessed with one of the game's best high low mix ups which makes her the perfect choice. Jun Kazama ** Aside from her ability to tag throw with Kazuya I don't see much reason in recommending her. She isn't very strong nor is she speedy. She has good defense and mix ups however and her infinites can kill those who can't block them. King *** His strength lies in his numerous throws and multi mix-ups. He can juggle but not as well as you can. He also possesses an un-chickenable kick reversal which will undoubtedly come in handy when fighting kickers like Baek and Hwoarang. He has high power and stamina as well as range. King is not much of a fighter like A.King in my opinion and I've never really liked the idea of repeated throws. However King can humiliate people into changing their own names with a single Rolling Death Cradle. Kuma/Panda **** Although most animal characters are for laughs, Kuma is really great. I've been experimenting with him lately and he rules. Kuma has extreme range on his attacks especially his f+1 which he can use to start a G-Clef cannon. However as a big character, he is very slow and you have to learn to use his range to keep opponent's out. Kunimitsu ** She is very fast and has numerous unblockables but she'll weaken this rather than strengthen it. She is sort of similar to Yoshimitsu but is not nearly as effective as the former. Forest Law ***** Law is one of the game's most dangerous players. He can juggle and is very strong offensively. His moves are fast and he complements Kazuya very well. His juggling ability is also very good. Law can also play completely defensively with his ability to parry everything. Law is one of the game's more balanced characters as he doesn't really lack anything at all like other characters. Highly Recommended. Lee ChaoLan ** Lee is fast and possesses a class 1 launcher not to mention his cheesy d+4,4,4,4 combo. He also has a special unblockable when teamed with Kazuya. His Mist Trap looks mad cool but is pretty cheesy. If you pick him, you simple must pick both in their suits so...*familiar whistling music* "They be Big Pimpin, spendin' cheese" Lei Wulong **** A good solid partner. He is also a master of mix up like Eddy. He isn't too fast as his strength lies in his animal stances. Overall he is a good partner for Kazuya. One of his main weaknesses however is his lack of strong juggles. Lei also possesses a punch parry and can do those annoying Haha steps. His Razor Rush is the key to playing him though as the mix up from it is just plain stellar. Ling Xiaoyu **** She has a very low stamina value but she's very fast and her Phoenix Stance can dodge just about anything. She's a good poker and she has a launcher that launches quite high. Her strength is in pecking your opponent to death while nimbly avoiding damage. Although this is the opposite to Kazuya, they complement each other very well. Ling, like Law also possesses the ability to parry just about any move. Michelle Chang **** She's basically the same as Julia with some subtle differences. I hate to fight the both. Her style will be very similar to that of her daughter's with annoying high low mix-ups and quick poking attacks that'll make people pull their hair out. Mokujin/Tetsujin *** This is an up down kind of game. If you can use everyone then pick him as it mixes up better than anything. Make sure you can tell a character by how he/she stands, though. Pick him if you wan to show off basically. After 10 wins you can get the Gold Tetsujin which allows Netsu powerups even to characters like Devil and T.Ogre. Nina Williams ***** Nina is very strong with her multis, reversals and her powerful juggles. He is also a master of strings and is very hard to kill even though her stamina isn't very high. She can work together with Kaz very successfully. Nina has been really hurt by the Tekken 3 to TTT transition and is one of the most weakened characters. Ogre **** Ogre is a mix of various and can do just about everything. He is very tough and strong and he has powerful juggles. Ogre's okizeme is also very fearsome and he has a good selection of stolen unblockables. I personally prefer his alter ego though even though Ogre does have the edge in speed. Paul Phoenix **** Paul can work together with anyone well, provided that you play him in a very unscrubby like manner. His moves do a ton of damage especially his infamous Deathfist. Up close, his Falling Leaf conquers all. He doesn't however have powerful juggles or very good launchers but with high powered moves like the ones he has, he doesn't really lose out much. You gain psychological advantage as 95% of Paul users are scrubs and people know and play against them as such. Prototype Jack *** P.Jack I think is the best out of the Jack series. He has a class 1 launcher and some powerful shots. But again his speed slows him down tremendously. He has high stamina and strength. Like the others in the Jack series he also lacks good juggling ability and will be massacred by characters like the Mishimas, Williams and Changs. True Ogre **** He is similar to Ogre except that he 4-5 unique moves. He is very large and has high stamina and power. His flame attacks are worthless against any decent competition though. Many character also have extra powerful juggles that they can drop on him and him only. His okizeme is even better than regular Ogre and is probably the best in the game. T.Ogre is just a monster and is too damned powerful for his own good. Unknown *** Unknown can basically be anything you want. She's basically the same worth of a partner as Mokujin. Wang Jinrei *** Wang takes damage like a 6 year old child. His frame recovery also sucks big time. Aside from that he is very well rounded with power strikes, juggles, a non-chickenable left punch reversal etc. But his stamina still sucks. Yoshimitsu ***** Yoshi goes together well with just about anyone. He has a class 1 launcher which will probably never connect. He has an excellent blend of speed, power, juggling ability. He has a plethora of unblockables which come in handy. He also has the best basic uppercut of anyone in the game. You really can't go wrong with Yoshi and his mix of well, everything. A very solid partner. ***************************** * ************************* * * *Putting it all Together* * * ************************* * ***************************** This is the most important part of the game. If you can't put together all that you've learnt, then you really haven't learnt anything at all. It took me over a month of using Bruce before I finally remembered when I was in the arcade, to start using his b,f+4, one of his best launchers. If you can't put your stuff together and find a place to use each of your skills, then really what good is knowledge if it can't be put into practice. This section will just contain any little tips I may have to render to you, take heed or ignore them if you wish. Your style is your style. Kazuya's barrier, that is the distance at which Kazuya is at his most effective would be just outside of throw range, also called medium range. Why? Simple. Because the majority of Kazuya's powerful attacks stem from his crouch dash, he must have space in which to execute it. If he is choked together with the opponent then he has no room to crouch dash and is likely to be interrupted. Also, since Kazuya is an ideal character for countering people with, he needs a distance at which he has space to execute his counter attacks, most of which aren't too fast. If he was too close, he would suffer the same fate as close crouch dashes. If Kazuya is too far, then he is out of ideal crouch dash range, ideal being the range at which a quickly done crouch dash attacks would hit. Your attacks should never be put into a pattern for the opponent to recognize. The frequency and type of attacks you use in any given (Sunday) situation should be dependent on your personal style as a player. Each move has a certain range and situation at which it is suited to be used. Using the wrong move at the wrong time could have disastrous results. If you're playing pitbull style then you want to stay slightly within the barrier distance and should go for a lot of jabs and light punch strings, as well as pokes as d+1 or d+4 as well as Stature Kicks punch strings and maybe a gut punch thrown in to mix things up a bit. If you're playing turtle then you'll want to stay slightly out of the barrier distance and use Gut Punch and Wind God Fist to interrupt when you detect your opponent starting an attack or you could duck the attack if possible and respond with your WS move of choice. Kazuya doesn't have many high attacks aside from his jabs so you won't have to worry about people ducking most of your attacks like Jin does. Never underestimate the value of tick damage, it could save your life during the match. You should try to use low tick shots at the very least 4-5 times per round. In a stand-off you have the perfect opportunity to do a Stature Kick. Use your d+1 and d+4 carefully though, as fast as they are, their range isn't very good and you'll get punished. At the end of the match, every Stature Kick, every low jab and low kick makes a difference though it may not look so when you use it. The majority of the damage in most matches comes from gradually eating away at your opponent. Although every now and again you'll connect a big stun or drop down a big juggle, more often than not you'll have to slowly peck away to survive. Whether you want to play offensively or defensively is your own choice, while personally I feel Kazuya should be played more offensively than not, your own style and taste should dictate how you play. A true master however, adapts to suit his opponents style of play. You shouldn't adopt the "I'm not turtling/pitbulling for nothing" approach. If a solid Chang player were to come along, surely you'll have to play a bit more defensive against her fast attacks and strings. Or if a Jack player comes along, surely you'll want to take the fight to him. While you may prefer to play one style rather than the other, always be ready to adapt. Another thing, try not to always play things safe. Taking a chance could pay off big. The trick is to know when to take these chances. Most of the time, you'll just 'feel' that it's the right time for a Thunder God Fist even if the situation may seem the opposite. You hit, you get major damage done, you miss, you take major damage. The fact is you can't become a champion player just play playing it safe all the time. As long as you have your juggles, your move knowledge and can put it all into practice, you should have no problems pulling up constant wins. ************************************************************************************************ Conclusion ************************************************************************************************ I hope this FAQ has at least taught you a thing or two about Kazuya or has at least been an entertaining read. Anyway, if you're from Trinidad and are ever in Center Point on Saturday afternoon check me out for a game of TTT or Soul Calibur. I'm usually by either one with one or two friends. I always wear jeans and something and always have a black JanSport on. It's been fun making this FAQ. I think in the end I'm probably a better player for it. When I first released this, Reverend C's FAQ was the only one out there. Now, in this short space of time, two more FAQs have shot up and surprisingly none are half assed. This will probably be the last big update on this unless something ground breaking happens since I think it's time to work on some other stuff like making this Hwoarang FAQ a reality since he's really under represented and a lot of people want to learn him. Anyway I'm always up for a game even if I lose since we've all got stuff to learn. If you have any questions or any stuff I missed or did wrong e-mail me at exar30@hotmail.com and I'll get it in the next revision. It seems that this FAQ has turned out pretty large. I never intended at first for it to be this size. But I hope what I've done has covered most if not all someone would need to learn to use Kazuya effectively. To be quite honest I don't think any FAQ should be this size or larger unless it's for an RPG. If I was a newbie to Tekken, i wouldn't even read something this big, i'd just pick out what interested me. The sun I believe has already set or at least is setting on TTT. The noly reason it's still being played is because no other game has as yet filled the void. But with Tekken 4 and Virtua Fighter 4 both on the way and the as yet shown Soul Calibur 2 and VFX on the way, TTT will soon be dead everywhere except in the livingrooms of hardcaor fans. Ahh TTT, I knew ye well. ************************************************************************************************ PS2 Stuff. ************************************************************************************************ I got a PS2 last year and the changes are basically nothing, except some of the juggles seem to be either more or less difficult to do than before. ****************** * *Secret Stuff* * ****************** Tekken Pair Play Mode - Push Right at the main menu. Tekken Bowl Mode - Beat the game with 9 different characters. Score 200 pts. or higher and you can select the soundtrack in Bowl Mode. Tekken Gallery Mode - Beat the game with 13 different characters. ***************** * *Tekken Bowl* * ***************** I just thought I'd put in a little mini-section in here about Tekken Bowl. Characters. The characters function pretty much as you'd expect. The large characters are very strong but inaccurate and the small charcters are excatly the opposite. Some characters function as left and some as right handers. In a team it's normally advisable to keep both of your characters with the same hand or else it could screw up your coordination. Also some characters have special augmentations. Namely, Gun Jack, P.Jack, Jack-2, Bryan and Yoshimitsu all have special bowling views which give them a special laser to help in lining up their shots. This is needless to say, great when you're going for that spare. Choosing your Team. I would suggest using a team, if you're playing to win or for big points, that starts off with a big man. The big guys would consist of the Jacks, Ganryu(my favourite) and perhaps Kuma and the Ogres. The main reason is that unless you've perfected your technique in getting strikes, you'll want to get as much of those starting pins down as possible.Also for beginners someone like a Jack is very advantageous because of their laser sight plus because they're the strongest, they knock away pins like nobody's business. The second person should be someone emphasizing more accuracy that raw power as your second is there for picking up the loose pins. Persons like Yoshi and Bryan excel here because of their laser sight although it is sort of like cheating. General Advice 1) If you mess up your aiming, go for full power. The less power that you have, the more the ball will deviate. With the Jacks, a full power bar and any angle you get will have minimum effect beacuse of the velocity it will be travelling at. 2) To pick up the very hard to get splits,send the ball so that it rolls on the opposite side that you want the pin to go and have it so you bowl the ball parallel to the pin so it just gets nicked,with full power of course. 3) Don't go straight down the centre, generally you'll just end of causing a split. Always try to hit between the middle and one of the pins behind it, that is, at an angle. 4) When using weaker charcters as your main bowler, always put the emphasis on the accuracy of the ball. A perfect ball with no velocity will still get a strike. 5) Using stronger characters, since their accuracy bar moves so quickly, you'll probably never get what you want, make sure to line up your bowler from before so that you can basically negate the angle with your power. 6) Find a track that get you going. It works wonders for me. I always put on the Yoshimitsu track. Yes, it annoying as hell but with it on I always at least get over 220 points,without it,I'm usually in the late 100s. Weird,no? The Various Events. I don't believe I've gotten them all yet but here's what I have achieved. 1 Strike : Strike!!(surprised?) 2 Strikes: Double!! 3 Strikes: Turkey!!(with three chicken icons on each side) 4 Strikes: Great!! (with three chicken icons on each side) Get all three strikes in the final round: Punch Out!! Get a Spare: Spare!!(surprises abound!!) Get a Miss : Miss!!(who'd have thunk it?) Get a Split: Nice Cover!! Game Events Strike Animation1: You get this when you get a quick clean strike. The pins explode in a burst of fire three times consecutively Strike Animation2: You get this when the pins take their sweet time in falling down. You see a slow replay of the ball knocking them away. Overcharged: Your character gets a little too attached to the ball and forgets to let go, plowing straight into the pins still holding the ball. If you get a strike with this, although it counts as a miss, you see Strike Animation1 9 times in quick succession. K.O.:Pull all the way to the left and smack Boskonovich. he'll get knocked out and won't be present in the arena anymore. In case anyone was wondering my best team is Ganryu and Yoshimitsu and although I can't exactly remember my best score, it contained 9 strikes though. ************************************************************************************************ Tekken Sites. ************************************************************************************************ In case you're looking for more Tekken information. http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/index.shtml THE Tekken site to go to. They've got it all. Movelists, combos, frame data, FAQs and not to mention Castel's kick ass movies. Oh, and this place also has the most kick ass forum I've ever seen. Features galore. Mad props out to Castel and all the people who work on it for this one. You really can't get much better than this. If you just visit one Tekken site then there's no two ways about it, come here. http://www.tekkentagtournament.com Namco's official site. Check here for updates often and for movelists and they've also got a forum for those heated discussions. Everything you expect from an official site. It's official, but not much more than that. http://www.fighters.net They've got a great TTT section with all the FAQs and movelists etc. Check them out also for ALL the videos on the World Tournament that concluded a few months ago. Also check here for anything remotely concerning fighting games, mostly Marvel v.s. Capcom though. Just recently got a forum. http://www.gamefaqs.com THE FAQ archive on the net. If you're looking for a FAQ and it ain't here, then it probably doesn't exist. They don't just have Tekken, they're got nearly every game in recent memory. Big props go out to GameFAQs for being the best FAQ provider on the internet. http://www.tekkenzone.com This is a cool site run by a guy called Dohee-Kim, it has some great combo movies as well as movies on wave dash, crazy step and the like. Check it out also for videos of the recently completed Korean tournament. Dohee is quickly making a name for himself in this regard, check it out. You can also find Korean manuals here that were translated by Bob. I don't know how well Tekken Zone still runs since Dohee has left for his compulsory stint in the Korean Army. Hopefully he'll be back in a little over a year. Good Luck friend. http://www.counterhit.com This is a cool page run by SauerKraut, it has a nice little analysis on the difference between WGF and EWGF not to mention some nice movies. http://www.tekkensalute.net This is probably one of the best forum sites. Go here or Zaibatsu if your looking for forums. Also check out the JoeKing juggles. That Ling combo is just wild man. http://titan.spaceports.com/~tekken/main.html Tekken Oblivion has a large collection of stuff that has been archived here. If you missed the Asian Champs videos, here's where to get them. Good looking out. http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Bridge/2700 Abrar Rana's page. You can get some nice Kuma videos here. There're also guides created on site for various characters in the game and a special section where articles are placed about various subjects concerning Tekken. ************************************************************************************************ Acknowledgements. ************************************************************************************************ Myself for finally writing a FAQ after intending to do so after a whole year. Perry Sartain for his storyline FAQ which helped to piece together Kazuya's Bio. KazMishimaKazama for some useful tips. Mark Kim and Kao Megura for their excellent copyright. Kao, dude, you've been retired long enough, and even though you've gotten screwed by people more times than ever, you're an inspiration and you need to get back to work. Slikatel and Ben Cureton (Tragic) for providing the standard by which all character FAQs will now be written and judged. Dohee Kim for writing his Wind God Style Manuals and Bob for translating them. That is where I learned all those crouch dash tricks from. To Catlord for his excellent Tekken movelists. How in the hell do you figure out ALL the moves in the game? Jjt and KOFTEKKEN on their Advanced Techniques FAQ which gave me a few good tips which I put in this guide, the quick WS and the F+1 over f+1. Castel and the Tekken Zaibatsu staff for making the most kick ass site out there and for having those awesome movies. Castel you're a damn juggling god man. And where else can you get all that great and essential frame data? http://www.tekkenzaibatsu.com Reverend C whose Kazuya FAQ gave me the basis of my Kazuya knowledge and taught me how to play who I believe is one of the best strategic FAQ writers out there. I would also like to acknowledge Reverend C for this excellent FAQ format. Props out to you Rev for your Kazuya and Heihachi FAQs, some of the best strategic writing out there. The people at the Zaibatsu Forums, bluu, Chinky-eye, IluvMomo, Reverend C, Renick, tomhilfiger, KOFTEKKEN, Redfoot, 7ronko, abrar rana Devil_Jin, Assblaster and everybody else I can't remember now, I learn something new each time I go there. To all my friends, arcade and otherwise for providing unwitting guinea pigs for me to beat on in Tekken and Soul Calibur. Yes Rams, I will always be the best in Central. Namco, for making the greatest fighting series of all time and for continuing to bless us with these wonderful games. To the sites that posted my FAQ for all to see. Thank you. To you, the reader for choosing to read my FAQ. I hope it helped. The Almighty without whom none of this would be possible. *********************************************END************************************************