Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is often criticized by the fighting game community for not being a real fighting game. Even Sakurai lightly touched upon this during the Kazuya showcase, saying that Smash was just "different" than games like Tekken. While fighting games are more about opponent spacing, Smash is more about location on the map. 

But Sakurai had to take this major difference into account when he added Kazuya into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The solution? Create a fighter heavily inspired by Tekken's moveset and include elements of the "devil gene." This resulted in a fighter with more moves than any other fighter in Super Smash Bros. history. 

While many joked that remembering these inputs would be impossible for a Smash player (the "not a real fighting game" argument), most Smash players were intrigued by the challenge and curious how many moves Kazuya truly did have. So one Twitch streamer decided to put together a chart of Kazuya's extensive move list. 

Kazuya move list in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

There's no denying that playing Kazuya truly feels like you are transported into a game like Tekken or Street Fighter rather than Smash. It definitely brought back memories of playing Soul Calibur II and IV, where every directional input mattered and you were rewarded with combos if you memorized long button chains. Kazuya has eight directions to work with instead of four, like the other fighters on the roster. 

So Kazuya is definitely a bit more complex than other fighters when it comes to the movelist itself (although the complexities of Smash at a higher level are more about reading and mind games than memorizing buttons).

But let's not pretend his move list is anywhere near as insane as a game like Soul Calibur. 

But do we really need these many attacks? Does this really define if a game is complex or fun to play? As Sakurai said, Smash is more about the location on the map and predicting opponent movement rather than memorizing a long string of buttons. It's basically as he said all along: Both games are just different. Neither is better. Neither takes more skill. 

So do we need a fighter in Smash who has more than double the attacks of all the other fighters? I guess not. But so far, the gameplay has been entertaining and he's felt pretty fun to use. Many Smash players will see it as a challenge since he is so different than the other Smash characters on the roster. 

Kazuya's simplified Tekken-style move list is definitely a fascinating blend of classic fighting game and new-school Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gameplay. It will take some players a while to master Kazuya because of his different playstyle. But there's no denying that even landing that 10-hit combo is super satisfying. I'm not a fan of comeback mechanics but the encouragement to memorize even more button strings is pretty exciting, especially for fans of old-school fighters.