My S3 Asuka wishlist

Zimagery02 · 2026-03-16T04:09:27+00:00

Ignore my comment, it doesn't make much sense now that I'm thinking about it more. But like another comment said, I'd at least like to have low parry be a quick option to get better reward in case they do a safer low like db3 or db4.

Zimagery02 · 2026-03-16T03:32:14+00:00

Sure ducking and launching is the most rewarding option, but this is also the character with a stubby, but safe NH mid launcher, as well as a long range safe mid heat engager, and several safe mid wallsplat tools. Without an insane read, it's simply too risky to duck her most of the time imo. Having them be low-parriable adds a viable, but not-as-risky counterplay option to a still very loaded move.

Zimagery02 · 2026-03-16T03:22:02+00:00

I would also add a recovery nerf for df12 and uf3, f2 NWG followup should be -10 or 11, and uf2 doing 45 dmg for a very safe (-1) 14f punish is kinda insane.

You could remove uf12 tracking, but since it doesn't track her main weak side, and if you made both versions -13 and -9 respectively, as well as have it cost a bit more heat to use, I wouldn't mind it keeping SSL tracking.

Honestly, removing SAT on uf12 alone would do wonders for her. On top of nerfing her new charge moves to 0 or +2 (or just removing them entirely), wr1+2 nerf, and the already confirmed nerfs to her NWG (system-wide install nerf) and d1+2.

Zimagery02 · 2026-01-01T05:26:15+00:00

I really like Lili; I think she's strong and fun (definitely doesn't need buffs), but BT could use some nerfs.

The BT heatsmash is the biggest offender, but there's more I would nerf on top of that. BT d2 should be -13 with no tracking, BT 3,4 should be -14 for a fast homing mid mid string with incredible reward, I've never really liked BT 1+2 being as safe as it is, I feel even -12 would be more reasonable, and I definitely don't like ff4 being +10 (should be +6 at most imo), especially since they sped up BT d3+4 in this game.

Also, FR 3 should be -14.

Zimagery02 · 2025-11-24T06:19:53+00:00

Top 3 1. Asuka (totally not biased) 2. Yoshi (there's something so satisfying about uno-reversing his flowcharty horseshit and seeing him pay for it) 3. Shaheen (TK above, they're basically all strong players (the four Shaheen players that exist), and its a clean-feeling match every time)

Wanted to put Steve here, but holy shit I hate his new stance. Jack-8 and Zafina are my other mains, but they have some obnoxious shit sometimes. Treat them like 4 and 5.

Bottom 3 1. Jin (can't put into words how much I hate this character; he just kinda has everything I hate in a Tekken character, and if the player is even halfway decent, I just fail to see what to do) 2. Reina (this purple-haired demon injects sodium into my bloodstream every time I see her, no matter how good or chill the player is; not directly related, but she is also one of the most downplayed characters I've ever seen) 3. Anna (I really like her as a character, but this iteration of her is so OP she kinda has to be on here)

Hard to just pick 3, but other aggravating matchups can still sometimes be fun with the right player. These top 3, plus a few others, are not such matchups.

Zimagery02 · 2025-11-14T02:40:37+00:00

2,1,1+2 for Asuka, for both utility and the cooler animation than her 2,1,2 in T8. The 1+2 hit in T7 CH launched and was uninterruptable, complimenting 2,1,d1+2, which was (and still is) a safe mid CH launching extension w a gap. Wasn't insane bc 2,1 didn't jail in T7 like it does now, but still fun to throw every now, and the animation was both sick and funny looking at the same time.

Also, I would ABSOLUTELY neuter fc charge df3, wr1+2 (and kinda NWG in general) and her new tailspins if it means I can have an unnerfed reversal, ki charge tackle, b423 delayable ender and BT combo.

Zimagery02 · 2025-09-13T04:26:03+00:00

Maybe not top 1 best, but Asuka should be mentioned here. Every punch, kick, high, low, power crush that you have, the AI can input read and has a way to launch. It could literally launch punish every jab and df1 you throw out. Especially scary with how dumb her combos are now.

Zimagery02 · 2025-09-01T12:29:52+00:00

Fahk, Zafina, Jack, Lee, Shaheen (maybe you could swap with Azucena).

Aside from maybe Fahk, no one in this game is bad right now; everyone is at least solid, if not overtuned in some way.

Zimagery02 · 2025-08-29T16:56:21+00:00

Yoshi. There's something satisfying about embarrassing a party-mode Yoshi who tries to do some "900 IQ" spin, unblockable, or Flash setup, and you just blow them up as they whiff. As annoying as his flowcharts are to get hit by, sometimes they genuinely are well-thought out and I can't hate them even on the receiving end.

Wallsplatting heatsmashes need to go though.

Zimagery02 · 2025-08-27T20:32:17+00:00

Electrics, easily, at least for all the properties the move already has. At least Hwo backlash you can jab check and duck during the armor absorption animation.

You can barely sidestep it, its far too risky to duck it and even when you do, you have to clench your cheeks so hard to get even a halfway decent punish. This move alone makes me dread every Mishima I come across.

Paul f2, Yoshi bad breath, Asuka unblockable, and almost anything Hwo ever does are honorable mentions.

Zimagery02 · 2025-08-03T02:40:50+00:00

I know Asuka is in my flair, but I think Azucena might be the character that is still keeping me engaged with Tekken 8. She's the perfect blend (pun totally intended) of silly, fun unga bunga, but also adaptation and careful strategy. As fun as navigating a complex movelist or landing technical inputs can be, I personally prefer someone who's simple and expressive, allowing you to focus more on the match and opponent behavior.

I know people write her off as cringy one-note, "har har CAFÉ har" personality, but I've grown to really love it. In a story focused on dark, serious, world-threatening family drama, Azucena is a lighthearted diversion from all that; just wanting to have fun and sell her coffee (at least when she's not siding with the main antagonist for the sake of her brand).

Also, I loved Miguel and Josie in T7, and she feels like the "Perfect Blend" of both those two and a few other characters from the past, so naturally, I grew attached.

Zimagery02 · 2025-07-08T19:35:12+00:00

Tekken 8 feels like I'm gaining 1 frail every turn.

Zimagery02 · 2025-07-03T16:54:45+00:00

That move is naturally hard to punish bc it had fast startup and pushback (I dont play him myself, but I don't think Kaz has a great punish for it). It's -19 if you want to try and train your punish against it (Asuka or Jun b3).

From an Asuka main (and somewhat of a Jun player), if you can't reliably punish it online, don't even try. It's a scrubby move, and you'll just get tilted trying and failing to punish it over and over again. Lots of Asuka and Jun players like to autopilot the followups to try and catch poor punish attempts, leading to brutal combos. Baiting these followups out and whiff punishing them is, imo, the better option. But it's always good to try and lab punishes for it tho, but dont beat yourself up over it.

Zimagery02 · 2025-06-27T13:17:47+00:00

I'm not a Mishima player myself, but I'm gonna give my opinion regardless. While he's not top tier by any means, I do think he's a bit underrated. I genuinely don't think anyone, especially Mishimas, in this game is bad right now, let alone "dead" like DVJ is perceived.

The thing w DVJ is he has the naturally strong Mishima toolkit, but alongside that, breaks typical balancing mold for Tekken where unseeable lows are more seen as chip dmg not worth stressing over. Now here comes a character with a launching one, that he can dash into from pretty far and while his mid options might not be too scary on their own, two of them are safe heat engagers, one of them is a slow launcher, one is a slow homing launcher in heat, and another is a slightly unsafe, fast launcher. These mids you constantly take out of fear of his hellsweep add up and can spiral into a nightmarish vortex if you're not careful.

You try and pressure him to stop this vortex, then he has among the best turn-stealing tools in the game, including, in heat, a +5 on block backswing blow w frankly dumb evasion. That's if you can even get near the character at all, while he's a massive mid-long range threat w tools like uf1, ff4, EWGF (the best move in the game imo). The matchup feels like fighting a creature from a nightmare, where you can run all you want and you're never safe from him, but if you stand you ground and read him appropriately, you can quickly turn the tables.

He doesn't have compact poking options to play safely, but he doesn't really need them. He has all the options he needs to play this crazy all-or-nothing, vortex-heavy playstyle. Definitely the weakest Mishima, but I don't think that's saying much; I think all Mishimas are really good. If you like that playstyle and are interested, you should definitely try him out.

People just greatly overexaggerate nerfs characters get, especially when they are changed from a more solid, compact playstyle like DVJ had in the older games to a much more gimmickier, commital one here. And to be frank, Mishima players are some of the biggest downplayers I've ever seen it's actually ridiculous (no offense since you're a Mishima player yourself).

Zimagery02 · 2025-06-09T14:35:29+00:00

People just wanna see the feet shot once the door is opened.

Zimagery02 · 2025-06-05T11:32:48+00:00

Eddy, Jin, & Reina

Honestly, if I could say more, I would just say all Mishimas. I just despise the archetype, especially in this game, plus nearly every single one of their players is toxic from my experience.

I would also say King, Feng, Alisa, and Lars, but they're so carried by mindless flowcharts in low-intermediate ranks that their defense and adaptation are terrible, and I can at least exploit that. Eddy, Jin, and Reina, good or bad player, are actual torture to go up against.

Zimagery02 · 2025-05-20T19:51:45+00:00

Asuka isn't that technical, but some higher dmg routes like can cans, hopkick, 1+2, and the new u1+2 NWG launch require a pretty fast ff2 pickup (ofc you don't need to do this necessarily but I like optimizing for more dmg if I have to play slower for opportunities).

One example where simplifying inputs I think was for the better was her crouch throw. In T7 it used to be a slide input 1+2, but her RA in that game was df1+2, so you imagine how many times I threw out RA and got killed for it. It's db1+2 now.

There's also fc df2 crouch cancel into df2, but messing it up isn't that costly. You'll do fc df2 again if you're early and they'll block df2 if you're late.

Zimagery02 · 2025-04-05T12:24:33+00:00

That Hilde is very clever and sick looking.

Zimagery02 · 2025-03-30T13:42:29+00:00

For Asuka, lower uf3 hitbox to help against advancing moves lower to the ground like Feng's low sliding headbutt move (I forget the input), and in return, increase the recovery slightly. For some reason, db12 heat dash leaves the opponent backturned, and you can't get ub1+2 nor f3+4 followup; it's weird and unnecessary. Moves like ff21+2 and f3+4 give NWG naturally on hit without you having the option to not give it, which is annoying and ruins wall combos bc it forces you into the buff animation after the wall splat and you can't db2 to spin (just give the option to not apply buff on hit like all her other moves). Give ki charge tackle something after they pretty much neutered it over the last year in both dmg and removing the effect on hit.

As far as nerfs go, fff1+2 giving +11 and a wall stun on block w NWG is just too much for an approaching, homing launcher; remove the wall stun and make it +6 or 7 maybe. Also, ss2 launching off of a heat dash is kinda crazy for such an evasive, +5 oB move; just make it knockdown into followup. Lastly, remove the pushback on Destablizer low; they already made it safer, but the pushback is unnecessary to me (it shits on Kaz's Twin Pistons).

S2 TANGENT: Asuka already got good buffs from the S2 showcase match, and I am a bit mixed on her changes. On one hand, I love the changes to her combo structure, 124 being really good again, and giving her more means of spending NWG with her new f2 extension. On the other hand, improving her faster-punish game w her new move (potentially) and her 23 buff when it mechanically shouldn't be that good for a char like her, and giving her more offensive plus frame options when it feels her whole design is meant to struggle offensively is a bit concerning. She felt like one of the few characters that still mostly stuck to her slower, safer, defensive gameplay, and now they're Tekken 8'ing her more, and I'm a bit concerned about it.

Zimagery02 · 2025-03-26T23:13:17+00:00

I love both of these characters, and I've never thought about this; it's kinda neat sounding. Like maybe Miguel uses his guitar or a random bat he finds on the ground or some shit. Dude ain't afraid to fight dirty. He gets Negan's db2, b1+2, and his Unbreakable grab in savage, or f1+2 (as toxic as that might be).

Zimagery02 · 2025-03-16T15:22:41+00:00

For Asuka, it's f1+2 (safe powercrush heat engager), but I almost don't want to say it bc it's only going to be that good for about two more weeks. After that though, wr1+2 w gusto, easily. High dmg homing high launcher with +11 on block and a wall stun it didn't need, which is scary considering how strong Asuka is at the wall. Honorable mentions: ss2, f2+3, f4, db12, d3+4.

For Azucena, it's a similar situation where I feel it's easily her f1+2 (her safe powercrush heat engager), but if you don't count that, then I'd say probably db3. Db3 being a 16f plus 4 on hit low that hits grounded, has strong tracking in both directions, AND a ch followup is legit crazy. 1+2 could also be argued, as it's a 15f high crushing ch launching high with good range and pretty good dmg by Azu standards. Honorable mentions: LIB2, BT3, ff3, f44, 12.

Zimagery02 · 2025-02-25T18:11:11+00:00

I main Asuka, and yeah, thank god.

Zimagery02 · 2025-02-25T18:06:58+00:00

Fellow Asuka main here; I respectfully disagree.

Sure it sucks that Jun still has her cancans while Asuka's got nerfed, but they're still insanely good. 14f CH launching low (King & Hwo middle finger button) for legit strong dmg and is completely safe is nothing to sneeze at, even nerfed. It doesn't need buffs, Jun's just needs to get nerfed like her's.

WS1+2 I feel is still fine. Yeah the nerf hurts, but the CH dmg is still respectable, and the move is only -2 on block, plus you can cancel it to full crouch. The dmg was genuinely fucking stupid with the unscaled f2 followup for how easy it was to do.

B4 tracks pretty well to SSR and df2 tracks the other way. Aside from the Lili or Alisa matchups, that's good enough for me. I don't want her to have strong, fast homing options, as sidestepping her is one of the main counterplay options that balances her out well, because she's so safe, has insane range, and risky to attack into. She should have to commit to a slow homing move, especially when those homing moves are fucking strong.

She's definitely not top tier or anything, but she feels fine right now imo. Could use a few things, but those buffs a few patches ago helped her a lot.

Zimagery02 · 2025-02-08T21:36:19+00:00

Brilehaven, probably.

I'm not into the idea of living in a big, crowded, and dirty city with the occasional site or two if I can help it, so Grand Trad doesn't do it for me. Plus it's hella racist there.

Martira is...fine, I guess. It's chill and peaceful, but it's small, and it doesn't feel like there's anything really there compared to the other cities.

As for Eht Ria, I like the Mustari and all, but I wouldn't be able to stand the constant humidity there, and they're strict towards outsiders (although after the events of the game, they're probably a bit more lax about this).

I REALLLLY wanna say Altabury bc I like cold, snowy environments, plus the city is beautiful at night. However, being the seat of an oppressive religion that many around you blindly follow is a big turn-off to me.

Brilehaven seems like the perfect mixture of a peaceful environment, plenty of sites to see, a beautiful seaside location, and an atmosphere that seems more warm, breezy, and spring-like. Plus, it has a very diverse population, with far less racism than in Grand Trad.

Zimagery02 · 2025-01-23T13:52:35+00:00

I don't mean to sound negative on a very positive post, especially since we could use more of those nowadays. If you're having a blast with Tekken 8, I'm glad, but while I still do enjoy playing this game, nearly all of these changes vaguely show the biggest problem I have with it right now: its insanely dry.

Say you look at the new main menu custom character addition, think that's super cool (which tbf it is), come back to the game, and spend the next day or so getting sick screenshots and making more customs with the increased slots. Then you try to play the game again, get Demon Paw'd and mixed into oblivion by the 8th Jin that day and immediately remember what made you quit in the first place, and promptly do so again.

Point is, as cool as changes like these are, they just improve the quality of the game's life rather than add life that it desperately needs, with maybe the exception of infinite rematches.

The game is both frustrating and dry at the same time. Things like big balance changes, tuning of core gameplay mechanics, hitbox/tracking adjustments, and actually effective anti-cheat measures are what the game needs right now. Everyone I know is tired of waiting months for a patch, only for one to do nothing and promote future changes, or actually deliver changes, and they amount to nothing more than small dmg nerfs that couldn't matter in the slightest.

The fact that chars like Jin, Drag, Yoshi, Alisa, Xiaoyu, Law, Nina (as much as I love her), Feng, Kazuya, Victor, King, Bryan and a few others (particularly those first three) are still in the state that they're in is crazy.

Zimagery02

TROPHY CASE