Street Fighter V/Akuma/Introduction

Introduction

About Akuma

Having embraced the Satsui No Hado, Akuma seeks only to improve his ability by fighting the strongest opponents.

Akuma is possibly the most versatile character in the game, a flexible shoto-style character with fast walkspeed and a variety of tools to effectively approach, keep opponents out, mix up opponents on offense, and make comebacks with powerful V-triggers. The price he pays for this versatility is frighteningly low health and stun, as well as somewhat short range on some of his normals. His fireball knocks down at close range, leading to a much stronger offensive situation than other shoto projectiles if it intercepts the extended hurtbox of an attacking opponent, and his red fireballs always knock down and can hit 1 to 3 times. His combination of divekick, air fireball, EX air fireball, and his variety of demon flip attacks make it very difficult to stifle his airborne approaches for all but the most judicious defenders. Of course, on top of all this he has one of the best 3f normals in the game, fantastic for abare or intercepting an opponent's forward dash and a defensive complement to his invincible reversal. Overall, he's a character who can easily command the flow of a round right from the start, but can also see that control slip away quickly with just a few bad guesses against characters with high stun output.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Movement: with good forward walk speed, a fast dash, a variety of moves that can be used in the air, and demon flip (41236K/KK), Akuma has many ways to alter his approach depending on the matchup and available resources
Strong whiff punishes: due to his aforementioned fast walk speed Akuma is capable of placing himself in ranges that he excels in, particularly in good ranges for punishing opponents whiffing attacks recklessly
Versatile: Akuma has nearly every tool a character could need at his disposal, allowing him to provide consistent answers to many common situations that can happen throughout the course of a match
Varied v-system: both of Akumas v-skills and v-triggers are potent tools that offer him significant freedom in how he uses his v-meter
Good meter usage: Akuma has a very powerful, single hit super that can easily guts crush, as well as potent EX moves that give him a variety of options to choose from in how he spends his meter

Frail: tied with Seth for the lowest health and stun in the game (900 for each), Akuma is very prone to dying in two to three well optimized combos against a large portion of the cast
Can be weak to zoning: Akumas meterless fireball doesn't travel fullscreen and has generally unremarkable frame data, leading to situations where he is forced to take risky approaches while having a life deficit
Stubby normals: Akumas normals generally have average to below average reach, leading to some matchups forcing him to play the ground game less

V-system

V-Trigger 1: Dohatsu Shoten

Enhances Akuma's ground and air fireballs, his DP, and grants him access to Raging Demon, a command grab super. His air fireball becomes an extremely safe tool for neutral and offense, while his DP is a great combo tool that leads to a hard knockdown. A fantastic comeback trigger, but one that's easy to quickly burn through, and demands conservative use of meter to reap the full benefits of using it.

V-Trigger 2: Shiretsu Hasshi

Gives Akuma access to meterless versions of his EX moves, which he can cancel into from his other specials or his heavy normals. Leads to huge damage combos, certain powerful conversions VT1 doesn't have access to, easy corner escapes on block, and devastating corner chip sequences. However, the high timer costs of its moves make it difficult to consistently get full value out of this trigger.

V-Skill 1: Rakan

Akuma takes an armored stance, which leads to a launching followup used for starting combos and anti-air, or a knockdown followup used for ending combos and ranged punishes. Can punish V-reversals or certain neutral tools like divekicks and fireballs, and allows a corner escape without the use of VT2.

V-Skill 2: Kiai

Stomps the ground, launching the opponent and allowing a followup red fireball. Greatly increases Akuma's damage on many conversions, especially his Kongoken target combo which can cancel into it. Has some options if used on block, but it's mainly a combo tool.

Final Patch

Players to watch

Samurai
Tokido