Hazama/Move List

Overview
Hazama can be a tricky-to-use character with a unique playstyle. Although his chains and slow speed are well-suited for a zoning character, he excels particularly well up-close, where he can make use of his numerous mixup options and okizeme options. Unlike Hakumen, Carl, and Arakune, his "hop dash" is grounded and can be canceled at any time with normals, specials, or barrier, improving his short-range movement options, even enabling him to wavedash. It should also be noted that Hazama has one of the de facto best meter gain rates in the game, as almost all of his combos go into multiple j.Cs, which builds meter extremely quickly. It is not uncommon for a good Hazama player to always have at least 50% meter, making Serpent's Infernal Rapture a constant threat due to its fatal counter property.

Although he is relatively slow compared to most of the cast, Hazama is excellent for applying pressure, as his drives make slow moves that would normally be safe at fullscreen (i.e. Jin's projectiles) extremely risky, forcing opponents to play a close-up game even if their character is unsuited for it (i.e. Rachel). At the same time, however, Hazama can make the opponent's rushdown risky as well, stuffing approaches easily with his drive and his Rising Fang (214D~B) special, which is invulnerable on startup and moves Hazama back enough to be virtually safe, and punishing holes in rushdown extremely hard with Serpent's Infernal Rapture (236236B), which can deal more than 7k damage in the right circumstances. At the same time, Hazama is able to punish opponents for playing overly defensively, poking them safely from a distance with his drives and punishing bad blocking with an extremely strong mixup game consisting of crossups, overheads, and command throws.

Despite this generally well-rounded playstyle, however, Hazama's slow walking speed makes it difficult for him to catch characters fast enough to consistently get out of the reach of his chains and throw out projectiles from a safe distance. He has a comparatively difficult time against Hakumen and Arakune, who are both capable of both negating his mixup game and his approach options by hitting his chains, countering, or air dashing (Hakumen) or onslaughting him with bugs (Arakune).

Also, Hazama can only shoot out one chain at a time, so characters can move in by going around them well enough or negating them with a multitude of projectiles at once. Though it's thanks to his Ouroboros followups that he can escape projectile punishes, though one must not be reckless in which follow ups to use, making it a bit situational. People can also stuff Serpent's Infernal Rapture with an invincible attack or a counter, and run away with enough skill needed since Hazama must get close to his opponent to be effecient. A good runaway game is needed to stay on one's toes against Hazama. Also, if one can keep him in the air, the only tools he has on hand will be the Wind Serpent's Fang (j.214B), his j.C and his Drives. His game works best on ground to start punishment for setups to safely use his aerial tools as he has no midair Distortion Drives.

Ironcially, Hazama, unlike most pressure happy characters like Ragna and Jin, lacks the range needed on his normals for long range poke punishes, as his 2B, 3C and j.B are the only pokes he has on his disposal. Thus, Hazama often needs to end up as close to his opponent as much as possible as his normals tend to have notable pushback.

In Continuum Shift II, Hazama gained several drastic changes that made him much less beginner-friendly. His normal bread and butter combos involving Devouring Fang have been removed, and replaced with complex OTG combos involving his modified 6C, which pins the opponent to the ground now allowing him to dash in and use 5C to start his air juggles. As with every character, Hazama's style was changed to allow for better pressure when the opponent is trapped in the corner.

In Extend, Hazama has gained a powerful, but very difficult new tool to use. Making use of the Tiger Knee input (2369/2147) and the right set of moves in a combo, it is now possible for Hazama to use his Rising and/or Falling Fang in such a way that he can force the opponent into a loop. With this new tactic, Hazama is able to gain exorbitant amounts of meter in the corner while leaving the opponent utterly helpless as he combos into Serpent's Infernal Rapture from the loop for big damage. But at a cost, he seems to have lost some of his easier complex combos via nerfing his executions.


 * Note: Hazama has a non-standard dash. Instead of running, he will perform a short sliding step forward and stop automatically after a set distance. This dash can be canceled with normals, specials, or barrier block.