What Happened To Azucena? - Why No One Plays Azucena In TEKKEN 8 

What do you guys think about Azucena in this game? And which character do you want to see me cover next?

I disagree that she's a generic rushdown character now. That was before. Before her nerfs, there was really no incentive to use her stances, all you had to do was rush with WR 3,2, do her DF 1,4 strings and you were golden. Now, she really needs to be creative in her pressure, using her stances and overall movement to confuse the opponent and open them up. I've picked her up after her nerfs and she's incredibly fun to play. She has a fun design, fun playstyle, and winning while using a weak character is always rewarding.

As an azu player I actually think she’s one of the more visually interesting characters in the cast, all the little flourishes and dances in her animations feel really fun and she’s got a lot of personality.

Azucena is the Tekken equivalent of Smash Ultimate Bayonetta. Both of them got MUTILATED. Big respects to everyone still sticking around with her

They have a bad track record of nerfing OP characters way too much. See also: Tekken 7 Fahkumram and Lidia.

I like her, but sadly, "coffee, coffee, coffee" is not a personality. Give her more than that, and I may play her.

As a loyal Azu main who picked up and started playing AFTER her massive nerfs, meaning I never actually got to see her in her short glory days, I think... SHE NEEDS A BUFF. She isn't unplayable but she clearly isn't as good as she once was. Now she's a risky stance mixup type character who's pressure is mostly just fake. But I stuck with her. Being easy to pick up doesn't mean its an easy journey through ranked

I love this girl she’s the reason why I started tekken and why ima still playing now the nerfs was a blessing in disguise for me because now I’ve learned how much better with her the mix ups and mind games make her fun to me

Surprisingly I do occasionally run into loyal Azucena players occasionally, also many people including myself feel happy seeing a Peruvian character in a mainstream game like Tekken

Much like Devil Jin and Zafina (T7 to T8), many people dropped Azucena because she was nerfed into being a punching bag character.

Since my girl Lucky Chloe wasn't in Tekken 8 I had to try out Azucena and she was really fun and energetic. I even love her gimmick with coffee being her promoting it for her family's business. Still to this day I remain still playing her and hoping she get's buff soon.

Day 1 Azu main. Currently Tekken King, my first Tekken game. I never liked the OP WR32 so I was happy when they nerfed it, if only to stop hearing the bitching and moaning if I use the move even once. But then it kept going man. It was almost comical. 3 separate patches just to nerf it to the ground. The only character without a +3 WR move at minimum. But godammit I really like her attitude. Big fan of bubbly dance-y characters. Loved seeing a character from a underrepresented region. Loved her voice, RA, and animations. Fuck man she's so hard to get high now though. Kaizur said it best when he described her as high risk low reward to me. She has a small handful of good moves, while rising 1, LIB 2, F4. But they pale in comparison to most other characters star moves. Here's hoping they let her shine one day again in a healthier way too

This is good for her core fans. Learning to play this character now actually has meaning.

I do play Azucena! Love this character! And now I actually enjoy playing a character no one else plays. She's the only thing at this point that'll make me install the game again.

I started playing her as my main right before the big nerfs and decided to keep playing her because i like the mind games that comes with her lib’ stance. And also, i like the fact that she’s not in the same dramatic tone of the game. She just vibing and talking (too much) about coffee😅

People lose the easy button and called her trash

I play her. The only reason why no one play is because most only play meta characters as always. I keep seeibg dragunov, mishima characters, hwaorang and king pkayers.

This is an example of why I'm not a fan of calling out for blind nerfs for characters. Balance in general is such a tightrope walk that even small changes can bring about massive shifts in balance. For example, I know characters like Nina and Dragunov are currently considered to be the top characters in the cast, and while it's likely they'll be toned down, I do hope Namco finds a way to keep them strong and fun. The same could be said for the characters slightly below them, like Yoshi, Alisa, Jin, and Shaheen. Too many people throw out the word broken, which is unfortunate, because I think T8 is pretty balanced, especially considering it never had an arcade release.

Azucena main here, I hopped on the tekken train during tekken 7 and I mained Lei, mostly because of how tricky and fun he was to play. When tekken 8 was announced and Lei wasn’t on the roster, I needed to find someone who fit the bill with mid, lows, and fake outs, so Azu felt like the next best thing 👍🏼

7:50 her backswing that hooked me

i love her character so much that’s why i play her. no other character is dancing in your face, weaving your high punch, then full combo uppercutting you. but damn, playing her in ranked just feels so bad man. i feel like i have to work soo hard to beat people. it’s so frustrating knowing that a dragnov or jin that i’m fighting probably barely has to use their head when they throw stuff out and get so much reward with such little care. meanwhile i’m over here trying my ass off just to establish my unsafe mids. she’s so tight, but MAN it’s so much more work

Tekken devs have nerfed her A LOT! unfortunately she is bottom 5!

Was waiting for this specific vid

What drew me to my girl Azucena was her reveal trailer when I saw this really cool latina dancing and weaving around attacks and stuff (my mind goes back to the sequence against Hwoarang in that trailer) Why do I stick with her? Well, ever since I played the closed beta, I've always thought she's really fun to actually play as, not just to watch, and even after these nerfs, I still do think she's fun. I pray for better times though.

I disagree about her moveset. it's really fun, satisfying to play, and cool visually. I actually don't mind that I was forced to make more use of her stance cause before her strong pokes and strings made her feel more generic before. I still think they need to undo some of the nerfs to not leave her in the dust. I agree that story wise, they gave her nothing. There are some characters they never give important roles to, and then they act shocked why they aren't a mainstream fave. But personality wise, I do like that she's bubbly, kind of a troll, and a successful businesswoman.

I’m a Azucena Main and I love her. I didn’t play her because she was broken and I didn’t think she was when she was. This is coming from someone who played her since launch and understands her character. Even if she becomes the worst character in the game I still find enjoyment in playing her and like having overcome the Nerfs to win the match.

Azucena has now the ability to showcase her actual full potential but the heap of habit fats people gathered or seen is undermining because it requires time which people aren't willing to put in...

I started playing acuzena 2 months ago, i got promoted to center blue this week for the first time, so i feel she is strong. I love her ecstatic and choices!!! She has soooo many options for every situation. I always lose from making the wrong call, not from being trapped. Plus she is fun to make dance.

The ironic part is because so few people play her I have no clue what the match up is with any of my characters, so when I run into one on ranked I immediately start sweating.

The damage nerfs were rough but the real killer was the total removal of her tracking. 1+2 losing its tracking was probably the roughest next to df14 and 21. 11 being punishable is also pure cancer for her. She isnt rushdown now, she's just reads. All of her options need hard reads or put her in danger for her life. We got chars like lili who get a launching mix from her 10f and azu is here getting...what? Getting beaten out of her stance by anyone with evasive moves, thats what xD she at least has the best sabaki in the game but that means so little its wild. 😢 rip azu.

I'd love to hear an analysis of Jun right now. She was my main in Tag 2 and was so excited for her return. Even though I love playing as her, I can't help but have mixed feelings on her power and health mechanics. I would have much preferred a meter system like a 2D character or only having those powers in heat or something like how Claudio's starburst thing works. I'd love to hear your take on her.

Tekken 8 is the first fighting game I really played, and I started to main her because I thought she looked really cool and I liked her character, with the dances. But hearing a lot what an easy broken character I play (even thought what I now learned, when i started tekken, she was already giga nerfed and I didn't watched any guides, I didn't even knew about her while running move) , and because I noticed, that I didn't get better, after hitting garyu, I switched to a "hard" character, Reina. Now after played way more tekken, i still love Azu, but she is played sooo differently from Reina, and I'm still so busy learning more about Reina, that I hardly play Azu anymore

i play azucena since launch and played her so much she was my main i won ps5 tourneys with her she’s a good character. only now i started switching to alisa i realized in the current meta azucena sadly is mid 😞 before patches she was so perfect bro so much fun im that character but now it’s a hell playing her

One thing she has going for her is that she might be an alien or alien collaborator feeding the world mind-control coffee but they would need to lean into that harder. For example if Ogre returned in a DLC story and it turns out she had been laying the foundations for invasion of Earth. Could even set up a new rivalry with Paul since the Kuma thing has got a bit stale, Paul believes Kuma intentionally saved his life and newer players don't know why they had beef in the first place.

Her unpopularity and weakness are drawing me to her

Sadly the character Azucena needs more substance as a character (back story and etc.) show that she’s just not just the “coffee queen”.

I think despite her wr3,2 nerf being big, I would argue her biggest nerf was the tracking nerf of 2,1 and 1,1 becoming -10. One of Azucena's biggest strengths pre-nerf was how easy it was to stop people from stepping her with basic strings. Her ability to stop side step with jab strings was a huge deal and made stuff like d/f 1,4 that much more oppressive. Now if you watch high level azucena her tracking is arguably her biggest weakness. f4 went from being a fine move to being CORE to her neutral game, opening herself up to chs. Not to mention WR3,2 being throughly destroyed that Ff3+4 has become her new offensive party starter. Azucena is really weird right now. I think she is still pretty reasonable but she is way more commital. Moves like WS3 and ff3+4 encourage more dynamic pressure and her necessity for f4 means she has to commital at stopping movement. Still her kit is still pretty good 1+2 being an i15 ch launcher is INCREDIBLY underated in T8 and high power crush heat engagers are just universally strong. D/f 1,4 still one of the best small tekken moves. Perhaps we might see a resurgence with her sometime later in T8s lifespan, but their is the age old question of why do I have to think when this character fixes all my problems. In this case, why would I do all this work when Drag is RIGHT THERE?!

I main Lee and I met few days ago Azucena player and I used on her "Mist illusion" move which when you manage to do, gives you frame advantage and then you always manage to hit your opponent with the kick after that, but she can avoid it?! Like she can do something to dodge it and move away, which I didn't know any character could and even other Azucena players never did that to me while I used mist illusion move, but this one did, so that was impressive to me honestly 😀

I've been with Azucena since the beginning & I still enjoy using her. I mainly picked her up because of her fighting style, I love all of the dancing & how hard hitting some of her moves are. The nerfs to WR 3,2 didn't really bother me because I never really abused it. I knew that move was gonna get nerfed with everyone complaining. I would love to see some more buffs to the way she changes stances and other ways for her to dance & troll 😅

Azu/Shaheen main. I became an Azu main as a Lei refugee from T7. I have played her since the start of T8, but got more enthusiastic about playing her when they gave her some more stance transitions (1.05 maybe?) because that's the type of character I've found most enjoyable. The above sounds like I should learn Zafina and Yoshi but I just haven't gotten around to it yet

Azucena was my second main before the nerfs, I think the core problem is she doesn’t feel as good of a troll character anymore. When you could spam one or two moves and jail then dance around the opponent it felt amazing and oppressive. Now that the pressure is fake so is the excitement. I think they need to give her back the +5 they can keep the damage or they can give her something like a demon paw with good pushback and no heat engage and a G clef canon

Victor is just 5x cooler than a coffee woman as a new comer

I actually started playing her after her nerfs as i was still looking for a main. Turns out i really like her character and dancy moves

Day 1 Azu main here: I used to use Katarina in Tekken 7 but didnt play as much as Tekken 8 and i wanted someone similar so i picked Azucena, I've stuck with her becayse honestly i find her so enjoyable to play, i enjoy executing her complex strings even if i only do 5.3 damage. Ive got her up to Battle Ruler in Ranked and while it's been a hard road, i would lowv to get her to Fujin. I just enjoy playing her and i have loads of custom looks for her, i do have Lili i could pick up waiting in the wings but i do just really like Azucena too much

What i've learned when it comes to fighting games is that people REALLY hate playing against good characters. Nobody says "hey, just nerf my character or give them a tool to fight what this other character is doing". Instead they say "please nerf this good character into the ground". Once the character is trash due to the nerfs, they bs and say "this character is fun now". I remember when Lil Majin did that when Fahk got nerfed in T7. Nobody thinks a character is more fun after a nerf aside from the people who play characters OTHER than the character that got nerfed.

I decided after seeing her reveal that she’d be my main. I’ve been playing her since release. Never abused the wr move. I didn’t know anything about frames so I didn’t know there was anything to abuse. As for her fighting style being basic, yes. While she has her quirks, I like my characters goofy with as grounded of a fighting style as possible. No lighting, powers or gadgets. Just some MMA.

You know, I'm inspired to try her out. I always thought the dodges were cool and one of my friends completely dropped her after the nerfs. Perfect opportunity for me to beat him up with her

Reading through the comments it looks like a lot of current Azu mains are old Lei heads waiting for him to come back (myself included). The main draw to her is the Lib/Backturn mix up game plan that she relies on. A lot of it is rather fake like Lei's, but it's the idea of messing with your opponents' mental stack to enforce your mix ups that appeals to me at least. It's incredibly satisfying to get those Lib auto parries and finding creative ways to put people in the blender is the joy of her playstyle. I agree that she does need some buffs to her neutral as they gutted that way too hard for what little they gave us in return. 2,1 being -7 on block just feels cruel for no reason and she really struggles to get any sort of meaningful plus frames going.

Bummer, I really like her personality and I've always wanted to main her after Steve and King. I hope to pick her up eventually.

0:41 Azucena was tekken, and then immediately showed a list where she's in sixth place. That was funny, I'm not gonna lie.

1:25 Yooo Last Surprise Scramble

Got to tekken emperor then god with Azucena after nerfs, she's such a fun character to play but very high risk in the higher ranks and competitive scene since her neutral got gutted, buff my girl plz Harada :(

As a Josie main, at first I thought Azucena was Josie's replacement. After trying her out, though, I realized she's not at all Josie. Anyway, I hope Josie returns. I really miss her, and her CD+3.

i still play her cause she still fun and feel great to use even after her nerfs was put in place but honestly even after her nerfs she is still great to use and makes it very creative to pressure players and find a opening in a funny way and her counters are still great too

6:34 this reasoning is part of the reason why, amongst buffs, I really want to see if the Tekken team can come in and give Azucena some more moves as well. Some more low options on her or something that would give her an oomph is definitely needed, and while I love her kit to death as it is before and after the nerfs for how straightforward it was for me as a new Tekken player to learn, there needs to be some more complexity added on to her to not only make her viable and make her interesting. As for why I picked up Azucena, when I was considering starting Tekken with 8, I looked at the cast for personality and gameplay like most do. Azu immediately stood out to me, because of the fact that she was such a shitter. Her upbeat personality, dancing in the face of the enemy, fighting basically mainly to promote and innovate a coffee business, and what seemed to me at the time as a trickster mixup playstyle caught my attention. It also helped that since she was new, I learned that picking up more recent characters would be easier for beginners, so that was the nail in the coffin for me. In terms of before and after the nerfs, while I did mix in WR32 in from time to time, I never really relied on the move, instead focusing on understanding the full kit, so the nerfs never really bothered me until 1.04 where Azu was nuked. I was busy at the time so I didn’t get to experience Azu in that period, but the 1.05 changes were good enough for me to come back and give her a shot. The 1.05 changes were in line with what I originally sought in the character anyways, plus I really focused on learning her with how much I love her, so I’ve stuck with her since. I prefer being a one trick for a low tier over following the meta anyways, and I just love shitting on people with her anyways.

"Why does no one play Azucena" Because people only knew how to do WR and her insane poking, once those were no longer broken, they didn't feel like figuring out other stuff so they hopped to the nexr character (Drag, Nina or Alisa)

0:53 Devil Jin having the exact same situation but we don't care : "🔥This is fine🔥"

I originally picked up azucena because of her feints and her ability to irritate the opponent. In general my playstyle in most fighting games is finding ways to aggressively condition people and make them doubt their gameplay, and feints with essentially built in taunts are absolutely perfect for that style of play. I wish that they would buff other aspects of the character instead of just making everything about her weaker. I enjoy how much of her moveset you now have to use at higher level to succeed, I just wish they actually incentivized you further to do so. My suggestion for a buff would be a slightly faster transition into stance so I’m not always getting jabbed in the face

I can only play characters that i connect it doesn't matter where in the tier list they are, and this only works for me on tekken since the right and the left feel extremely different unlike 2d games She's one of the few i connected and i will not abandon her

The only Azu players left are the Josie and Miguel Mains from T7 waiting to get their character back.

As an Azucena main, I picked her up on launch simply because of her libertador stance, and gave me weird lucky Chloe vibes, though probably because she was annoying, and had a backsway move. I also was one of the running 3,2 spammers, and I am glad it got nerfed the 1st time since it felt a little unfair to me. I haven’t dropped her, but I have decided to take a small break from her, opting to pick up Lili and Devil Jin because they looked fun. On some days though, I will decide to go Azucena, or use my T7 main: King

As a person who still plays Azucena, i don't blame people for dropping her. She's nearly unplayable. That 3rd nerf was just assinine. It's the same thing they did with Shaheen in tekken7. They gave him an unnecessary nerf which really hurt the character. Now, it's a chore to play azucena. I still like playing her but dang, just revert that 3rd nerf. But I like her moves and that Liverator dodge is so satisfying to pull off. I never had a problem with the WR3,2 because I rarely used the move to begin with. Though I still have to ask, why is there no way to cancel out of liberator stance. You have to use an attack or do that stupid walk back from back turn.

She’s been my main since release. Unlike everyone abusing WR32 I was abusing Db4. Post nerfs I feel like I was forced to play better tekken with her and now it’s so satisfying to win a match with an autoparry.

we lost josie for azucena....still disappointed about that

Ive been an avid lover of stance characters for so long, and when they changed her to be more stance mix up-y i figured she'd be the one, but now theres honestly too many stance characters and i want to pick her back up

I’m a character loyalist so once I find a character I like I will stick with them through thick and thin and the reason why I chose her is because this is my first tekken I’m getting into and I saw her dancing while fighting and I was like yep this is the one

The funny thing is I picked her up launch, dropped her because WR 3, 2 was such a boring core gameplay feature (I was expecting more shit from her stance), and then when they nerfed her to shit and I had to be creative, I picked her up again. I was playing Yoshi then, but after I realized he wasn't the scrappy, shitty Tekken 7 Yoshi that I grew to love, I dropped him for Azucena and Lee. I play this game on someone else's (Read: My office) copy of the game because I refuse to pay Bandai Namco money after all that post launch stuff, so I never played Ranked, and honestly, playing her against the local Bushin-ranked fuckers in the office feels so good. It feels amazing playing this funny, nothing of a character and pretending that, in some way, Lucky Chloe has reincarnated.

I learned her after the patch, still a fun character to play, besides her inconsistencies at the wall. Could use some slight buffs or give her original damage back.

Finally you did it🎉🎉🎉

i used to main her and still play her sometimes. i think the wr32 nerf was completely appropriate, i still use the move and i dont have a problem with it. what bothered me a lot was the 11 and 21 nerfs. i thought poking was a cool part of her identity and i found 11 so fun to use but now it kind of hurts to play her. i did appreciate the combo buffs but i would def play her more if they made 11 safe again.

Then, there is not coffee lover in Tekken, embrace the ☕️

I still play azu but i have her in really high ranks now and am trying other characters to mix up up aside from that i have been normally playing retro games and now horor games to celbrate October. Probably go right back to her after i finish Ling Lily and Lidia

I started playing her like a month ago and she's been pretty fun now I'm trying reina ... I had a way easier time learning azucena.

She doesn’t suck,she’s a trickster like yoshimitsu and takes skill to use.

I'm holding it down; almost at Tekken Emperor with her.

I think the ppl that hold a bad opinion of her now are the ones who picked her up early (pre-nerfs) and only used her for the OP/Broken value. And after being nerfed everyone just assumed, that was it and she'd be useless moving forward. But there's so much more to Azucena! I messed with her early on upon release but I'm an OG Tekken player so I went to the characters I grew up with (Paul, Yoshi, King, Jin, etc..) but for some reason just lately, on a whim, after the Heihachi release, I started playing with Azucena and I'm actually having a LOT of FUN playing Tekken again!? She's goofy and weird! And her stances are off-putting and you do have to actually WORK at using her effectively (which, btw, can ABSOLUTELY be done). And when you do, it genuinely feels rewarding! Because you know you didn't just cheese out a win, you really had to out-play your opponent. So, yea, I think she was just so OP in the beginning that the nerfs were necessary to bring her back down to earth but now that she's here you might want to take the time to learn her move set and stances and give her another shot because she's still pretty strong imho.

I love her overall package, I do struggle but I enjoy playing azucena more than my main Leo.. It's just sad that almost all of her 10f sucks right now since the nerf

Azucena is really fun ! I actually adore her gameplay - unfortunately her character is always shown in a bad light and she comes off scrubby if you don’t know her skill set . But she’s probably one of the most fun versatile characters I’ve played in tekken ! I’m a proud azu main :) ! Sure you can scrub her out and play her cheaply but if you actually play her seriously it’s so much fun

I noticed one of them tie list her Bryan over king, law and fend. That is absolutely criminal at its finest

What happened to Jun Next

i mained her until i switched to xiao. She’s extremely fun when utilizing her stance mixups and not just trying to beat your opponent with her neutral. Although I experienced part of her op days, I dont think shes a blind rush down character and if you use her that way, you will lose 70% of the time. I think she needs something i just dont know what that would be. Maybe an unblockable but who am i, im no dev. Anyways I stick to her bc tekken 8 is the first tekken i took seriously and she was the first character i picked up

Just picked up T8 during the sale Been a lili main since 5 so i wanna change things up and play either reina or azucena

I always found people saying this is weird because I never once encountered it. And i've been playing since launch

i played azu bc no josie but i grew to like her personality and gameplay and was very disappointed w/ the nerfs she's received

Because Jin and other characters are so cool

Well damn, someone should’ve told LtG about her

There is going to be a video very soon titled What Happened To Dragunov

I just picked her up. I a true low tier gawd… I play the crap characters just because. I played Baraka in MK9… yep, I’m that guy.

I'm sticking with her just because she's fun to play, but it can be frustrating sometimes. She got me into gold ranks finally

A lot of people are talking that Coffee is Azucena's personality but from the way she fights it goes deeper. Coffee is what she says(alot) but coffee isn't what she does. She is VERY passionate about her coffee buisness however her coffee only became famous because of her MMA,her dancing, modeling. All of which are her passions that she intergrated into her fighting style. We hear coffee but everything she does midfight is literally everything but(other than super). Further, as someone who practices MMA myself I love witnessing her more grounded choreography. The rear naked choke, ankle lock, overhand right, most of her kicks! I be eating it up when i see it🥹

Blossom Haze OST! Peak! 🙌🔥

Whenever people say skill matters more than characters, well they're lying. That's why I see less than 10 Kuma & absolutely 0 Panda on an average week

as a azu main the reason why still play her is because she is the only one close to my previous main in t6 to t7 and that's miguel even with nerfs she still fun to play but idk maybe its just me.

I tried her during every period of T8, but I just can't click with her. I mostly want to do dance stuff, but I don't know the game well enough to know when to dance back, left, right, and so on. I like her visual design a lot though, the flowy clothes and the literal flourishes during her moves do a lot for me.

I still main Azucena to this day I can barely keep up in Ranked rn as a matter of fact I deranked from Raijin to Fujin recently 😭 Everyone knows my moves even if I switch it up I barely do damage its like I have to be lucky enough to catch people lol feels like everyone is faster than me aswell if I were to buff her I'd give her new moves and combos maybe do a bit more damage aswell if we gonna keep her moves slow or vise versa for now imma focus on Sparkling Zero 😁

I think they could play more into her stances and evasive behavior but the problem is that she would end up being a really defensive character in a game where defense is kinda meh

I feel Aiden’s needs my move cancels to trick opponents into trying to interrupt you, then you launch them. That would be fun and interesting. Also i think Zafina would make a good video.

I liked the character so much, she's funny and her gameplay is sooo satisfying But it feels frustrating to play her, I need to make so much more effort with her than any character. But I keep playing her because she's so funny. She's basically a noob killer with all her counter hit launcher but past a threshold she's so much less effective I think

I still play azu and I get highlights with her till this day tbh

Man considering that she gotten more views on her debut trailer then ravens it's surprising that no one is playing with her