Why Akuma Is Top Tier In Every Street Fighter Game 

Gouki is fair & balanced no idea what you guys are talking about.

He doesn’t need to be balanced, this is lore accurate.

Akuma is so good that he will appear as a guest fighter in other games and be broken there too.

He's so broken, he broke the balance of a game from another franchise 😂😂 (Tekken 7)

No matter what happens to him, I know his Raging Demon is going to look sick as hell in SF6 and I'm all here for it.

Akuma is still beloved as a character even after being OP for most of his existence. That says something. I don't think most people want him to be game breaking but he should be right at the edge. Give us Akuma, Capcom.

I still miss jump back air fireball.

I think Akuma's identity is about him being broken. Conversely, Dan had been consistently bad by design. Because he's intended to be a joke character, and it's only in SFV where he isn't in the absolute bottom of the tier list.

Honestly I'm waiting to see Akuma for "World Tour" more than anything else, just to see _why_ he takes on the character's avatar as a student. Does he recognize the Satsui no Hado within them? _"If Ryu won't be a worthy rival, then I'll just train my own!"_ (Heck, Akuma won't live forever regardless; maybe he wants to pass on his knowledge of "True Ansatsuken" as Goutetsu had to him.)

His appearance as Oni and in Asuras Wrath deserves honourable mentions...they were awesome.

I think it's really important to note that he's never been *the* problem character in any of the games you mentioned other than Super Turbo. Maybe Tekken, but in any version of Street Fighter past Super Turbo that was played competitively for a long period of time there was usually characters better than him. Third strike Chun, AE Yun, Ultra Elena and SF5 Luke especially come to mind.

Akuma hasn’t been “overly dominant” since like 2008 tbh. Just top tier and only in the right hands

sfv akuma is fine when Tokido uses him, only Tokido won tourneys with akuma while today luke is everywhere

Akuma is a glass canon

Zangief player: This is fine (all in fire around)

I always liked Akuma, but didn't play as him much until 2019 when I won an event with Akuma in a card game (of which he was equally as strong as he is in the video games). The success with Akuma brought a new found appreciation for him, resulting in Akuma becoming one of my mains in 3rd Strike. I look forward to what he has to offer with Street Fighter 6's mechanics.

Akuma is such badass not even Capcom can stop him.

to me what makes akuma so strong no matter how many times they nerf him is the tools he has access to. Especially if no other character has access to the same stuff. The air fireball, for example, is so good at screen control and mix ups in general that even with good counter play its still hard to predict and therefore still useful.

Unimaginably hyped to see the atrocities people commit with sf6 akuma

Akuma is a great example of how fighting games don't need to be completely balanced. If using the strongest character is either extremely technical or fragile, than it makes the character seem less of an auto win button due to the skill required to play them at their best, and reduces the amount of players who shame those who use top tiers.

Akuma is going to be what next year's rebalancing will be centered around. They will use Akuma as the measuring stick. Unless they somehow bring him out with certain things within his kit that limit his power until a certain condition is met.

Bruh, akuma is the true definition of unstoppable, despite being nerf so much by the dev, he's still rise to the top😂

I think SF 6 has enough defensive tools that he won't be as oppressive as he normally is.... but he just inherently comes with too many offensive tools for me to ever envision a timeline where he isn't at least A tier. I can't wait to see how he's translated, with Ed coming in February I'm hoping for a late March/early April launch for Akuma.

Air Fireball with drive rush about to go crazy 😂😂😂

He's top tier in Tekken too :D

Akuma was never supposed to be balanced at the first place. It is just him and goes with him flawlessly. Capcom tried to balance him in SFV but gained world wide criticism.

SF6 Akuma with Modern Controls is going to insane

Even in tekken, a 3D based fighting game this demon is a menace

He's like Lu Bu in the dynasty warrior games people just expect it.

A short note saying that I appreciate your writing. Your scripts are well thought out, and you aren't afraid to use an expansive vocabulary.

Think of him every day. See you soon my boy

I am so looking forward to play Akuma in SF6 man, and also watching Tokido plays him in tournaments.

Aye just subbed. Keep up the good SF content!

The thing about Akuma is ... that he is a check on if players deserve to play as him at all. He's quickly punished if players make a mistake, his recovery is slow if he gets shotted in open play and his most powerful move, Raging Demon, historically required very specific mechanics to enact. So basically, as Akuma, you as the player have to play as Akuma would: practically perfectly to deploy his arsenal and unload the punishment on your opponents. It's a great choice in game design: he is the absolute pinnacle of mastery in the hands of the best players but in another average joe's, he is just another Shoto.

Great and thoughtful video on Akuma.

This is why I hope Cammy's level 3 doesn't get touched or nerfed because i can see it being very handy to punish a fullscreen Akuma fireball or raging demon.

At least in SF4, Demon Flip oki is still strike/throw at the end of the day. Same as a grounded strike/throw 50/50

Capcom: Soooo more buffs?

Loved watching Tokido, and I believe Infiltration before he moved on to a different character play as him in SF4. Akuma is badass.

I'm terrified of an Akuma with Demon Flip, DI, DR, and raging demon all at the same time

He's not unbalanced, he's lore accurate :D

Kinda surprised how you glossed over SF3's super move system, where Akuma would always have three super moves when other characters only had one. Oh, and in SVC Chaos where the 2x2 arcade button layout made it MUCH easier and quicker pull off a Raging Demon following a jump-in attack.

I would love to see Akuma's SFXT super come back. That super looked so sick

Let's be real, he's always OP because he's one of if not the most popular and coveted fighting game character there is. People will pay for him, especially if he's OP.

He is going to be top 3 and I'm ready.

I saw that title and immediately went, "but... 3rd Strike?"

this an is truly my favorite sort of character i started to go gym because of his physic back in the day

Yoooo Velociraptor narrated this? Your Gouken was sick to watch back in the day!

akuma does reality breaking stuff

We need VIOLENT KEN .. after Akuma 💪🏽

it’s also akuma, he’s the most badass fighting game character.

honestly, despite folks clearly wanting as much for Ryu for obvious reasons, i want to see Akuma's moveset move even closer towards Gouken's. we've already seen this happen in both sf4, considering Oni and the shit there, and sf5 and to see Gouki come full circle to end up more like his brother than he'd clearly ever want would be poetic to say the least.

Uh, Akuma was mid-tier *at best* in the final patch of SF5.

It's hard to make a character who lorewise is supposed to be OP as fuck into a balanced fighter. I mean that makes sense

I happened to really like Akuma a lot and he's once a main that I use back in SF2 Turbo. My only main issue is that when he does comes out and is seemingly top tier broken, players are gonna be way too co-dependent using him,not because Akuma's gameplay will be amazing but as soon as players drop their mains they're gonna be switching towards Akuma and we have ourselves another Luke & Ken situation all over again where will feature 30 or moreso Akuma players in the next CPT tournament. And as much how cool Akuma is that's gonna the same repetitive problem all over again.

My concept for balancing is amplifying the risk vs reward. So, lore wise, we know that Satsui no Hado is destroying his body for power, hence the low health. However, what if instead of low health, what if the Satsui no Hado is a mechanic exclusive to him like, Manon’s medals or Jamie’s drinks. What if he was given full access to the V trigger ability that lets Akuma cancel specials into other specials or enhance his OD moves with additional meter, BUT at the cost of taking recoverable health damage. Or, maybe consider Nagoriyuki’s blood mechanic from GGstrive. Basically, Akuma can enter his demon state at the cost of draining health.

Everyone: akuma has too many tools and can’t be bad Mvc2 devs: hold my beer

He doesn't need to be balanced. He is the balance.

as a casual third strike Akuma is my favorite

That Akuma in your thumbnail looks awesome! Reminds me of mad god for some reason

He's top tier because he is nothing more than a marketing gimmick, a tool to manipulate the lowest common denominator of shoto fans. He's popular because he's badass/strong and he's strong/badass because he's popular. Balance be damned.

The fact that Akuma was ALSO top tier in Tekken is funny.

Akuma is my top 5 fav fighting game characters I didn't get sf5 until he came out and in doing the same w 6 and every other sf

Does anyone else remember that way old Gamepro gag, where someone managed to put an Akuma sprite into Resident Evil 2, and then the rumor spread that he was an unlockable character? Man, the 2000s were a great time.

Akuma comes out in two months if you use the first two characters as a pattern

Bring Paul over from tekken. 1 phoniex smasher will take down Akuma.

Street Fighter Alpha Akuma's air fireball was the best! Akuma could throw his air fireball and follow behind it like an assist character from a versus game. This attack could lead to all kinds of combos!😎

I love the fact that he's so powerful it has IRL consequences, almost as if being banned is now part of his lore

give AKUMA half the health of the character with THE LOWEST HEALTH

Balance is just a buzz word & often subjective per individual. Make him fun as hell, make an amazing game & it won't matter.

Now that we've seen how he looks in-engine for 6, let's hope all this still applies when the gameplay footage comes along!

Its impossible for him to be more OP than Luke and Ken right now. Capcoms planned nerfs for them will be Akuma's benchmark. I think they will release him weak like the grapplers and A.K.I. out of fear.

What if Akuma become charge character? What if 90% of his special moves become charge inputs?

SF6 will start for me when Akuma launches.

I really love your videos, but how come you never use clips from the live action series "Assassins Fist"?

I like him broken.

AKUMA/Gouki can't be balanced, HE IS the one THAT does balancing. And he's lore accurate!

Homie went into Tekken u universe and is top 3 in every tier list

I hope Akuma will be able to do air fireballs jumping back in sf6. Dhalsim can and with mechanics like parry and drive impact every character will be able to deal with it.

Akuma is simply the best hands down point blank period 😅

Akuma is the man all day everyday ready with the hands

i think the simple answer. its because of the history of his first appearance and the lore

He was made that way

That yellow-haired Akuma at 5:35 looks so sick.

One thing is real, Akuma's introduction from start to the current state he will be an inevitable GOAT character CAPCOM has ever made, period. CAPCOM knows the mistake and CAPCOM knows they can't make another one like AKUMA ever. They made Akuma a fan base that if CAPCOM slightly made him low tier specially on his appearance in the game there will be an outrage. They did try to pull a leg on Megaman fans back in Street Fighter X Tekken and man that mocking they made to Megaman cost them the whole much anticipated crossover game of the century to the point NAMCO back out to making Tekken X Street Fighter ( I know SFXT had a lot of issues like imbalanced gem system, characters and such but it's an aftermath when they started from that bad box art Megaman character). Akuma can never be a balanced character specially his introduction/appearance because that is where his charm came from back in the day when he mysteriously appeared and knock M..Bison out. That is a testament. My point of view inserting Akuma on Tekken 7 was it was a test water if Tekken X Street Fighter can still be a thing, but guess what Akuma brought to Tekken? Mass Murder scene in tournaments and that people will have a pocket Akuma just in case their opponent pull the Akuma card on them 🤣🤣

Akuma, my favorite fighting game character of all time even though I mainly play Tekken now, and to think I didn’t use Akuma that much in 7

I can’t wait til he gets put into sf6. Dude has such a unique swag that just can’t be replicated, besides with Evil Ryu

He’s such a force of power that the gods that made him (game devs) can’t weaken him.

When a character has everything, they will be good no matter what lol

This got me hyped for sf6. Id been ignoring it. Capcom give this man a sponsorship

bornfree! i miss that guy's content

coming back to this, akuma is yet again busted but has an interesting trait where he is a total glass cannon, meaning its like his sf3 ts appearance where he is like mid tier or debatably high tier according to some players I met. He gels super well with the game mechanics but drive rushes and the combo system of 6 means he cant afford too too many mistakes or get deleted, reason being is this game is much more offense focused than previous games. He by design is impossible to balance out of being good, generally the best way to make him balanced is to beef up everyone else to a point he struggles to get stuff done easily.

Since 6 is the first SF after 2. Just cannonicly de power him. Hes just always been nutty

OP IS his balance. Complete domination in battle is his true style!

Once a boss always a boss imho.

3 Fun facts about T7 Akuma: 1. His broken quatilies are not from his character specifics but from the game(SF) mechanics, so any SF character would've been broken. 2. One of his worst matchups is against Noctis from Final Fantasy XV 3. One of his best matchups is against Negan from Walking Dead because he had single reliable option against neutral demon flip that dealt 4-5% dmg and was punishable on block.

Akuma is freakin’ strong af in all SF games, there’s a reason he’s usually DLC or in older games an unlockable - Because of his tools.. Everyone knows really his only drawback is health, which I can I live with lol

his design is so strong he's reasonably to very strong in every other fighting game

Oh nice. i loved to play Akuma in SF4 but i never knew he is that op.

Not gonna lie im very curious to see how they change and balance him considering in the past he would usually just have much lower health and stun values to offset all his tools. Im SF6 though health is mostly the same across all characters and everyone has the exact same dizzy condition too.