Many of us have fond memories of playing Tekken on the PlayStation 1 and trying to win against our most hated enemies (our older brothers). The Tekken frenzy of the early 2000s got a sequel with the release of Tekken 7, continuing the title that has shaped many childhoods.
But when you hear of Tekken, what is the most iconic character in your mind? Jin Kazama right? Indeed, he is probably the most iconic character, but have you heard of the character called Akuma? You have? Yeah, you probably have, but if you haven’t realized yet, Akuma is one of the iconic characters of Street Fighter and not Tekken.
There is nothing wrong with crossovers from other games. We actually love it. But Akuma has attracted a lot of attention in the Tekken 7 community because of how strong a character he seems to be. It is fairly easy to call him “the strongest character in Tekken 7”, according to ProClockers in this Tekken 7 Tier List. Some people even suggest that he is so strong that the other characters don’t even compare to him.
The Akuma Problem
Akumas problem is that he seems to be a hero with Street Fighter moves, in Tekken 7. First of all, his launcher can do so much damage, that the match is practically over by the time he has finished it. There is no other launcher, that does so much damage in the game. But ok, a strong launcher is not enough to call a character OP. If you combine this strong launcher with the power of his low pokes and the safety with which he can execute these moves, then maybe OP is not so far after all.
Actually, Akuma is one of the characters that has dominated the competitive scene of Tekken 7. This means that even the professionals are giving him priority over other characters. So is it definitive?
Is Akuma Overpowered?
Our opinion is that he is not Overpowered.
We can understand why people are complaining about Akuma, and why some people make him look so OP, but the reality is a bit different. There is a very big skill-cap if you want to master Akuma. This means, that if you are not a very skilled player, and practice Akuma for hours and hours, you are just going to end up with a character that has some great moves, that you can’t reliably execute. That is the thing with Akuma that is keeping him balanced for us. We have tried to master his strength to achieve these precious victories, but all we ended up doing is learning how his moves work, seeing a lot of videos of why he is the best, and how to use him. But in the end, it seemed to be too hard to make him work anywhere close to the level of more skilled players than us.
So from our personal experience, Akuma is a well-balanced character that deserves his name as “the strongest character in Tekken 7”.
We hope you enjoyed this article.
