From new moves to the best version of Demon yet? Breakdown of Akuma's official Street Fighter 6 trailer

Akuma, the most anticipated piece of Street Fighter 6 content since its launch back in June, finally got a full gameplay trailer as Evo Japan wrapped up early Monday morning.

The demonic Street Fighter mainstay did not disappoint as the showcase highlighted old techniques with fresh twists as well as a few (terrifying) brand new ones. After watching a handful of times, Catalyst and I recorded a full breakdown video in which we point out and discuss the most intriguing parts of Akuma's SF6 trailer.

First thing's first, we learned that Akuma will be joining the roster as DLC in just over three weeks on Wednesday, May 22. Along with him will be the annual balance patch that should see most every character in the game receive some combination of buffs and nerfs in an effort to make the overall experience even more enjoyable.

Akuma's appearance is noticeably bulkier than perhaps ever before, possibly indicating that he's growing extremely close to ascending into full demon or "Oni" status. Capcom has mentioned in recent months that they used Buddha statues and animals as references for his musculature, a move that's definitely made him even more memorable.

Being a Street Fighter for over 30 years now, Akuma has developed a large arsenal of attacks that have made their way back into SF6. We see his ground fireballs, (which he can now hold and charge to achieve up to three hits) air fireball, (which likely will only be possible during forward jumps) Demon Flip, (now called Demon Raid) teleport, Raging Demon, and more.

We already know the relative power of many of these techniques, and can only imagine they'll be especially effective amid the Drive System mechanics that make up Street Fighter 6's fighting atmosphere. The old fighter has new moves, however, which we'd like to take a moment to highlight here.

We kick things off observing a handful of new normal attacks that have great reach and that can lead into target combos, so already we see some interesting juice in the basic neutral game. It's when Akuma pulls off his trademark teleport (which seems to go a little less far these days) where we see his first new special.

The teleport has actually lost a good bit of the invincibility it used to have, but to make up for this developers have given Akuma the Oboro Throw, what sounds and looks like a command grab that he can perform while using teleport. When we see this in the trailer it looks a lot like a lite version of the iconic Raging Demon, leading me to nickname it "Demon Lite."

He also can now perform what's called the Adamant Flame, a series of fiery punches that are preceded by a slight step back, have great reach and that cause a wall splat when you use the OD version.

We go into greater detail on all this and plenty more in the full video below. Please check it out and share your excitement (or dread) for Akuma in the comments.

If you enjoy this please like and comment on it directly on YouTube, and consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel so you'll be notified whenever we produce new content.