Kuzukaze (
| KOF '95 |   or  + 
|
| KOF '96 and '97 (and Orochi Iori in 98 UM) |  +  or 
|
| KOF '98 onwards |  + or
|
Description[]
Iori leans in with his following hand while also bracing with his leading hand, then clutches his opponent. He then pulls them to then shove them aside, often towards the other side of himself. Doing this leaves them in a briefly stunned state, allowing Iori to start a combo if he's fast enough (and provided he can also reach them on time).
Back in its debut game however, it merely acted as a normal throw, inflicting damage while also knocking down the opponent.
Strategy[]
As another avenue for Iori to start his scary offense, the Kuzukaze allows Iori to break through conditioned defenses that are already used to his rather more risky forms of pressure and high-low mixups. While it still only offers room for a single bread-and-butter combo to land into a finisher such as the recurring Aoihana, Iori is still rewarded with a chance to setup his usual hard knockdown vortexes.
However, the side-switching properties may or may not be detrimental to Iori depending on his and his victim's current positions on the stage/screen.
The attack only becomes quite scary if Iori himself is cornered, due to suffering from no pushback should it side-switch his foe into the corner and allows him to often land a small confirm into yet another Kuzukaze in the same vein without worry. However, only some games pushback the victim at a small enough distance for Iori to run up to connect a light normal>Kuzukaze chain over and over again as a guaranteed loop, albeit with very strict timing.
In many games however, if Iori has put his foe into the flame-stasis caused by the Ura 108 Shiki Ya Sakazuki, Kuzukaze is programmed to whiff on the opponent even within range.
Trivia[]
- In its debut game and a number of others, Kuzukaze and other similar non-damaging grab moves are infamously known for being a straight component of various Infinite Death Combos (via rushing up to the foe close enough to combo them into the grab over and over again). However, this and other similar moves were often fixed in later games and updated re-releases, especially with how far Iori shoves away the opponent and the startup of the grab itself (or how more strict timing is required to achieve the same result).
- The move's infamous utilization for infinite combos was referenced in The King of Fantasy manga via chapter 18.
- Miss X's version is known as instead the Kutsu Wind (
葛風 ; Arrowroot Wind), which is the same as before, albeit with one kanji changed in its name.
Gallery[]
Similar Attacks[]
- Ura Kumo Kakushi - A similar non-damaging throw used by Geese Howard.
- Kyokugen Hougeki - A similar non-damaging throw used by Takuma Sakazaki.