A lot of Akihiko info from the same reports:

- His entrance pose is him clashing his fists and saying "Let's have a good battle". He also has a special opening scene with Chie.
- His victory poses:
In the first round, he beats himself in the chest and says "I'm pretty strong!".
In the second round, he says "It was a good fight, see you", puts on the hood of his ragged red cape and jumps away.

5A - a jab. Has a pretty good reach. Its S-Chain makes Akihiko rush back and forth around the opponent, finishing with Cyclone Upper if you have the meter.
2A - a sitting jab. Its range is actually very long, even bigger than of 5A. In fact, it easily outranges most of the other characters' jabs except for maybe Kanji. You can also combo it, like 2A-5B-Kill Rush A (236A) if you're close enough. A godlike move overall.
5B - a two-hit body blow. Its range is pretty short.
2B - a left-hand uppercut. Besides being an anti-air move, it can be jump-canceled, so you can combo it like 2B-jB-jB-Assault Dive (j214A/B). Since Akihiko's aerial game is not that good, many characters want to approach him from the air, so don't forget to use this move.
5C/2C - Caesar brings down his sword. The start-up is long, but the reach is excellent, even making it possible to use it as an anti-air. However, since it's a Persona attack, you can't use it along with 5D, so you have to choose between them.
5D/2D - Caesar's globe shines and pulls the enemy in. The main part of the pull is at the beginning of the move, only pulling in a bit more after that. You should also keep in mind that the enemy is pulled towards Caesar, not towards Akihiko, so it's possible to overestimate the pull while standing somewhere else, not to mention putting your Persona in a dangerous situation. Akihiko may be a character that doesn't depend on his Persona too much, but losing 5C and 5D is still pretty bad.
jA - a jumping jab. You can mash it, and it has some good range, too.
jB - Akihiko punches downwards. A jump-in tool, I guess?
jC, jD - pretty much the same as the ground versions.


Throw - Akihiko grips the enemy and performs a Killer Rush variant. You can even follow it up with Corkscrew and Boomerang Hook, too. Thanks to that, his throw give you much more reward than those of the other characters.
All-Out Rush - an overhead punch. Not that much aerial combos that you can do out of it.
Sweep (2A+B) - a fist sweep. Resembles Dudley's crouching MK.


Double Upper (B+D) - Akihiko's R-Action, a right-hand uppercut (why is it double, then?). Unlike Narukami or Mitsuru, Akihiko doesn't jump, and the move's range is short, so it kinda sucks when compared to them. Still, it's an R-Action, which means that it's a valid defense tool. But yeah, the others have much better ones.
Kill Rush (236A/B) - Akihiko rushes forward. If he reaches the opponent, he automatically throws out a flurry of punches. A version has faster start-up, while B version travels longer distance. This is obviously the move that Akihiko is all about, since you can follow it up with any other special beside Assault Dive. You should be careful about spamming it, though, since it cares about the opponent's position at the time you perform it, which means that they can easily jump and watch you beat up empty air.
Closeout Blow (214A/B) - Akihiko parries the enemy's attack. You can follow it up with the same stuff as Kill Rush.
Corkscrew (6A/B after Kill Rush) - such a magnificent corkscrew so early in the morning! Blow the enemy away, ending the Kill Rush combo. Can be followed up with Ducking.
Boomerang Hook (4A/B after Kill Rush) - Akihiko performs a right-hand hook, leaving the enemy standing. This is yet another excellent move that can be followed up with pretty much anything Akihiko has at his disposal, be it 5B, sweeps, All-Out Rush or even the supers. You can even cross-up the opponent by simply jumping and turning around! Alas, if you decide to do another Kill Rush, a Corkscrew will come out instead. Well, it's still the single best move that you have, so abuse it!
Ducking (236C/D or 6C/D after Kill Rush) - Akihiko lunges towards the opponent quickly. I suppose it's safer than Kill Rush or something.
Webbing (214C/D or 4C/D after Kill Rush) - Akihiko retreats from the opponent quickly. Again, not that much stuff about this one.
Assault Dive (j214A/B) - Akihiko dives downwards with a punch, striking a pose when landing.


Cyclone Upper (236236A/B) - the Big Bad Uppercut super. It has its own gauge that gives it more hits if you charge it up with the other moves. And it's actually pretty easy to charge up by just going Kill Rush - Boomerang Hook - Sweep - Cyclone Upper and stuff like that. However, the gauge drops to 0 at the end of the combo (or it simply drops down fast). Basically, it compensates for the combo scaling, making your combo ender bigger if the combo itself is longer.
Thunder Fist (236236C/D) - gives your attacks Lightning properties, paralyzing the opponent sometimes. Alas, it seems that you can't cancel your combos with it, since Akihiko performs a Kill Rush instead for some reason.
Maziodyne (214214C/D) - nothing new about this one, though this is the only move that makes Akihiko pull out his Evoker.

Akihiko Sanada

Dunno if you guys played this game or not, but if you did it'd sum up Akihiko in a pretty good nutshell. Burai from Big Bang Beat is the closest thing you'll get to Akihiko. Our P3 sempai does have a lot of similarities to Dudley, Steve (SFxT style), and more, but I'd like to emphasize the fact that Akihiko's air game is pretty trashy. MaYu didn't play him nearly as much as Yukiko, so this'll be shorter than the rest. I'll also gather some info from the other Akihiko players, who were coming out of their closet or something. He was the next most used character after the big three and Teddie (trololol?)

Lemme start by saying that this guy hits hard. VERY hard. His gatling A jabs can easily lead to mix-up hell, if his AOA wasn't so damn slow. Then again, Makoto players shouldn't be that surprised, seeing as it's just about the same speed. The fact they gave him that is pretty standard nowadays for boxing-esque characters. Unlike his fellow brethren though, Akihiko doesn't get the same damage potential from landing an overhead. Since his is the AOA that everybody else has, he can only chain into air assault or push them closer to the corner. Damage is still damage, but it's not very threatening since he can't bring the enemy back to the ground with an aerial in hopes to continue his combo. It's pretty disheartening. That's what I thought Assault Dive would be, but he goes into a pose afterwards and kinda kills any potential there.

Outside of that part, his normals are great in range and hitboxes. His full arm pretty much is the hitbox, and the fact he's taller than Chie helps. It allows him to match her kicks range (which still holds the title of best melee range without a weapon imo) and lead to potential mixups. What I'm sort of hoping to see is if there's some ground reset opportunities he can do which can take advantage of the fantastic hitboxes he's got. Throw range is impressive and has follow ups with his Ducking or Boomerang attacks. I've seen people get into jab pressure, then grab and proceed to knock off 45 percent with a lvl. 3 Uppercut stocked.

Instead of weaving evades like Vanessa of KOF, they gave him Makoto-esque parries. 3S fans will enjoy this and can treat him like Dudley in that regards. Helps with him getting in, but only stops one hit. Kinda makes me wonder if it's that broken to have him rapid fire parries, which my brain might say is a yes. He has no shortage of mobility options and can get into his comfort zone faster than a majority of the cast. His plethora of AA moves is also nice, mainly from the normals. He almost feels...SF-esque in this game whenever I saw him in action. 2B (JC'able), 5B are staple AA attacks.

He likes Kill Rush, A LOT. It's essentially a Machine-gun Blow (Dudley's approaching rapid fire fist) with follow up potential. Many of his attacks lead to it and the sheer fact he can get a combo off it is enough compensation. I saw a player do a jump loop after landing, utilizing his j.ab into a Caesar set up.

Speaking of him, Caesar is his set-up tool. Main suction is in the first hit, then it's kinda bleh after that. Nowhere near the level of Seth's spin-off from SSFIV. The Persona has a huge hurtbox, so do not throw him out unless you can keep that pressure on all day. Outside of that, I see Caesar mainly for tagging stupid approaches or punishing supers. He's slow, cumbersome, but gets a bounce off every hit for Akihiko to rush in and combo. Pretty cool if you ask me and adds to the fact that he's beginner friendly. Like Chie, you just have to focus on using Akihiko for the most part. Caesar is, I guess, for zoner characters? Might throw off their game, if he doesn't get blasted away first (Aigis, haha).

I don't have much else to say. If he gets in, you're in trouble. People's blockstrings had a lot of holes in them, and the lack of a proper overhead to combo from really means you can either jump away (Aigis, haha) or hold d/b all day and he'll have some problems. Hopefully this gets fixed.