TEKKEN 7 Kuma/Panda
Difficulty – Medium
The iconic duo makes their return to T7. Despite Kuma and Panda having separate character slots, they are the exact same character; the only difference lies in their Rage Arts. The bears have access Hunting Bear Stance (HBS) which is a very momentum based stance. They have access to a fast low string, damaging knockdown lows and strong mids with the ability to lower their hitbox to go even under a lot of mids. Good usage of this stance is required to play Bears well as they can get a lot of mileage off it. This can be achieved with good reads and conditioning the opponent well. Due to their extensive reach on their arms, any attacks involving 1 or 2 input has extended reach. This gives them a very strong jab keepout game and they have various mids/lows involving those punch inputs. Combine this with one of the best and easiest whiff punishers in the game with df21 and the Bears can effectively keep the opponent in check at range. This allows them to choose their moments to approach with HBS to rack up damage. Bears have stubby legs. This can be a double edged sword; whilst the reach in their legs is poor, certain lows whiff where they would hit other characters and certain characters must use shorter combos due to their shorter leg length. Because of their hitbox, they are vulnerable to bigger wall combos and specific combo starters but some characters are forced to use shorter combos on them in the open due to their short legs. They also have a pretty bad SS so they are prone to more offense than other characters.
Pros
One of the best whiff punishers if not the best.
Strong offensive stance
Short legs so can be hard to judge range vs them
One of the best hopkicks.
Cons
Poor offense outside of stance
Amongst the worst for SSing
Prone to bigger wall combos and Bear specific combo starters
Recommended for players who likes
Conditioning and hard reads
Easy whiff punishment
Party kinda style
