The avatar of lakes and mountains returns to the fray sporting a retooled moveset that still primarily focuses on zoning, but has been significantly toned down to be better balanced. Kanako appears to have put on some weight, as evidenced by a larger hitbox and significantly reduced movement speed; despite this, Kanako still dominates when it comes to aerial mobility options.
Kanako Yasaka is technically a four-button character with the functionality of a standard three-button character, as she uses all three buttons for the greater portion of her moveset and Ⓐ in conjunction with a button and any single directional input to activate Omiwatari Cross in that input's direction; Ⓐ is also used as a shortcut alongside or to activate that direction's dash, which can be activated normally by using either or to dash in the relevant direction. Ⓑ and Ⓒ are relegated to functioning solely as shortcuts for other aspects of Kanako, with both buttons being shortcuts for the character's throw that's regularly assigned to Ⓨ+Ⓒ, and Ⓒ being used by itself as a substitute for the activation in the character's Level 3 Hypers. Kanako has the option to chose between one of two mutually exclusive level 3 Hypers at the beginning of every match, with Divine Pillar "Meteoric Onbashira" being an air usable move that rains OTG-ing pillar projectiles down from above, and "Virtue of Wind God" being a cinematic combo finisher and reversal that has a small amount of startup invulnerability and a generous amount of projectile invincibility.
True to her haughty and imposing nature, Kanako sports a large hitbox and slow movement speed, compensated for by having above average Life value. While Kanako may be slow on the ground, Kanako excels at aerial movement. Unique to Kanako over RicePigeon's other Touhou characters is that Kanako is able to perform up to two air dashes instead of one. Additionally, Kanako is the only character of the bunch to sport an 8-way airdash. Kanako can further extend air time by holding after the peak of a jump to glide down to the ground, using and to change the direction of the glide. Many of Kanako's move are also air-usable, making for a potentially threatening foe.
At the beginning of the match, Kanako must select from one of two additional Level 3 Hypers, as both cannot be used during the same match. Divine Pillar "Meteoric Onbashira" is Kanako's projectile Level 3, which not only hits OTG, but also covers the entire screen in front of Kanako, acting as a psuedo-fullscreen attack with the right positioning. "Virtue of Wind God" is Kanako's run-past super, and essentially an upgraded form of Omiwatari Cross that provides both startup and projectile invincibility, at the cost of not being able to be performed in the air.
Stats[]
Life
1000
Power
3000
Attack
100
Defence
100
Movelist[]
Hovering the mouse cursor over the Command Input icons will display text that refers to the inputs set in M.U.G.E.N's Key Config.
Icons encased in square brackets [ ] require the respective button(s) to be held down. Hovering the mouse cursor over the icon displays the hold duration if applicable.
Specials[]
Guard Cancel Counter
Command Input
Properties
during blockstun
Uses 1000 Power
Sky God: Wind Summon
Command Input
Properties
*
Ⓧ
Ground
Aerial
Ⓨ
Ground
Aerial
Ⓩ
Ground
Aerial
Sky God: Onbashira
Command Input
Properties
Ⓧ
Ground
Aerial
Ⓨ
Ground
Aerial
Ⓩ
Ground
Aerial
Omiwatari Cross
Command Input
Properties
++Ⓐ
Can be repeated up to three times Number of uses shared with air dash
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Ground
Aerial
Misayama Hunting Ritual
Command Input
Properties
Ⓧ version: , Ⓨ version: , Ⓩ version: , , does not hit crouching opponents
Ⓧ
Ⓨ
Ⓩ
Hypers[]
God Sign "Beautiful Spring-like Suiga"
Command Input
Properties
Uses 1000 Power
Ground
Aerial
Divine Festival "Expanded Onbashira"
Command Input
Properties
Uses 1000 Power
Ground
Aerial
Divine Pillar "Meteoric Onbashira"
Command Input
Properties
/ Ⓒ
Only usable if respective spellcard is selected prior to match Uses 3000 Power
Ground
Aerial
"Virtue of Wind God"
Command Input
Properties
/ Ⓒ
Only usable if respective spellcard is selected prior to match Uses 3000 Power
This character uses a Palette Selector that allows for more than 12 palettes to be chosen, and as such, only the first 12 are shown here. For a full list of palettes, see Alternative palettes.
Victory quotes[]
General[]
“
What business have you with me?”
“
A god must eliminate all who oppose their struggle for faith, one by one.”
“
In this time of crisis, I was going to ignore this and continue, but I've changed my mind.”
“
In that case, I'll have you stay here and stop the shrine maiden and magician who'll be arriving later.”
“
Lately, it's been easier to win over followers with a friendly face than with an impressive stature.”
“
Nothing personal, it's strictly business.”
Character-specific[]
“
Shrines don't exist for the benefit of their shrine maidens. A shrine exists to be the home of the gods.”
Kanako's sixth generic victory quote is a reference to a line spoken by Otto Berman, an accountant for notorious American gangster Dutch Schultz. This same line is also spoken by the characters Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone in the movie The Godfather.
Many of Kanako's victory quotes against characters that she does encounter in Mountain of Faith are taken or derived from parts of Kanako's dialogue in the Touhou Project fangame Mystical Power Plant.
Both of Kanako's victory quotes against Lightning are derived from lines spoken by Bhunivelze, the final boss of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
The most recent version of the character includes an alternate version of Buffer.st named Buffer_IKEMEN.st. This version of the file is intended to be used exclusively for the IKEMEN engine, as it corrects a bug in where her Special and Hyper inputs are reversed when facing left. This was most likely intended to be used with the version of this character included in Touhou: Gensokyo Reloaded, which also suffers from this bug during online matches.