The son of a wealthy zaibatsu CEO named Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya seeks revenge against his father for throwing him off a cliff years earlier.

A number of staff members have considered him one of the franchise's strongest characters, which has led to debates about reducing the damage of some of his moves or removing them altogether.

Denying claims that Tekken's plot is too convoluted, Harada said that its basic story is a "simple" struggle among members of the Mishima family with other characters dragged into the conflict.

"[12] Namco created Tekken 7's storyline as a conclusion for Kazuya's struggle with Heihachi, though the company wanted the game's overall plot to be easily understood by newcomers.

[15] The game's story mode includes a young Kazuya during the time Heihachi threw his son through a cliff following a fight; Harada said that the version of the character may be playable depending on fan demand.

[18] Kazuya's relationship with Jun has been described as a common love story in regards to the interactions between a corrupted man and a goodnaturedly woman, respectively.

[20] Kazuya's devil persona was created to meet Namco's request for more unrealistic characters in Tekken, such as Kuma, in contrast with the Virtua Fighter fighting series.

The parallelism between Kazuya and Jin's devils were compared with the protagonists from the Star Wars films, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, respectively.

[25] In homage to Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Kazuya's devil form from the film was added as an alternate version of the character for Tag Tournament 2.

[27] For the film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, writer Dai Satō added Jin and Kazuya as "visual eye-candy" similar to the Williams sisters (Nina and Anna).

The story about the cursed Shin Kamiya is meant to give the audience the negative side of the Devil Gene which kills people experimented on and only Kazuya and his son are able to control it.

Japanese voice actor Masanori Shinohara enjoyed Kazuya's role in the Tekken CGI film, and hoped his fans would see him in action.

[40][41] In making Tekken's transition to the Unreal Engine, the staff was concerned about leaving Kazuya's Electric Wind Godfist because it was considered over-powered in previous games.

[42] Famitsu recommended the character to skilled players, saying that some of his techniques have good potential—most notably Spinning Demon (奈落払い, Naraku Barai, lit.

[43] Before the events of the original Tekken game, Kazuya enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament to seek vengeance against his father Heihachi, who had thrown him off a cliff for unknown reasons.

[45] In Tekken 2, Kazuya has taken over the Mishima Zaibatsu, which engages in illegal activities such as assassination, extortion, arms dealing, and the smuggling of protected species.

It is revealed that Kazuya was revived by G Corporation (a genetics-company rival of the Mishima Zaibatsu), and allowed the company to perform experiments on him to learn the nature of his Devil Gene.

He vows revenge on Heihachi in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 and to extract the half of his Devil Gene in the body of his son, Jin Kazama.

In Tekken 6, as G Corporation's shadow head, he converts it into a military company which is the only opposition to the Mishima Zaibatsu (led by Jin), which has begun world conquest and declared war on several countries.

After Kazuya is traumatized with memories of abuse at his father's hands, he ultimately delivers one strike at Heihachi, and then throws him into a lava pit, seemingly killing him for good.

After the battle, Kazuya decides to confirm his coming out as a devil, while setting up the eighth King of Iron Fist Tournament, with the finals being held in Rome, as the means to continue his previous mission to absorb Azazel, in order to become a true devil, having had learnt that Azazel's physical body was destroyed by Jin, and Zafina is under Sirius' protection after sealing the monster inside her left arm.

As the primary star of despair, Kazuya absorbs the desires of the human race to fuel his avarice in destroying the nations' hierarchies and prepare to temporarily recover Azazel's physical body.

In an alternate ending where Kazuya wins, he throws the unconscious Jin off a cliff and resumes his leadership of G Corporation, vowing that he will rule the world despite having lost the devil gene.

[70] As of this game onward, he can morph into Devil during gameplay with several new moves, instead of becoming a separate character, while Tekken 7 can only be accessed at low health at cost of his Rage Mode.

[72] Kazuya made a playable debut in human form—also transforming into his devil form—in the sequel of Namco × Capcom's successor, Project X Zone 2, teaming up with his son, Jin.

[73] Kazuya's image is downloadable content in Namco's Ace Combat: Assault Horizon,[74] and it appears as in Taiko: Drum Master V Version.

In this version, Kazuya bears no resemblance to his video game counterpart, instead sporting slicked back hair and a Van Dyke beard, and is revealed to have fathered Jin Kazama by raping Jun.

[104] Although GamesRadar noted that Kazuya had been disliked early in the series' beginning,[105] they and other websites praised his transformation into a devil[106] (enhancing his evil characteristics).

[21][113][114][115] According to GamesRadar, players wanted to see a fight between Devil Kazuya and Akuma in Street Fighter X Tekken due to the similarities in their design.

Alex Henning of The Fandom Post stated that John Kim's Western comics adapted well Kazuya's personality in the series, finding it similar to his game incarnation.