Shadow blade. Long reach, balanced speed.
Kage is the fighter you pick when you want to learn the game. His katana has the longest reach in the roster, which means you can punish enemy windups from just outside their hitbox — the classic "stay one pixel further than they think" trick that anyone who has played a 2D fighter will recognize. His slash arc is wide enough to clip approaching Bandits before they commit, and his recovery is fast enough that a missed swing doesn't immediately get you killed.
The trade-off is damage. Kage's hits are honest, not huge. To climb past Wave 8, you have to chain them — Hit, Hit, Kick, then a meter-empowered Atk dive — and rely on positioning rather than burst. He rewards patience the same way Marth rewards patience in Smash: respect spacing, and the round is yours.
Thunder strike. Wide spinning arc.
Rai is chaos with a haircut. The nunchaku spins through a full 360° arc, which means his light attack actually hits behind him — invaluable starting at Wave 4, when enemies begin spawning from random sides. If you've ever cheesed a Brawlhalla match with a weapon that just refuses to stop swinging, you already know how Rai feels.
His weakness is reach. The spin is wide but short, so committing to it against an Oni windup is a coin flip you usually lose. Good Rai players turn that into a feature: bait the windup with a feint, dodge through the strike, and unload the spin while the enemy is recovering. When it works, it looks like a highlight reel. When it doesn't, the Try Again screen is waiting.
Fire fang. Fast double thrust.
Enji is the glass cannon. His sai thrust is the fastest attack in the roster — two stabs per input, almost no recovery, and a hitbox that respects frame data more than the other two. He's the fighter you pick when you stop caring about survival and start chasing a leaderboard run.
The catch is that thrust attacks are thin. Miss the line and you get nothing; land it and you stagger the Samurai before his sword finishes coming down. Enji also benefits the most from Dojo perks like First Blood and Combo Lock, because his short windows turn into damage windows the moment a perk smooths over his recovery frames.