Tekken 8 – An aggressive full featured entry to The Series

Tekken 8 brings a lot of new concepts to the game – enough to feel like a small paradigm shift. Meter has been introduced for the first time in the series and even then it’s not just a resource for special moves. The characters have all been made much flashier with bombastic effects that go past the series’ traditional focus on martial arts. Tekken is still the game it’s always been, but the 8th entry in the series is looking towards the future.

The focus on aggression however, has been somewhat of a controversial choice. The stronger characters are lockdown monsters that leave little room for counterplay. You can be forced into 50/50 after 50/50 and then sent back to the waiting room, wondering what the hell just happened.

The game also was not playtested in select arcades before proper release. This has been common in the series leading to major updates such as Dark Resurrection and Bloodline Rebellion. Due to this the release of Tekken 8 has been somewhat rough. The polish to the hitboxes and balance are so far not up to standard, I’m sure this will all be fixed with time. But its still unfortunate to see a major fighting game entry with inconsistencies and a prominent tier list.

With the 8th entry, Tekken finally has rollback

Tekken 8 has pretty good netcode; the best in the series so far. Roll back is a must for any fighting game worth its salt and it couldn’t be more welcome in this game.

Matches on average feel great, I seldom feel like I can’t fight due to everything happening a second earlier like the previous titles. However, its important to note that an online environment will never be perfect. Wifi matches are still somewhat rough and the rollback can hitch at critical moments.

The story mode is high budget blast

Tekken 8 has by far and away the most love put into the story mode. Maybe Tekken 6 could be argued as a close second but the 8th entry in the story is like a full fledged movie. A neat touch is the chapter select screen is also presented like a Netflix series.

Most important is that the story moves forward in some big steps. Tekken’s story has had a problem with meandering for years, if not decades at a time. This one brings back a long since missing character, resurrects a villain not seen in almost twenty years and resolves a major conflict – all in about four hours. The experience is complete with another great cliffhanger that already has me thinking about the next game.

A lot of characters besides the Mishima’s get a generous amount of screen time too. Its not just Jin and Kazuya that drive the story forward – its endearing to see Lili provide the means for which Jin gets to a major destination. Or Claudio and Zafina to provide a potential solution to the dangers themselves.

I really wish Bryan had more screen time though, not that I could say what He would have been doing.

Customization and the in-game shop are sorely mediocre

While everything else in Tekken 8 revels in its high budget glory, the customization must be the worst in the series. By default you get almost nothing to work with. The selections for every character are pretty lacking and the generic clothing still look cheap and ill-fitting. The best you can do is just change colors on the main costumes.

The items unlocked from the battle pass do nothing to fix this either. Its just more of the same generic crap that you would only wear as a joke.

The micro-transactions should have a lot more to offer as well. While you can get some great classic costumes – not every character has them available. I really want Bryan’s Tekken 3 alternate costume at some point.

The new characters are great but could use some tuning.

Reina, Azucena and Victor are a contentious people. While I like the visual design of all three, their gameplay and some artistic choices are subject to debate. I would rate them from best to worst as listed and there’s a lot to say about them

Reina is slam dunk of a new character. Shes a re-imagined Heihachi in the form of a character who idolizes him. But unlike Heihachi who was about big clunky plus on block hits – She has a flow to her fighting style and goes for mixups in the middle of fast paced pressure.

Her look is a bit much, the neon purple highlights in her hair are kinda goofy. Both the Shaft Head Tilt and DreamWorks Face she makes on victory make my eyes roll back into my head. But everything else about the character is fantastic.

I love playing against her and look forward to playing her in the future.

Azucena kinda creeps me out. Shes a die hard spokeswoman always trying to hustle some coffee. She comes off way to strong. It would have gone a long way to have moments where she breaks character – a la Lucky Chloe. Still shes an overall bright and interesting addition to the series.

She has since been more or less completely balanced. Just a little while ago I would have be lamenting about how busted she was. But now I can happily say shes in line with the rest of the cast. Azucena is an easy to use offensive character with some strong potential for trickery.

Fun fact: Azucena is Spanish for Lily.

Victor is the unfortunate black sheep of these three.

Victor is who I’ll have the harshest opinions on. I believe He is a spiritual successor to Noctis from the last Tekken. This of course means he has to have a ton of flashy anime moves. I prefer the more grounded characters due to Tekken’s beautiful animations and the focus on martial arts combat helps them shine. This is diminished on crazy, unrealistic attacks. While Victors move set certainly isn’t ugly, I would rather the series stick to its roots as much as possible.

The real problem with Victor is his ease of use combined with raw potential. He’s a cheese factory full of plus frames and damage. He’s got all the tools he needs to blow anyone up with ease – like a hellsweep that launches on counter and even Heihachi’s Demons Paw. Like what happened with Azucena, I’m sure changes are coming for Victor soon enough. But until then it’s a guaranteed up hill battle to face him.

Tekken 8 is the fighting game to play right now.

Fighting games have seen a great resurgence in the market for a while now. I would say Tekken 8 is the best one to get right now. I mainly say this due to the brand recognition. You can trust Tekken will have a big playerbase for a long time. What always sucks is when a great fighter ages and looses its playerbase. With Tekken 8, there will be plenty of people to play against for years to come. Now is the time to jump in and start swinging.