Tekken 8 (PS5, XBox Series, Steam)

[drahkon]

Haven't played a Tekken game since Tekken 4, so I doubt I'll give this a go, but it does look nice  

[Jonnas]

Nice trailer. Hard to tell what was dramatic cutscene effect and what was legit gameplay. If the slowdowns show up during middle-of-the-match moves, that's a plus.

Story-wise, the awaited feud between Jin and Kazuya is finally on. I'm hoping they redeem Jin's character after botching his character so much in T6 (and kinda in T7). So far, he seems to be mostly in control of Devil Jin, which is new, and a good sign.

My only requests now are A. The return of post-KO replays; B. Make customization options robust again; and C. Put effort into individual character endings instead of the travesty from T7

[The Bard]

This is definitely gameplay with story mode shenanigans like the close ups and mid match slow-mo thrown in. There's absolutely no way there would be mid match slow-mo, it would disrupt the flow of play way too much.

Some things to note from the gameplay; pushback on block is ridiculous, Kazuya's ff3 pushes jin back more than the full distance of a backdash, which is crazy, so if that's how it's going to be, it's going to affect spacing a lot. Launch height also seems to be increased - during Kazuya's PEWGF combo, the electric sent Jin stratospherically high. If that's the same in the final game, I suppose it'll give the player more time to think about combo routes and prevent people from dropping combos as much? Who knows, seems a bit much since electrics already sent you pretty damn high previously. Then Kazuha's b3, the screw attack didn't send Jin as far as screw attacks in Tekken 7 do - or at least as much as Kazuya's b3 did previously, which could be good in the final game since the main problem with screw attacks was that it meant so many combos carried the opponent to the wall that it was difficult to return to neutral play.

 

Also, how did Kazuya evade Jin's EWHF after b2,1 connected? Nobody can backdash that, you have to block it. New mechanic?

 

My one wish for Tekken 8 is that they bring back the sidestepping distance that was in the previous games. In Tekken 7, sidestepping basically became a useless mechanic because of how small sidesteps for every character that isn't Lili or Alisa, and because there were so many homing moves in the game. Sidestepping a move and punishing predictability was one of the cornerstones of competitive Tekken, and it was a shame to have that be nerfed.

Edited October 1, 2022 by The Bard

[The Bard]

Can't wait to sink another several thousand hours into Tekken =D 

 

https://imgur.com/7ZvV8Or

Edited October 1, 2022 by The Bard

[Jonnas]

3 hours ago, The Bard said:

There's absolutely no way there would be mid match slow-mo, it would disrupt the flow of play way too much.

It can happen, as long as they limit it properly. For example, only with specific moves with a lot of endlag, or only moves that leave the opponent in a crumpled state, or just handpick which specific moves it happens to. What's tricky is that I don't think that Kazuya hop kick was any of those things... unless the specific combination of low vs. "hopping" attacks is among the few interactions that mid-match slow-mo can happen to.

Just saying, it's possible, as long as it doesn't happen often.

3 hours ago, The Bard said:

Also, how did Kazuya evade Jin's EWHF after b2,1 connected? Nobody can backdash that, you have to block it. New mechanic?

It could just be a matter of the move itself being nerfed

But more realistically, they drew attention to that dodge in the trailer, so yeah, likely a new combo break mechanic (one that only works on grounded strings, I figure. Can't see that working against juggles)

[The Bard]

On 01/10/2022 at 12:01 PM, Jonnas said:

It can happen, as long as they limit it properly. For example, only with specific moves with a lot of endlag, or only moves that leave the opponent in a crumpled state, or just handpick which specific moves it happens to. What's tricky is that I don't think that Kazuya hop kick was any of those things... unless the specific combination of low vs. "hopping" attacks is among the few interactions that mid-match slow-mo can happen to.

Just saying, it's possible, as long as it doesn't happen often.

It could just be a matter of the move itself being nerfed

But more realistically, they drew attention to that dodge in the trailer, so yeah, likely a new combo break mechanic (one that only works on grounded strings, I figure. Can't see that working against juggles)

The thing is, for moves that act as high/low crushes, specifically in that trailer the u/f+3 that low crushed, as well as moves that result in crumple stun, usually you want your timing to be perfect to get a follow up. If they apply it to crush moves, then that brings a problem in that a lot of crush moves are launchers, and you want to get an optimal combo afterwards. I'm fairly sure that mid match slow-mo isn't going to be a thing, Tekken's thrived on the back of its competitive scene recently, and they aren't going to add anything that affects the flow of a match to that extent. If they do they'd have to tune it to moves that specifically have no follow up, because otherwise it would be annoying as hell.

 

Also, there's no way they're nerfing electrics,  they're the hardest launcher to pull off in the game. I guess maybe except taunt jet upper, but that's two moves, not one. I mean, being able to evade a 15 frame move when you're in negative frames...that's not fair (As you can tell, I'm a Mishima player XD).

 

To be honest, they are very in tune with their community, and I have a good level of faith that they'll pull off another excellent game. My only real wish is that they un-nerf sidestepping. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by The Bard

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[bob]

I haven't played Tekkens 1-7, will I still be able to follow the plot of this one? Also, i don't plan on playing this one either.

[Julius]

Kazuya gameplay trailer:

Love how flashy the particle effects are! 

[Julius]

The game has reviewed incredibly well, currently sitting at a 90 on Metacritic and a 90 on OpenCritic. 

Anyone here planning on picking this up? I had been tempted to finally dive into a fighting game at launch but, for now, I seem to have calmed that call 

[Julius]

Harada commenting on Tifa's attractiveness and chances of being in Tekken weren't what I expected today

Love it 

[Jonnas]

6 hours ago, Julius said:

Harada commenting on Tifa's attractiveness and chances of being in Tekken weren't what I expected today

That's what happens when you add the most recent FF protagonist in Tekken 7, instead of... the character that actually makes sense He'll never hear the end of it!

[Glen-i]

52 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

That's what happens when you add the most recent FF protagonist in Tekken 7, instead of... the character that actually makes sense He'll never hear the end of it!

You say that, but hasn't Yoshimitsu been a thing in Tekken since the start?

A guy running around with a sharp pointy thing isn't exactly new territory.
That said, Tifa is a better fit for the game, but that's the difference between Harada and Sakurai. Because I bet Square pushed for Lightning as the Smash rep back on the 3DS/WiiU entry, but Sakurai has the clout to negotiate the character he would prefer and Square would have to compromise, because Smash is that big, and the advertising you get from that is too beneficial to ignore.

Of course, I have no proof of that happening, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[Hero-of-Time]

Very Strong start for Tekken 8.

I'll pick it up eventually. No way I'm paying £60 for it. I see some Argos stores were selling it for £35 over the weekend for some reason. If that was the regular price I may have shelled out for it.

[bob]

On 27/01/2024 at 2:19 AM, Glen-i said:

A guy running around with a sharp pointy thing isn't exactly new territory.

Running around?

[Jonnas]

On 27/01/2024 at 2:19 AM, Glen-i said:

You say that, but hasn't Yoshimitsu been a thing in Tekken since the start?

Yeah, but Yoshimitsu has always been an oddball design. He's meant to be "the weird one" in the cast. Not the only weirdo, mind you, but his sword definitely makes him one. Just like Roger&Alex's tails, or Kuma&Panda's odd proportions. All of those make those respective fighters "weird" or "unique", they stand out from the cast more easily than, say, Leo or Bryan.

Ultimately, Tekken is a series where conventional martial arts take center stage. Sure, there are robots and bears, and goofy shit running around, but the core is very clear. Like, someone like Bob feels conventional, despite having a made up fighting style, and that's because he follows the heart of the series.

Therefore, by adding Noctis, the choice was made for the FF character to be seen as an "oddball" or a "weirdo" in the cast, instead of somebody who actually feels like they're part of the background. It's not even just the sword, he literally summons blades from the aether whenever he feels like it. Neegan was criticised to hell and back for not being a proper martial artist and just whacking people with a bat, and yet he's still closer to the feel of the series than Noctis.

tl;dr: Just because he's technically not the first bloke with a sword, that doesn't mean he fits.

[Hero-of-Time]

I picked this up at the end of last week. The game dropped to a more reasonable £35 and so I decided to snap it up.

Really enjoyed playing this, which shouldn't be that much of a surprise as I do enjoy the series.

The story mode was a decent length and has you going through Jin's history with his father, as well as everyone who is connected to their bloodline. Awesome cutscenes and plenty of anime type power up moments were to be had.

During the campaign you are forced to switch characters a lot of the time. Usually I'm not a fan of this but the game has a feature which makes things easier to use characters who's movements you aren't familiar with. By pressing the L1 button you can switch to a mode that allows the game to string together combos for you by just pressing a couple of buttons. It made things much easier and allowed me to carry on through the story without get bogged down into learning new move sets. You can use this in any mode, even online.

There's also a standard arcade mode which unlocks the story and endings for other characters. This is more like what you seen it the classic Tekken games, where you are pitted against the AI in a series of back to back fights and then get an ending scene as a reward.

I played a little bit of the online modes, purely because I needed to for the platinum, and found it to be quite fun. Connection speeds were spot on and you could tell it players were using wired or wireless and then opt in or out if their connections were garbage. This is something any online games should have, especially ones that require fast and precise movements. I also toyed around with the avatar stuff as well. At first I found these lobbies to be quite dead and imagined most were just playing online straight from the menu but once I turned on the crossplay feature these lobbies burst into life and avatars were running all over the place.

Great game. I mean, it's Tekken and if you've liked past games then this one will be right up your street.