Review: Tekken 8
by William Hernandez
Tekken 8 has been out for quite a while now and I think the honeymoon phase has just about subsided. That means there's no better time than now to really reflect on what Tekken 8 has to offer. It is no doubt one of Bandai Namco's most expensive, high-quality projects to date. Just one look at the game's graphics could make that clear to anyone. And truly, Tekken 8 is a highly polished game from top to bottom; it really delivers on just about everything it could have promised. Tekken 8 isn't just a good fighting game. It's a great game.
Enjoyability: 14/16
Any game that can leave you feeling fulfilled and satisfied despite its difficulty is an impressive one. Tekken 8 is a daunting journey to jump into, but it is worth your dedication every step of the way. Tekken 8, more so than a majority of fighting games, actually feels okay even if you find failure a lot more frequently than success. It's no doubt a learning experience from the very second that you turn it on, but it's a very gratifying one. Part of that comes down to every little win mattering at first. You memorized a complicated combo and actually executed it in a match? Awesome. You're starting to win sets on a more regular basis? It feels amazing after getting your ass kicked through a bunch of matches.
Tekken 8 is overwhelming, but in the most fun way possible. Your opponents can do insane things to you that'll ruin your day. At the same time, performing at your highest level and executing on everything you need to do is a rewarding experience like no other. The back-and-forth nature of the game can keep you enthralled for hours on end. I will say, though, that Tekken 8 can be pretty mentally taxing at times. It can understandably be supremely frustrating which may sour your play sessions. Tekken 8 has very high highs when it comes to having a good time, but it can also make you feel like you're at your lowest with ease. If you can accept and handle that, then this is definitely a game for you.
Gameplay: 16/16
The depth of the gameplay is more than palpable in Tekken 8. Although the Heat system is really the only new mechanic, everything that was already there feels fantastic. Tekken, in general, just feels really good to play and its complexity is far from a turn off once you actually start playing. Sure, your character might have over a hundred different moves that you can input, but that just means you have more control over what they do. Once you've played Tekken 8 enough, your character will start to feel like an extension of you and that's a rare sensation.
The process of learning in Tekken 8 necessitates overcoming your weaknesses as a player. The game requires a certain level of adaptability that will constantly keep you on your toes. You're going to get knowledge checked. It's what Tekken is famous for after all. If you're going to actually grow as a player, you pretty much have to learn how to get humiliated and still spin it into something positive. It's going to feel terrible in the moment, but there's nothing quite as satisfying as proving to your next opponent that you now understand the counterplay to some of their moves.
What's great about Tekken is that you can have a near infinite amount of different interactions with your opponent so the game will never really grow stale. Strategy is a flexible thing and Tekken 8 really promotes creativity. The result is a game that feels fundamentally really good no matter what level you're at. You can be a total beginner playing with your friends or you can be sweating it out on ranked. Either way, the gameplay just has so much depth to it that it constantly feels refreshing and satisfying. Tekken 8 is a very rewarding fighting game and it's hard to ask for much more.
Atmosphere: 6/6
Tekken 8 looks absolutely beautiful. The character designs and models look stellar in-game. It is genuinely impressive just how high-quality it looks. Looking at footage of the game that's at 1080p or less is almost a disservice to what the game can produce in terms of visuals. In terms of art direction, everything just feels like Tekken and is extraordinarily gorgeous on top of that. The stages aren't exactly the boldest - okay, maybe I'm downplaying the fact that you can fight in space - but a good majority of them have a very distinct vibe that works so well in this world. You can fight in the middle of Times Square or you can throw hands on a party ship in the middle of a Parisian river. There's nothing off the table.
The music in the game is also amazing and it's really hard to have complaints when you can use almost any song that has ever appeared in a Tekken game thanks to the Jukebox Mode. The new tracks definitely aren't weak either. Sure, some of them are acquired tastes, but they fit their environments pretty damn well. Whether you decide to customize your experience or not, Tekken 8 will leave a strong impression.
Design: 6/6
There's a lot to do in Tekken 8. A lot more than you would think before booting it up for the first time. There's a decent amount of single-player content just within the story mode, but then you also have the Arcade Quest and the character episodes on top of that. The experience between those three different modes is completely different so there's really nothing discouraging you from trying them out all at once. There isn't really a wrong approach for you to take. I will say, though, that the Arcade Quest has helpful tutorial tips for beginners to Tekken 8 so it's not a bad idea to try that out first if you're new to the series or need some refreshers. The introductory sections won't take up too much of your time so then you'll be free to carry over that newfound knowledge to whatever you want.
Now in terms of actual designing, the character customization mode is something that you can sink a lot of time into if you have any interest in it. I felt like it would be remiss of me to not mention this mode as it has easily taken up at least 3-4 hours of my time in Tekken 8. The customization options aren't as deep as in some previous titles, but there is still a lot you can do and there's plenty of artistic liberties that you can take. I really don't think that it's a coincidence that people instantly fell in love with the idea of making outfits based on characters from other media. It's a luxury that just doesn't exist in other fighting games these days.
Last on the list of things that need to be mentioned are all the match-related modes. Most of it kinda speaks for itself. They're just always generally attractive to come back to for reasons I'll delve into more thoroughly in the next section. But the biggest highlight in my opinion is the Replays feature which is probably one of the most helpful tools for player development that I've ever seen in a fighting game. Aside from the fact that you can visually learn from other players, you can use your own replays to practice and improve. You can step into some key moments and find out how to properly punish your opponent. There's just so many ways to both have fun and improve as a player. There is something for basically everyone and a lot of it is of really high-quality.
Direction: 14/16
What's there to keep you playing Tekken 8? Well, do you want to feel like a worse player than that last person you just lost to? That basically sums up Tekken ranked. Just one game is enough to draw you back in for more. Part of it is because the game itself is just really fun, but Tekken also naturally gives rise to a person's competitive spirit. It's flashy and exciting, but it's also deep and complex. It definitely doesn't feel good to lose, especially when you know that you're capable of being better. This doesn't just apply to online matches. This applies to every single mode with standard Tekken gameplay. You don't even need to fight an actual person in order to feel motivated to learn. Getting your ass kicked by Kazuya in the story mode feels just as humiliating, trust me.
Self-improvement is the name of the game in ranked and things will sort themselves out naturally in terms of skill level. You'll hit walls and you'll gradually learn how to overcome them. Unless you're coming in with a lot of experience, you're constantly going to face people who are at your level or even above it. And that's a great thing, fighting games should really discourage conformity with one's own abilities. That's not to say that the ranked system is perfect, though. The balance between gaining and losing points is fairly flawed. It just doesn't make sense to lose so much standing within your rank because you lost to someone who is 2 ranks ahead of you. Players shouldn't feel encouraged to rank down because promotion will give them more points back than winning their next set. It's a frustrating part of the experience that really needs adjustment as of the time of writing.
Overall, I feel like Tekken 8 is really easy to come back to regularly. Matches aren't very long and yet they can make you feel plenty of emotions. That being said, if you have no plans to play online regularly then this game won't catch your attention for too long. This game is a lot more concerned with its casual userbase than your average fighting game, but it's not wholly immune to the effects of being a multiplayer-heavy game. You need other people to maximize the amount of fun that you can have with this game. But don't get me wrong, you don't need to play online to have fun and that's one of the many reasons as for why Tekken 8 is one of the most complete fighting games in recent times.
