I’ve known the name Tekken for as long as I can remember.
As a kid, it meant holidays spent crowded around a tiny CRT with a PS2 controller in hand, mashing buttons frantically in the hope of triggering a head-spinning kick as Eddy Gordo.
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As an adult, it triggered equal parts frustration and fascination as my stunned characters were overwhelmed by an onslaught of attacks from a large yet agile bear being controlled by my cousin.
I’ve touched almost every entry in the 30-year franchise but I’ve never mastered one.
Fighting games are tough.
And when online battles became the bulk of their content, knowing I’d have to endure loss after loss after loss to improve in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Injustice and yes, Tekken, became less and less appealing.
So, why am I — the embodiment of a ‘casual’ fighting game fan who happily retreats to the simplicity of Super Smash Bros — reviewing a game like Tekken 8?
Because it was built for people like me.
Tekken “Iron Fist”
Tekken 8 isn’t just an adept fighter. It’s a patient teacher which can skilfully peel back the layers of its complexity as you master them over time; that is, if you let it.
For all of the work Bandai Namco has put into making Tekken 8 approachable, it begins in a thoroughly unapproachable way.
After accepting pages of terms and conditions, the game bombards you with six text panels of information to scroll through. In short, they explain the easiest way to get started; Tekken 8’s new ‘Special Style’.
Special Style can be triggered at any time during a fight with a press of ‘L1’ and simplifies a character’s most impressively complex combos into a few simple inputs.
Press ‘square’ for offensive attacks, triangle for air attacks, circle for low attacks and throws or ‘X’ for a well-timed counterattack. ‘R1’ triggers ‘heat burst’ attacks and ‘R2’ will unleash a character’s ‘Rage Art’, a powerful attack that only becomes available at low health.
The best place to practise these moves is the game’s ‘Arcade Quest’ mode. More on that later because like most players, I dived head-first into Tekken 8’s story mode.
Jin Kazama – Story Mode
For anyone unaware of Tekken lore and the devil gene, buckle up. Tekken 8’s campaign quickly throws you into the deep end and somehow, writing about its premise feels as ludicrous as its opening cutscene.
You play as Jin Kazama, he’s riding his motorcycle when he spots a man inside a helicopter that’s been missing for six months, his father, Kazuya Mishima. Jin rides his bike up the side of the building and throws it into the helicopter blades causing it to crash. Jin and Kazuya fight and after smashing each other’s faces into buildings and triggering one another’s devil power, Jin loses control and has his power punched out of him. Kazuya then announces to the world that he is sick of weak leaders who cannot physically fight. Kazuya launches a new Iron Fist Tournament to find winners worthy of restructuring global order, while promising to punish the countries of losing fighters with sanctions.
Is it sound politics? No, but what better way to gather the world’s best fighters than the threat of marginalising the people and the country they love?
Qualifying begins and despite openly rejecting his devil powers in a previous scene, concerned he can’t prevent the power from consuming him, Jin immediately decides to join the tournament in the hope of regaining his devil powers.
Does it make sense? No, but what better way to portray a character’s struggle to reconcile their lust and fear of power?
It’s classic soap opera stuff: cheesy dialogue, the appearance of a new mysterious woman you might be related to and don’t you dare overthink how it’s possible for every character to speak in their native tongue with zero problems understanding one another.
How the story twists and turns (and whether anyone gets thrown off a cliff) won’t be spoiled here.
What you should dwell on is just how ridiculously polished everything else about Tekken 8 is.
Battle Stage – Graphics and Performance
We knew the game would run at a smooth 60 frames per second in 4K on PS5. What I didn’t realise is how seamlessly Tekken 8 is able to transition between gloriously rendered cinematics and gameplay. These subtle shifts are some of the best I’ve seen in any video game and mark a dramatic improvement over the dreadfully long load times I experienced on last-gen hardware at the launch of Tekken 7.
Getting in and out of versus games quickly will be something we take for granted in 2024 but it’s hard to convey how much better this makes the experience overall.
Bandai Namco has stuffed their animations with particle effects and – if you know what you’re doing — things get even crazier while unleashing your character’s special moves.
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“Get ready for the next battle!”
Officially, there are 16 battle stages and 32 characters to choose from in Tekken 8.
Most are familiar faces but there are a handful of new characters including a coffee-loving MMA fighter from Peru named Azucena, a knife and gun touting silver fox from France named Victor and a woman named Reina, who shares the fighting style and surname of Heihachi Mishima.
How each fits into the world of Tekken is fleshed out in ‘character episodes’ which can be accessed from the main menu and complement the game’s narrative.
Perfecting all of their play styles is near impossible but — as mentioned previously — the best place to start is in ‘Arcade Quest’ which is also available from the main menu.
On the surface, it looks like something out of Splatoon.
You create an avatar, explore a hub world to find challenges, complete progressively tougher challenges to unlock new clothing items and then customise your avatar further.
This is explicitly a ‘single player mode’ but you will be able to show off those items online, including extremely limited custom items for the fighters themselves.
It’s one big carrot to lure you into learning the gameplay mechanics of Tekken 8. Arcade Quest has its own storyline, harkening back to the days when kids would spend all day at arcades in the real world and compete against each other for bragging rights. It’s not going to set the world on fire but again, for players like me who need every incentive to graduate from a life of button mashing and the new ‘Special Style,’ it’s an effort that’s much appreciated.
Of course, there’s more to Tekken 8 than I’ve mentioned. Online play will be available at launch although I didn’t get to test the servers myself during the review period. There are options to fight realistic player ‘ghosts’ and even trade punching each other for punching a beach ball in ‘Tekken Ball,’ a mode which debuted in 1997’s Tekken 3 and hasn’t been seen since the Wii U’s edition of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
As a package, fans will be spoiled for choice.
What matters more is that the fighting itself is gorgeous, fluid, fast and impactful.
Mechanically, it’s deeper and more accessible than ever – and that can only be a good thing.
Quest Daily scores TEKKEN 8:
8.5/10
Quest Daily was granted early access to Tekken 8 with thanks to the publisher.
