If you’ve ever tuned into a mixed martial arts fight expecting a contentious bout that extends well into the latter rounds, only for it to end in 45 seconds with a knockout punch that leaves one of the fighters temporarily lifeless on the floor, that is essentially the experience of booting up Tekken 8 for the first time and comparing it to the wealth of fighting games that have come before it. And the fact is, when that decisive, glorious early knockout happens, no one complains, regardless of whether they expected to witness an extensive and rigorous contest. Instead, the crowd erupts in euphoric mania because they know they’ve witnessed a spectacle and they certainly got their money’s worth. Tekken 8 is amazing, in the same respect. The eighth mainline game of the Tekken franchise boasts a level of scope and scale rarely seen in any fighting game, to the extent that it features numerous draws and features for casual and competitive players alike. It is certainly a pound-for-pound heavyweight contender in the fighting game space, and perhaps the King (of Iron Fist) of the genre to date, subject to player preference.
The most eye-catching part of Tekken 8 may be its somewhat groundbreaking story mode. The campaign follows a now reformed Jin Kazama as he attempts to put a stop to his father Kazuya Mishima’s reign of terror, all amidst another occurrence of the King of Iron Fist Tournament. In this iteration of the Tournament, the fight is for global supremacy – Kazuya has insinuated that the Tournament is a test of mettle where the nations of the victors will benefit from their compatriots’ wins in a new world order, which Kazuya will presumably bring about. Not willing to stand idly by while his father Kazuya imposes his tyrannical will, Jin begins his hero’s arc, and thus action, intrigue, and antics ensue. The story mode has the evocative and reflective notes of a Final Fantasy game, a fair share of (more than welcome) anime and power scaling tropes, and even culminates in a finale that is almost reminiscent of “Avengers Endgame”. It’s probably one of the most entertaining and engaging fighting game story modes pretty much ever, and while Jin being the sole protagonist (for the most part) is a small drawback, it also serves to give the story more focus and arguably elicits more investment from the player. It feels preferable to bouncing around from character to character in the Mortal Kombat and Injustice games, which can often occur with very little continuity. This is a focused story about a particular character, but also one that doesn’t mind going box office and blowing up some buildings or sharing the spotlight with some of the other characters from the franchise. It’s a great experience overall that feels rather refreshing and innovative for the fighting game genre.
Aside from the over-the-top story mode, Ghost Battles and Arcade Quest replace the treasure battle mode from Tekken 7 (regrettably) as the primary modes for offline play. In Arcade Quest, you create a Nintendo Mii type avatar (please don’t sue me Nintendo), which you’ll then meander around local Japanese arcades with, accompanied by your in-game friends. The point mode is to choose a character, take on the gauntlet of cartoon Tekken players and their various fighters of choice, and become a Tekken savant, venturing through a gauntlet of various arcades to do so. You’ll be guided by your best friend Max, whose frequent tips and remarks will likely be very welcome for new players, if not a bit irksome for experienced Tekken veterans. While the mode looks a bit out of place, its irrefutable charm had me invested after even just the first hour, and I kept going back to find new challengers to take on in the arcades. It’s a wholesome mode focused around the spirit and community element of fighting games. The mode also genuinely excels at helping a more novice player develop their skillset and improve. While the mode may not have a tremendous amount of appeal for veteran players, who may elect to play online instead, it’s a nice inclusion and offers hours of offline gameplay for those seeking that experience. It’s a mode that has a surprising amount of substance and offers a compelling and feature-rich way for players to engage with Tekken 8, rather than the stress that accompanies going online, or the monotony of resorting to a series of arcade battles one after another.
Ghost Battles, on the other hand, might be Tekken 8’s most innovative offering, with the potential to revolutionize the fighting game genre. The ghosts that you fight are modeled after the fighting style and tendencies of real-life players, whether you, one of your gaming friends, a Tekken 8 developer, or a professional fighter that you could see compete at EVO 2024. You can train with your ghost, which will learn from observing your fighting style and techniques, or you can face off against another person’s ghost to get an authentic experience of fighting that actual person. Want to be able to best your mate the next time he gets on the game? Spend a few hours training against his ghost -learning their propensities, tells, and techniques – and they’ll likely prove no match for you the next time you face off directly. Alternatively, you can use your own ghost to determine your weaknesses which you can subsequently improve upon. The ghosts are not only built around AI which learns the movesets and styles of the players they are meant to emulate, but they also react to you in real-time as you face off against them. That means that if you resort to the same 3 or 4 combos, the AI is likely to recognize your strategy and adapt accordingly, making things more difficult unless you switch up your style of play. If you’ve ever had a couch Tekken session with your friends, you know exactly what it feels like when your opponent catches onto what you’re doing, and forces you to switch things up. The result of the ghost AI is that players can now have this same type of experience as playing against real players when playing by themselves offline. Instead of facing off against countless static AI, the player will be challenged by an opponent that learns in real-time and can push the player to the upper limits of their own Tekken prowess. No other fighting game offers this feature, so it is enticing to conceive of all the possibilities the ghosts can open up for the genre, but time will tell if it is actually a groundbreaking feature, or more so a satisfying gimmick. The best-case scenario is that this innovative feature places Tekken 8 as the prominent frontrunner in the fighting game space and makes it the best fighting game to play offline in 2024, even when compared to 2023’s fantastic Street Fighter 6.
Online multiplayer is the most stable that it’s ever been in a Tekken game to date, and seems to maintain, if not push forward, the industry standard. There’s very little lag, and downtime between matches isn’t really an issue. Plus the myriad offline training options that the game offers, such as being able to interject one’s self into replays of past fights to approach the scenario differently, allow players to become more equipped for the rigors of online play than ever before.
The bevy of customization options that were available in Tekken 7 are similarly replicated in Tekken 8, allowing players to outfit their characters with a one-of-a-kind flourish that only adds to the overall experience. That means players can customize Tekken’s generously large roster of 32 different characters, which almost doubles Street Fighter 6’s launch roster of 18, and even outpaces Mortal Kombat 1’s 24 characters that were available at launch. Tekken Ball is also back, and I can’t emphasize enough how stupidly fun it is to use Tekken characters in a volleyball-like game mode where you’re punching and kicking the ball back and forth in a rally until it inevitably smacks someone in the face. It’s just another fitting addition to the Tekken 8 package that pours on the amenities in an already feature-rich fighting game.
To round out the game’s features, novice and casual players are now given the option to use an alternate control scheme called special style, which functions similarly to Street Fighter 6’s Modern Controls, allowing fighters to execute complex moves with the simple press of a button. Tekken 8 also sees the addition of the all-new heat gauge, which acts as a foil to the rage drive. Rather than building up when you take damage, like the rage drive, the heat gauge can be activated strategically to deal out damage through aggressive play. Once activated, the heat gauge allows fighters to deal more damage through an opponent’s block and execute some special combos that would otherwise be unavailable.
As far as downsides go, Tekken 8 has very few. For one, the game seems to look slightly more realistic and polished on the Xbox Series X than the PlayStation 5 because the PlayStation 5 has a marginally lower resolution output. There isn’t any discernable reason as to why the PlayStation 5 doesn’t have the same level of fidelity as the Series X. Additionally, the absence of certain game modes has to be the most notable misstep for Tekken 8 – longstanding series mainstays survival battle and team battle, which were present in Tekken 6, do not make a return here. Tekken 7’s incredibly fun treasure battle mode was likewise not brought back for another round. While it’s disappointing not to see these game modes in Tekken 8, as they would undoubtedly create an absolute embarrassment of riches, Tekken 8 is admittedly already a feature-rich game. However, another detracting element is Tekken 8’s microtransaction-riddled cash shop, which uses timed rotations to compel in-game purchases from players for covetable cosmetic items. This in-game marketplace was added after the game’s launch, and it’s a gaudy stain on such a polished and commendable video game, albeit one that can be totally ignored.
The King of Iron Fist has returned to claim its crown in 2024, and has done so by boasting a grandiose story mode, groundbreaking AI, and the graphical fidelity that comes with the upgrade to Unreal Engine 5. With 32 characters available at launch, and multiple compelling methods of becoming an adept fighter with any one of them, Tekken 8 might not just be the most feature-rich game in its franchise, but among fighting games as a whole. Tekken 8 has more than a lot to offer, including a massive roster, refined gameplay, plenty of unique modes, stable online multiplayer, an absurd amount of character customization options, and a single-player story campaign that feels like an enjoyable imitation of the best anime story arcs or action films of our time. When all these impressive features combine, and Fist meets Fate, Tekken 8 is a knockout punch.
-Kirk