Fans of fighting games have been treated to a number of excellent games in recent years, with 2023 alone having delivered two of them in the form of Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1– and there’s still more to come. Tekken 8 is set to launch for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on January 26, and as we count the days down to its release, here, we’re going to go over a few key details that you should know about Bandai Namco’s upcoming fighter.
STORY
Tekken 7’s story ended at a very dramatic place, and very clearly set up the direction the series would be heading in next, with Kazuya Mishima defeating and killing his father, Heihachi. Tekken 8 picks up six months after those events, and as you may have guessed, the uber-dysfunctional Mishima family’s internal grudges will play a central role again, with Jin Kazama once again taking center stage as he attempts to kill his father Kazuya and finally bring the Mishima family’s endless cycle of destruction to a close.
ARCADE QUEST
In addition to its main single player campaign, Tekken 8 is also introducing a new single player mode in the form of Arcade Quest. Designed as an introductory story-driven quest to help players get familiar with the game’s core systems and mechanics, Arcade Quest boasts a completely different tone and visual style from the rest of the game, complete with chibi-esque characters. Players will create their own avatar and visit a number of different arcades, where you’ll be meeting and challenging various rivals in fights.
HEAT SYSTEM
On the gameplay front, the new Heat system is one of Tekken 8’s biggest changes. For 10 seconds in every round, you can activate your character’s Heat state, which will see your attacks being buffed in a variety of different ways. Every time your opponent is hit or is downed, your Heat timer will paus its countdown, which means you can keep your Heat status going for longer than the 10-second maximum if you’re playing well enough.
RAGE SYSTEM
As you may have guessed, Tekken 8’s Rage system is also going to see some changes, owing to the addition of the new Heat system. Though Rage Arts are returning, Rage Drive isn’t, while the only way to enter a Rage state to get buffs to your attacks will still be by dropping to a certain amount of health. That, of course, means it will now be an automatic process, and every character will use the same Rage Art command.
RECOVERABLE GAUGE
Tekken 8’s new recoverable gauge will be familiar(ish) to those who’ve played the Tekken tag games. Any time you successfully block a heavy attack, a chunk of the health you lose will linger on as recoverable. To recover that chunk of your health, you’ll have to attack your opponent (though interestingly enough, you will heal even if your attack gets block).
ROSTER
Tekken games usually do a solid job of launching with healthy rosters, and it seems like Tekken 8 won’t disappoint on that front either. Bandai Namco has confirmed that at launch, the game will have 32 playable fighters. Unsurprisingly, many of these will be returning characters that series fans will be very familiar with, including the likes of Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Paul Phoenix, Nina Williams, and more. Raven is also coming back, as is Jun Kazama, Jin’s mother who supposedly died all the way back in Tekken 3.
NEWCOMERS
The majority of Tekken 8’s roster will be populated with familiar faces, but there will obviously be a few fresh ones as well. The roster will include three newcomers in total- Azucena, a cheerful martial artist and coffee enthusiast from Peru; Victor Chevalier, a French royal, UN super spy, decorated war veteran, and the founding grandmaster of Raven Unit; and Reina, a Japanese student who has “mysterious connections” to the Mishima clan.
STAGES
Tekken 8’s roster of stages isn’t looking quite as packed as its character roster is, but there’s still some stuff to look forward to here. At launch, the game will have 16 stages- though it seems Bandai Namco is also counting alternate lighting versions as separate stages of their own. Interestingly, however, the developer has confirmed that Tekken 8 will place a greater emphasis on stage destruction and interactivity than ever before.
CUSTOMIZATION
Customization is an area where you usually expect a lot from fighters (especially in today’s day and age), and Tekken 8 is making lofty promises in this area. Head, glasses, upper body, lower body, accessories and shoes can all be customized, as can the colours of each individual part and even the accessories’ sizes. Beyond that, you can also customize titles, gauges, player cards, HUD elements, jukebox music, and more.
CONTROL METHODS
Tekken 8 is going to offer multiple options for how you want the game to play and control, something we’re seeing more and more of in fighters. For those looking for the authentic, traditional control style, Arcade controls will offer exactly that. On the other hand, those who want something simpler and more streamlined can go with Special controls, which will “combine and evolve” Tekken 7’s Easy Combo and Assist features, according to Bandai Namco.
TECH DETAILS
With Tekken 8, Bandai Namco is emphasizing technical and visual advancements. Built on Unreal Engine 5, the game is promising more cinematic fights than ever before, while every single character model has also been remade from scratch, rather than being reused from previous instalments.
SEASON 1 PASS
Bandai Namco obviously has every intention to keep supporting and adding to Tekken 8 after its release, and though the full extent of those post-launch plans is currently unknown, we do know that the game’s first season pass will include four DLC characters. As for what their release cadence will be, what else the season pass will include, and who those characters will be- all of that remains to be seen.
PC REQUIREMENTS
For those who are looking to play Tekken 8 on PC, you’ll need a pretty decent rig to be able to properly run the game. At minimum, you’ll need either an i5-6600K or a Ryzen 5 1600, along with either a GeForce GTX 1050Ti or a Radeon R9 380X, and 8 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either an i7-7700K or a Ryzen 5 2600, along with either a GeForce RTX 2070 or a Radeon RX 5700 XT, and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll also need a whopping 100 GB of free storage space.
PRICE
For the longest time, Bandai Namco has stuck to the old standard AAA price of $60, but the list of publishers that still do that has dwindled pretty much down to zero by this point. Tekken 8 will cost $70 on all platforms, becoming the first Bandai Namco game to be sold at that price.
DEMO
Tekken 8’s launch is not far away, but those who want a taste of the game’s offerings will get the chance to dip their toes in the water. A free demo of the game is out now on PS5, while Xbox Series X/S and PC players will get it on December 21. The demo includes the first chapters of Arcade Quest and The Dark Awakens, which is the main story mode, as well as a taste of local versus, the Gallery, and Super Ghost Battle. Also included as three stages, and four characters in the form of Jin, Kazuya, Paul, and Nina.