Fists meet fate in this intense tournament of strength. Tekken 8 is a new fighting game and is the eighth addition to the Tekken series.
For those who don’t know, Tekken is a Japanese fighting game series that focuses on The King of Iron Fist Tournament, hosted by the Mishima Zaibatsu - a large-scale business conglomerate.
The game begins with lore, stating that six months after the previous game, Jin Kazama and the Yggdrasil Rebel Army ambushes Kazuya Mishima, the game’s main antagonist, in Manhattan. This surprise attack fails as Jin is knocked unconcious and millions die from the battle, which helps jumpstart Kazuya’s war against the world while he announces a new King of Iron Fist Tournament. In this tournament, representatives of numerous nations all around the world fight one another, with the cost of defeat being their nation facing imminent destruction. After a week spent for him to recover from his wounds, Jin must now team up with the dreges of the rebellion alongside the other King of Iron Fist combatants to fight against Kazuya’s G Forces, before ending one of gaming’s most iconic rivalries to date, with the player being the one who decides who wins and who loses.
Bandai Namco has resurrected one of the most iconic gaming series. Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game publisher owned by Bandai Namco Holdings, a merger formed from two separate companies Bandai and Namco. The gaming company was founded in January 2006 under Bandai Namco Game Inc. before being brought into reality by merging Bandai and Namco’s home entertainment, arcade games, and mobile content. After a few months, the company then developed and published its first game Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed Destiny: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. II before moving on and eventually gaining enough traction to create dozens upon hundreds of amazing games. A few examples of their works are Dark Souls, Pac-Man, God Eater, Elder Ring, and Little Nightmares. Bandai has even taken a few brief dips into the anime community, publishing games based on anime series such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, and My Hero Academia.
The mechanics for Tekken 8 have not changed much, as the company wishes for the game to stick to the formula they devised for its predecessors. However, there have been new additions and improvements to the game itself. For starters, the gameplay now focuses on aggressiveness, rewarding players who play more aggressively than those who stick to a defensive front. Following this, a new mechanic named Heat has been added, which can not only grant its user chip damage and additional moves but change the properties of a few moves a certain character may have. Beyond those, there are only small changes, such as more cinematic backgrounds, a focus on stage destruction and a character’s reaction to it, new models and voice lines, and powering the game with Unreal Engine 5, making Tekken 8 the only game so far to utilize this engine.
Finishing up, Tekken 8 is a grand addition to the Tekken bloodline, bringing its flair to the series yet still adhering to the formula the past games have done. The game came out on Jan. 26 and is available to be played on the PC, Xbox, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. The price range depends on the version of the game. The standard version costs $69.99, and the deluxe version costs $99.99.