Tekken 8 review: The game takes 'aggressive' very seriously in its gameplay and story; by far is the most accessible entry for casuals

Tekken 8 is the latest entry into Bandai Namco's top 3D fighter series since 1994. As one of the big name fighting games, like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat series, almost anyone who has a remote interest in the genre would probably have at least heard about Tekken.

But unfortunately, Tekken has always had this stigma from casual gamers that it is extremely hard to pick up and play. Unlike other fighting games with traditional and straight-forward normal attack buttons like low punch/kick, medium punch/kick, high punch/kick, the attack buttons represent the limb of the chosen character in Tekken.

You only have four attack buttons, and each one controls the right hand, left hand, right leg and left leg of the characters specifically. To execute a combo, you will need to memorise certain button presses and it will string together a series of moves corresponding to the controlled limbs.

On top of that, some combos strings can go up 10 hits, which means you need to memorise 10 button presses to do so. On top of that you have close to 40 character-specific combo strings that you can execute. On top of that, you will also need to know what the combo strings of your opponent are to know what to block... you get the point.

And that is only the surface of Tekken, but it is where casual players go "this is way too much for me to handle."

So does Tekken 8 fix the casual play issue?

Yes, and maybe no.

Yes because Tekken 8 introduces the Special Style, which is a mode that you can toggle on to have combos automatically done for you with a press of a button. You are able to toggle this on at any time during a match.

This is amazing to utilise when playing single player content. You do not need to go into the training room to know what are the basic combos to utilise on a character.

This is a god-send on things like the story mode, especially when the game just decides to throw you a random character to control based on where you are in the story.

Not knowing the characters' moveset was a major gripe I had with Tekken 7's story mode. I have never touched some of these characters before in my entire life, so I will just end up getting beaten over and over again by the CPU in story mode, thus halting my progress and enjoyment. Tekken 8 relieves this with Special Style.

It is also a fun tool for friends just coming together to button mash and play the game while not having the characters flail wildly at each other. Special Style instead makes it look like a 'competent' fight between two people.

It even made the experience enjoyable for my colleague when he playtested the game a month ago.

Now for the 'maybe no' part. Special Style isn't some magic go-to easy mode for casual players to start being competitive in the game.

Unlike Street Fighter 6's Modern controls, a control scheme that allows you to execute special moves with a press of a button instead of doing the full motions, Special Style is basically just an auto-combo more than anything else.

Someone who remotely knows what they're doing in a fighting game will know how to punish Special Style mashers easily.

So if you are looking to start dominating in the online lobby as a Special Style user, you might wanna think twice.

But the upside of this? When a player sees the combos done with Special Style, and think it looks cool, they might be incentivised to go into the training room to learn more.

Not only that, like what I said earlier, it is a good and enjoyable way to play the single player modes on a casual level, and this in turn will promote people to actually purchase the game.

Now onto the more advanced stuff - the core mechanics

Now I'll just keep this short because we are going into advanced territory here.

Tekken 8 introduces the Heat system. To activate it, you can activate it raw by doing a button press, or you can cancel a specific move into a Heat activation.

What Heat does largely depends on the character. It may make some moves stronger and it may give some characters new moves.

The Heat system also has some universal traits that apply to all characters.

With Heat activated, when you are attacking a blocking opponent, you will deal 'chip damage' and give the opponent recoverable white health (which can be recovered if you manage to land an attack on your opponent).

You are also able to cancel out of certain moves (again, depending on character) to keep up the pressure on your opponent.

If there's anything I can compare the Heat system to, it is basically King of Fighters' (KOF) MAX mode on steroids, which was also present in Tekken 7 where KOF's Geese Howard made a guest appearance.

The Heat system is a very welcome change to the typical footsies and punish-heavy gameplay of a typical Tekken game, allowing some psychotic gameplay expression that was only available to guest characters like Geese and Akuma in Tekken 7.

Rage (more damage when low health) and Rage Art (super move) returns to Tekken 8 as well, but say goodbye to Rage Drive (some form of powered up move at the cost of using your Rage) since we have the Heat system.

Story mode and single player stuff

There is a trend in the fighting game world now with Street Fighter 6 being so feature-rich and engaging to the casual single player gamer. Tekken 8 is no different.

Tekken 8 aims to conclude the Mishima saga (which has spanned through 8 games mind you), and how it does it is within the territory of insanity. There were instances playing the story mode that I audibly exclaimed to myself "What the f*ck is going on what am I playing".

Yes, It is quite intense and insane. I thought Tekken 7's story was wild but Tekken 8's is on a whole new level.

Besides that, there is the returning Tekken Ball, which is basically a combination of volleyball and dodgeball mashed into a game mode. You are supposed to hit a ball so hard into your opponent that you deal damage to them, but they can also hit the ball to bounce it back. I honestly had too much fun on this mode because of how insane it is.

There is also the avatar mode called Arcade Quest where you are able to create your custom avatar in game to run around. Arcade Quest also teaches you the basics of playing the game if you do decide to take Tekken 8 seriously.

So is Tekken 8 a worthy buy?

Of course it is. And I would say that it is the most accessible Tekken game in the series.

The introduction of Special Style really changes things for those who just want to pick the game up and play, and experience things like the story mode, or just have a great party game. Gone are the days of aimless button mashing and your character looking like a fool for doing those repeated jabs for the 100th time.

If you want to take it further, you can play Arcade Quest and learn the ins and outs of the game's mechanics.

The story mode is wild, and I personally would just buy the game to see how bonkers things get on the road to finalising the Mishima story.

If you are a long time player of the series, you will no doubt be really split on how aggressive the Heat system is. I love it since I like my meter cancels, but if you are someone who likes the typical poke and punish game of the old Tekken series, you can still do that, but beware of someone charging at your face with a full Heat gauge.

Tekken 8 releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC on 26 January 2024.

Dominic loves tech and games. When he is not busy watercooling his computer parts, he does some pro wrestling.

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