Tekken 8Season 2 arrived earlier this week, and in less than 24 hours, the game wasnegatively review-bombed on Steam.
Pro players from around the world have been sharinghundreds of clipsshowing almost every character on the roster doing ridiculous combos. Some of them started creating memes about the death of the game, while others took it more seriously and shared their desire to stop playing entirely.
So what happened? Why is a fighting game that seemed to be well-received by critics and players at launch now the target of such backlash?
If you’re a casual player who enjoys playing with friends, it’s likely this won’t feel like a big deal. But when it comes to the core audience of Tekken 8 that plays the game online daily, especially those who professionally compete in tournaments, Tekken 8 showed problematic signs from the very beginning.
Issues started with the Heat System, a universal gameplay mechanic that works for all characters. Basically, it gives you a buff state that lets you perform a couple of different actions, like extend combos, gain unique abilities only available during Heat Mode, deal chip damage even if your rival is blocking, and a unique powerful move called Heat Smash.
you may activate this power-up whenever you want in a match, but only for a limited time, and you’ll have to wait for the next round to activate it again.
Right from the start, the Heat System made Tekken 8 a much more aggressive game compared to its predecessor. Every character seemed to be balanced around this mechanic, gaining many offensive options, while lacking defensive tools to counter them.
You are rewarded for attacking in Tekken 8, rather than being defensive or waiting for your opponent. And with some practice, you can easily create situations where your opponent has to guess quickly what is going to happen, punishing them with high damage if they select the wrong option. Guess wrong once? 50 percent of your health bar is gone. Guess wrong twice, and get ready for the next battle.
Tekken became a volatile game, allowing you to execute strong combos and use simple moves that create checkmate situations without much thinking. ‘Getting good’ at the game and starting to climb up the rank system was never easy.
We All Knew This Was Going To Happen
On March 23, Tekken’s 8 dev teamhosted a new edition of the Tekken Talk Live. This stream lasted almost three hours, and focused on the recently added character, Anna, and many of the changes that were going to be introduced in Season 2.
The stream showed many quality of life improvements, such as new Punish and Counter notifications for battles, auto-correction for off-axis combos after a launcher, and an ‘Infinite’ practice stage that lets you train without worrying about the walls on the scenario. These changes were mostly welcome, but the problem started when the stream showed big changes for many characters.
New moves and modifications were then shown for Reina, Azucena, Devil Jin, King, and Jin, andthis is when players started worrying. Characters who were strong but had clear weaknesses received buffs. For example, Reina used to have very bad lows, but now she’s better, with a unique Low Heat Smash that she can perform twice with a single Heat gauge. Jin, who used to be a mediocre character in Heat Mode, is now pretty strong (and he was already menacing without it).
Perhaps one of the most absurd changes came with a King demonstration. If your opponent was in Heat Mode, tried to throw you, and you successfully performed a Throw Escape, you were still receiving chip damage. The game was going to punish you for correctly using a defensive option just because you weren’t attacking.
Fortunately, after the tremendous backlash the stream received,devs quickly announcedthat they were removing the chip damage for Throw Escapes.
Game director Nakatsuposted a big thread on Twitterwith video demonstrations showing defensive changes, such as a refinement to sidestepping, which wasn’t the focus on the latest Talk Live stream (butit was briefly shown in the previous one). There was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Tekken 8’s Season 2 Day One: Nightmare Edition
Season 2 came, and my Twitter timeline was flooded with hundreds of clips from many players showing things no one could believe. It turns out that almost every character received significant buffs, resulting in many of the roster becoming overpowered.
Characters that were already strongreceived new routes and wall combos, like Hwoarang. Changes to how Ki Charge works now allow Lidia and Paul players todeal 127 damage with only one move. Speaking of Paul, he can now perform a series of moves that deal damage and leave you exposed,even if you’re blocking them correctly.
These are only a small fraction of all the ridiculous things that players are finding. Tekken 8 developers have said from the beginning the philosophy behind this entry was to reward being aggressive, but this is something else. This adds more and more offensive tools while diminishing what players can do to defend themselves. It’s oppressive, making the game more frustrating than anything else.
What about the buffs to sidestepping that Nakatsu mentioned earlier? They are real, but at the same time, many characters gain new or improved side-tracking moves that completely counter side steps — a concerning contradiction.
Can We Expect A Better Future For Tekken 8?
The backlash on social media didn’t take long. Many relevant figures, such asRaef,Speedkicks, and world championArslan Ash, have shown their disapproval. Some well-known players and creators arealso being blocked by the devsfor voicing their opinions respectfully. While it could be argued that it’s too soon to draw any conclusions about how this season is going to play out, it looks like we were right to be concerned.
Tekken 8 is not stepping back from what was shown in the first season — it’s going all-in, whether its core audience likes it or not. With many pro players ‘joking’ about uninstalling the game and jumping into something else, it shouldn’t be a surprise if these changes don’t end up hurting the game’s reputation in the long run.
An indie game developeris trying to gather people to create a mod that entirely removes the Heat System and balances the characters.
I attempt to remain optimistic. It’s too soon, and maybe we need to give it some weeks before the community learns all the changes and the dev team makes any necessary adjustments.An official announcementhas been made about the team working on an “emergency patch” for the next weeks, andHarada himself recognizesthat there is “a disconnect between what the community wants and the tuning results.”
Considering how quickly they responded to the backlash after the controversial chip damage from Escape Throws and the news about this patch, it’s clear that devs are listening and reading all the feedback they can.
I’m not gonna lie. Tekken 8’s present doesn’t look good, and we need to be ready for whatever might come down the road. For now, Season 2 paints a terrible future for the game.
