Since its humble beginnings in 1994, the Tekken series has been one of the premier fighting games at the arcades, home consoles, and esports events. With its large cast of culturally diverse characters representing various forms of martial arts, Tekken has always gone above and beyond to give fans the most in-depth fighting game, with the biggest variety of moves to pull off devastating combos and score the KO to claim victory.

After the success of Tekken 7 in 2015, which only got bigger and better with each DLC update, the stage is set for Tekken 8, soon to break out of its chains and punch its way to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Thanks to the Bandai Namco office in Sydney, we had the pleasure of getting a hands-on preview of the latest build of the full game.

Set six months after the events of Tekken 7, which saw Heihachi Mishima meet his fate at the hands of his son Kazuya, the story of the Mishima bloodline is far from over. The family feud continues with Kazuya Mishima and his son, Jin Kazama, as they meet for another showdown in a big city. With Jin trying to not submit to his devil gene and Kazuya relishing in his devil form, their latest father-and-son quarrel is so big that it becomes catastrophic, even threatening the lives of those around them. With no other option, Jin must embrace the devil within and finally put an end to this decades-long rivalry.

While the premise sounds like the epic conclusion to the game’s story, it’s actually only the beginning. The epic battle between Kazuya and Jin is just chapter one of Story Mode, and it sets the tone for what’s to come. An in-depth Story Mode was also featured in Tekken 7 but focused primarily on Heihachi and his relationships with his wife Kazumi, his son Kazuya, and his grandson Jin. It even featured Akuma from the Street Fighter series. Tekken 8’s Story Mode not only focuses on the Mishima family, but it also looks to feature the other characters in bigger roles this time, rather than their own short stories. We weren’t able to go much further in Story Mode, but it’ll be interesting to see how all the other characters fit into the main plot. Even after just one chapter, Story Mode is already looking more interesting than the previous game, and this only makes things more exciting for the game’s official release in January.

Tekken 8 will have a base roster of 32 characters with many returning combatants and some new faces entering the fray. Many fan favourites make their return including Kazuya Mishima, Jin Kazama, Paul Phoenix, Marshall Law, Ling Xiaoyu, King, Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, Bryan Fury and Hwoarang, just to name a few. Jun Kazama, the late wife of Kazuya and mother of Jin, who has been deceased since between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3, also mysteriously returns. How she’s still alive is yet to be revealed, but longtime fans will definitely appreciate her return and will be eager to find out what her purpose is in the latest story.

Brand new characters in the series include Azucena, Victor Chevalier and Reina. Azucena is a mixed martial artist from Peru, who mixes her dancing with her MMA background and enters the tournament in search of the perfect blend, and to promote her family’s brand of coffee. Victor is a legendary war veteran from France and a super spy with the United Nations, who looks to play an important role in Story Mode. He is armed with a pistol, karambit and a katana-like sword, and his fighting style looks like it takes a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Reina is the most mysterious of the three, as she seems to be connected with the Mishima family in some way and even uses some familiar Mishima-style karate moves along with her Taidō background. Rumours have been circulating of who she actually is, which only thickens the plot even more for the game’s story.

All the returning characters have received a big upgrade to their appearances and movesets, but feel just as good as ever the three new fighters are also a lot of fun to play, and will likely become instant fan favourites, but unfortunately, a lot of other fan-favourites will miss out. At least for now. The season 1 pass will include four DLC characters, but it’s yet to be revealed who they will be, whether it’s fan favourites from past games, more new fighters or guest characters like in Tekken 7. No date has been announced as to when they’ll be added, but fans will be waiting with great anticipation to see who they are. Unfortunately, as stated by series producer Katsuhiro Harada, Heihachi Mishima is officially dead and will not be returning, though only time will tell, as this isn’t the first time we’ve heard the statement “Heihachi Mishima is dead”.

A new gameplay mechanic is Special Style, which simplifies the moves and even combos. This feature can be switched on and off during a match with the press of a button. It has been a controversial topic, much like Street Fighter 6’s modern controls that also simplified all the moves. Veteran players may feel that all their years of mastering the moves and perfecting the combos are being undermined.

This does, however, make the game more beginner-friendly to casual players and newcomers, and gives them that good feeling of pulling off their favourite moves. This may even inspire them to play with normal controls, as they’ll have more variety and freedom in how they play.

Characters with chain throws such as King and Nina, are now much easier to pull off as well. In past games, they required players to memorise a ton of button inputs to achieve the full set of throws, but now they can be done just by tapping a single button. Much like Special Style, this makes it more easily accessible for casual fans, but longtime players may feel like it’s a low blow to all their years of memorising all the button inputs and earning that badge of honour. Of course, it takes more than easier chain throws to be good at King, Nina, and other grapplers who may get added later on. It’ll be interesting to see if the old system for chain throws gets brought back or becomes optional, and if Special Style will be allowed for esports events.

The Heat System is another of Tekken 8’s newest gameplay mechanics. It’s represented by a meter under the health bar, and when activated, allows the attacker to change the tide of battle. This feature enhances certain moves and has its own combos that, when timed correctly, can deliver a ton of damage to the opponent. Pro players haven’t been the most receptive towards the Heat System based on their feedback over the various beta tests this past year, but the team at Bandai Namco has been working hard, making adjustments to make this a prominent feature of Tekken 8.

Tekken 8 also introduces Arcade Quest, a single-player campaign with its own story that centres around you. Here you’ll create and customise an avatar based on yourself or make up your own character, and take them through a world of in-game arcades and esports tournaments. Your goal is to become the Tekken world champion, starting in a small arcade to learn the ropes of the latest game with helpful tutorials and working your way up to the big stage to take on the best players in the world. You’ll also make some friends with other players who each have their own reasons for playing the game, and Orochi, an arrogant pro player and main antagonist immediately becomes your biggest rival. With real-life arcades becoming a thing of the past, Arcade Quest aims to recreate that same feeling of starting in a small arcade, travelling to bigger arcades and entering tournaments to become the King of the Iron Fist.

The highly requested minigame, Tekken Ball makes its long-awaited return. First introduced in the console version of Tekken 3, again on the Wii U edition of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and finally in Tekken 8. This takes the battle to the beach with a beach ball between both combatants who must utilise their moves to knock the ball into their opponents in order to deal damage. The stronger the attacks, the stronger the ball becomes as it’s hurled into the opponent. Just like in the older games, Tekken Ball will offer hours of fun, is a nice change of pace from the main game and can even be played online.

Tekken 8 is actually the first game in the mainline series to go straight to consoles and not have an arcade release. This means the online play has to be better than ever, and so far, Bandai Namco is absolutely delivering on that. I didn’t get to try the online modes in the hands-on preview, but I was fortunate to be selected for Closed Network Tests over the past few months. Past Tekken games used the delayed base netcode, which worked fairly well when matched up with opponents closer to your area, but rollback netcode makes the online experience better than ever. It only got better and better with each Closed Network Test, and there was very little lag in my personal experience. It still struggles when matching up with opponents further across the world, or if playing wirelessly, and perhaps because of Australia’s not-so-good internet, but even with that, there’s a very noticeable improvement. The online experience in the latest entry of the Tekken series is the best it’s ever been, and the full game isn’t even out yet.

Bandai Namco has been going above and beyond to make Tekken 8 the premier game of its genre. Even with some fan-favourite characters missing from the base roster, Katsuhiro Harada and the team at Bandai Namco have been taking all the steps in the right direction and Tekken’s future is looking more electrifying than ever. The Story Mode is really intriguing, the new fighters are a ton of fun, the graphics are looking immaculate thanks to Unreal Engine 5, and new gameplay mechanics add so much to the fights. There is so much to look forward to with the official release just over a month away. Tekken 8 is set to finally break out of its chains and make its way onto home consoles on January 26th 2024. Soon, it’ll be time to “Get ready for the next battle” and become the King of the Iron Fist Tournament!

Written by: Sammy Hanson