Tekken 8 makes it easier than ever to get way into Tekken

There was a moment this weekend, in the middle of a particularly lengthy set of Tekken 8 with a friend, where I remembered half the reason I love Tekken. It was a brutally close bout, and this round came right down to the wire.

It was so close, in fact, that we initiated two slow-motion finishes. The Tekken team had implemented this feature for Tekken 7 as a way to highlight those nail-biter “who lands the hit” moments. We got two of them, and well, you can see for yourself how that went here:

Beautiful. Tekken is, for my money, one of the most consistently fun fighting games around. It’s the sort of game that I think anyone can pick up and, within a few seconds, enjoy. Partly thanks to a relatively simplified control scheme, laid out around just four buttons, matches feel centered on the punches and kicks, much more tangible and understandable elements to contend with than fireballs, massive floating swords, or other mechanics.

That’s not to say Tekken is an easy game to learn because, my goodness, everyone will tell you that’s not the case. Sure, it’s easy to mash some buttons and have a good time in Tekken. But learning Tekken, improving proficiency, climbing the ladder? That’s a different story altogether. And what I’ve felt over my first weekend playing Tekken 8 is that, while that climb is not any less daunting, each step is more helpfully laid out than ever.

Welcome to the King of Iron Fist

Going into Tekken 8, I wasn’t sure who I would pick up and gel with; Asuka was my T7 main, though I’d just as easily bounce around to whoever caught my eye. I spent some time playing a round or two as every member of the T8 cast and gravitated towards Reina, the newcomer with a bit of Heihachi Mishima style in her moves and on-screen presence. I determined I was going to “get good at Reina.” Oh boy.

It’s important to note here that Reina is a fairly complex character. I wouldn’t try and pit her against, say, the many stances of Lei Wulong. But she’s a powerful, stance-heavy character who relies on both knowledge and dexterity. It’s been a while since the words “Electric Wind God Fist” meant much to me, but it quickly became my world in the training lab.

So, after testing some ideas and really, really rough strings in matches against friends, I decided it was time to hit the lab. Combo challenges and other helpful tools have become commonplace in fighting games, and I was glad to see them in Tekken 8. Bandai Namco even has one of my favorite features, a percussive beat for button presses while watching a combo demo, so you can hear the timing. I’ve been able to internalize strings probably twice as fast as normal thanks to that alone.

What I was surprised to see, though, was the wealth of additional tools for learning in-game. Because it’s not just some combo challenges and a quick character dossier. Right there in the menu was something called Punishment Training, a phrase I’ve usually reserved for holidays and special occasions.

In Punishment Training, you can practice different options your character has to punish others. Your foe whiffs their punch? Here’s a good combo-starter to hit them with. Get caught by a sweep? Have a rising jab to counter. It’s all very easy to read and understand. Even better, unlike the combo challenges, these focus on practical application. They encourage you to read and respond in kind.

Play it back for me

The lab options alone are already great, but replays add the cherry on top. A feature that was added to Tekken 7 also returns for 8, the Replay Tips. While watching a replay in Tekken 8, the system provides automated advice, informing you what options you could have resorted to in certain situations.

Now, in my own replays, some of these amount to “tech the throw, dummy.” But I’ve already seen others get some really fascinating, insightful hints from the system on their own replays. Add in the ability to “take over” the replay, and you’ve got a built-in training simulation, a what-if machine that makes it easy to spot-practice mistakes.

Now, I know that going into the lab and doing practice is key to getting better. I know this. But it’s not always an easy thing to do, day after day, on the road to getting better at something as complex and competitive as a one-on-one fighting game. So, having these tools lay out the methods for improvement so neatly and effectively really helps when it comes to options. Now, what about motivation?

The quest to become stronger

Traditionally, a big barrier to personal fighting game improvement isn’t just the complexity, mechanical dexterity, or even the repetition; it can also be a social pressure. For some folks, myself included, it’s draining to get off work, turn on the PlayStation, and get bodied by a King for an hour or two. Even if I know I’m learning, the “You Lose” screen gets old, especially if you know there’s a human being on the other side.

Ultimately, the piece de resistance of all this, at least to me, is Arcade Quest. It’s a new mode introduced for Tekken 8, as a sort of alternative story route. Rather than the cinematic, in-universe tale spun in the main Story Mode, Arcade Quest lets you make an extremely Xbox 360 avatar and go on a shonen anime journey to become the greatest Tekken player around, hot off the heels of Tekken 8‘s launch.

Yes, it’s a bit meta. But it really, really works. Progression in Tekken 8‘s Arcade Quest involves going to arcades and beating up the locals, the same way that Zoey Handley infamously got employed here at Destructoid.

I’ve only played a little bit of Arcade Quest, but I’m already enamored with the ways it so easily tricks me into enjoying the Ranked grind. Here, I’m fighting CPU opponents, made to look like real ones, with their own characters and skills. Over time, I can earn points and rank up, through a progression path that mirrors the Ranked mode online.

Everything is fundamentally the same, but it’s removing the feeling of dropping repeat games to humans. Here, I can just grind against the CPU for a bit. There is, for whatever reason, less dread in the pit of my stomach booting up Arcade Quest than hopping into the Ranked queue. And if the ultimate goal is making my beautiful Nickelodeon-looking avatar a true champion in this fictional Tekken-obsessed world, all the better.

Ascending to Ruler, he thinks, wistfully

As I wrote above, I’ve pretty much settled on Reina. I firmly believe that, end of day, you should pick the character who’s got the buttons you like to push the most. And Reina has good buttons. She’s got this one move where you dash, and then uppercut, and then spin-kick in the air. I have not landed it once, but when I do, I hope it feels the way I imagine some people feel at the summits of mountains.

Really, that’s what it’s about. The climb. Much as I like to think I enjoy it, I do need those methods to convince me to pick up the stick (or controller, or hitbox) and stay with it. Tekken 8 makes that really easy. It’s got incredible practice and learning tools. Plus, a single-player mode that wants you to feel like the protagonist in a Tekken brand-deal battle anime.

Fighting games have been having a bit of a renaissance over the last few years. Street Fighter is back in action, Guilty Gear hit its Strive, and even more niche entries like Melty Blood and Under Night have seen an uptick in visibility. It’s good to see that Tekken is taking all that momentum from the long-running success of 7 and putting it towards 8. This isn’t a review, per se; it’s just me saying damn, it feels good to be playing some good-ass Tekken.