Tekken 8

Does that make sense?

Yeah, and that seems to be the case with, like, you know, we talk Avatar Legends, Tokon, this, is that even though we're still getting, like, a bunch of new fighting game news, it does kind of feel like that sort of revival era we got with Street Fighter VI and Tekken 8 is really dying off.

Like, I haven't heard anyone talk about Tekken 8 since that one really bad patch dropped.

it

doesn't help that the tekken like lead like harada left like harada leaving is like a really big deal um and i would also say that like you look at street fighter because first of all we didn't even talk about street fighters new dlc season it's all unique characters other than tiffa which is a guest character and tiffa Tifa? Tifa? Tifa? Who cares? Go ahead and flame me in the comments.

Remember

Negan from The Walking Dead being in Tekken 7? Yeah.

Tekken 8 is gonna have your Jiro Hanma from the Baki manga, which, like, amazing pick, but also, I don't think that many people know who he is.

But here is what makes this comparison interesting.

Tekken 8 isn't exactly struggling for characters anymore.

It launched with 32 fighters and its roster has continued expanding.

We have seen returning favourites, new faces and characters brought back through DLC.

And familiarity is an enormous part of why people become attached to fighting games.

Now, I want to be careful here.

Just because a character isn't in Tekken 8 does not automatically mean Tekken 8 has the worst character roster, so just understand that.

But some characters overlap mechanically.

Not because you have forgotten all the moves, not because your reactions have suddenly disappeared, but because your brain keeps telling you to do things that belong in a completely different game.

And that is exactly the problem I have been having with, well, Tekken 6.

After spending so much time playing Tekken 8, I went back to Tekken 6 expecting at least some of my habits to transfer over.

It is still Tekken after all, right? Some basic movement.

Same idea of launching somebody for making a mistake.

Same characters, excuse me.

How different could it really be is what I said to myself.

Well, apparently different enough to make me question every decision I was making.

The characters are still there, the moves are familiar, the announcer says the same things and technically you are still playing Tekken.

but something feels different and I am not talking about graphics I am talking about the way a match makes you think the way you approach somebody the way you defend and well the way you win because after spending so much time going back to Tekken 6 and comparing it with Tekken 8 I have started asking myself a question I'd never thought I'd seriously consider Has Tekken forgotten what made it Tekken? Now, before anybody assumes this is another video about how everything was better in the old days, it is not.

All the Tekken games had plenty of problems and Tekken 8 does some things incredibly well.

But I think there is a genuine conversation to be had about what happens when a fighting game changes the behaviour it rewards.

Because sometimes a franchise can keep all the things you recognise while slowly changing the things you actually loved.

Tekken had this reputation right, for being a fighting game where movement, spacing, punishment and knowledge mattered enormously.

And they still do matter of today because well, it is important.

Listen, I am not saying Tekken 8 has somehow removed fundamentals.

And so now that's going to have catastrophic effects on finance and what have you.

But in this case, what I'm talking about is People have decided that in the case of the video game series Tekken, people don't like the current game very much, Tekken 8.

And so what they've done is they said they went back to the game that I liked, which was Tekken 6, and they used these tools to effectively make multiplayer in them.

You know, with rollback netcode.

And let me tell you, the fury of the Japanese fan base that people would do this is considerable because they're saying, you know, that's disrespectful and you're going to risk the further creation of new games from the Japanese side by doing this.

So when I look at Virtua Fighter Crossroads, I'm judging it from a different perspective.

I am looking at it at a fighting game that has the potential possibly to actually compete with Tekken 8.

And possibly, right, to become one of the biggest fighting games of its generation.

but I have also been around gaming long enough to know something important.

You see, an amazing trailer does not guarantee an amazing game and after everything we have seen happen with Tekken 8, I think we should be careful about declaring the next fighting game a masterpiece before we have even had the chance to actually properly play it because i am excited about virtual fighter i genuinely am i'm just not ready to like crown it the next king of fighting games first right let's give the trailer its credit because i can't lie visually virtual fighter crossroads is making a very very strong impression the latest reveal introduces lionel raphael and immediately there is something about the character that stands out to me the confidence, the attitude, the way he carries himself and maybe this is just a second play in me talking but this guy reminds me of Li Chaolan not necessarily because they fight the same way because they don't it's just more of like the personality that stylish slightly arrogant energy the feeling that this character knows he is good and wants everybody else to know it too As somebody who has spent a lot of time with Lee and Tekken, I cannot help but notice that.

And honestly, it is probably the first thing that made me personally connect with this trailer.

But beyond the character, I like the presentation.

The strikes look impactful, the movement has a physical quality to it and the fights seem to have a different rhythm from what we have become accustomed to in modern Tekken.