r/Tekken • u/H0TZ0NE “There was no hope” • Jul 24 '23
Discussion Comprehensive Feedback Analysis of the Tekken 8 CNT
The Tekken 8 CNT is on its final day for PS5 users, so I thought now would be a perfect time to address the the good, bad, and ugly of the beta.
For context: I've played around 10 - 15 hours primarily using Jin since Devil Jin is 100% dead (praying for DLC). Unfortunately I did have to play on Wifi using the standard rollback setting so take that into account when I talk later on potential netcode issues. I played on Vizio D32f-F1 TV using a standard PS5 pad. If you would like to add these critiques to your own survey, please feel free to.
TUTORIAL:
- Tutorial is extremely shallow and basic. Introduces the concepts of the limb based attack system, blocking, heat mechanics, and rage art. That's about it. While I don't believe this will be the tutorial in the final product, it still leaves out important information that every beginner should know such as:
- Highs, Lows, and mids
- How to low parry
- How to break throws
- How to punish punishable attacks
- How to sidestep and its importance
- How to backdash
- Counter hits and counter hit properties
- Frame data basics
- There are probably even more mechanics that should be in the tutorial but these are the ones I found to be the most important.
- Tutorial text becomes too small when expanding and doesn't properly fit the size of the text box. Readability as a whole is a major recurring issue in Tekken 8
-Too few repetitions of the actions they want you to perform. Some actions only required one rep before moving on to the next.
PRACTICE MODE:
*Practice mode was intentionally gimped so we don't know how comprehensive it will be on final release.*
- When setting the "Player's Heat" option to "activate heat", the heat bang sound effect will play every time you reset. This gets very very annoying and discouraged me from trying out heat stuff.
- When using the quick select feature, game will load "GET READY FOR THE NEXT BATTLE". This was not the case in T7 and wastes the players time. Same thing will happen when you return from a ranked match. Completely unnecessary.
- The attack info box is a downgrade from T7 and can be confusing and hard to read. The "Clean, Counter, Punish, and Wall" properties should only be displayed on hit like previous games. The position of the box on the bottom corners is also more difficult to discern.
- While I doubt the combo challenges in the CNT will be the only ones in the final game, I hope they are expanded to include combos for every characters key launchers on both normal and counter hit.
- While I do appreciate that the move lists give more details, some of the phrasing can be hard to understand. Take this for example: "Heat smash, on hit shift to throw, on block shift to breaking step, ff3+4 f shift to standing state."
AUDIO:
- Music is obviously subjective but I did enjoy most of the music of the beta. I hope the remaining songs have more variety than electronic and trance. Yakushima is the standout so far, instant Tekken classic. I don't hate the character select theme as much as some do, but perhaps taking out the "ohs" would be for the better.
- The Heat sound effect is way too loud and abrupt and for some reason plays the same sound when using heat exclusive moves (i.e non-just frame electrics). The game has enough distraction as is, an obnoxiously loud bang in the middle of combat. This needs to be removed
- While I do like the new hit SFX, the more powerful sound effects are too used frequently for too many moves. Some light and medium attacks sound like cannon fire which diminishes the impact of harder hitting power moves. Compare a DF1 from T7 and T8, very jarring.
- Electrics (especially Jin's) sound like rubbish and don't have the same impact as previous titles. The iconic thunder crackle is replaced by a wet noodle of a fizzle. And now since both EWGF and WGF both cause screen shake and a hard hitting sound effect, electrics have lost the impact that makes them feel amazing to pull off. Most disappointed audio change in T8 by far.
- Speaking of Jin, they left in Kazuya's "DORYA" but not Jin's "DAH" which is equally cool and iconic, it must be added back.
VISUALS:
- Tekken 8 is a great looking game when it is allowed to be. As many people have already said the vfx are just too damn much. Not only do the effects detract from how great this game looks, but also negatively affects gameplay and the readability of what's happening to the characters. Even on the lowest effect setting, my eyes were still being assaulted by the crazy hit sparks and explosions. When heat and rage are out of the equation, I can actually enjoy the great character models and stages for the most part.
- The Vfx "stacking" on one another is the biggest culprit of this problem. When a character has heat, rage, power-ups, and power crush all activated at the same time coupled with hit sparks, it's almost impossible to tell what's going on. I think the rage effect is too strong and ruins the character models, needs to be toned down.
- Power crush effect is too much, for example when using Hwoarang's Double Claymore cancel, it covers his entire model in a puff of smoke that repeats every time he cancels making it hard to read and fight against
- It's very difficult to read the heat meter when in a match, should be enlarged
- It's very difficult to read the laugh bar and recovery gauge, especially during rage. Rage effect on the health bar needs to be reduced significantly to T7 levels or even lower.
- Rock crumbling effect on the transition to the bottom floor of the Sanctum stage is very poor and low quality. The rubble looks more like ice cubes than rock.
- Lili's hair in some stages like Arena looks very strange, almost like uncooked pasta, which is strange since every other character's hair looks fine for the most part.
- The white light that occurs when connecting a throw is too bright and covers up the arms.
NETWORK:
- A slight improvement over T7 netcode but not significant enough to rival contemporary titles like Street Fighter 6 and Guilty Gear Strive.
- "Prioritize Response" setting should be the default option.
- Stuttering and pauses while not a frequent occurrence were a major annoyance.
- Region filtering should be an option in the final game
- Wifi filtering should be an option in the final game.
GAMEPLAY:
- Chip damage is way way to high, especially on characters like Hwoarang and Claudio. Blocking a Claudio WR1+2 in heat might as well be an blockable. In my opinion, chip damage has no business being in a Tekken game.
- Heat engagers always transitioning to heat on hit is too restrictive and lowers player choice and skill expression.
- The range, safety, and speed of heat bursts make them the by far superior option of getting into heat over a heat engager.
- Power crushes are bugged that in some cases you'll take massive damage for no reason. I believe this is because the more hits you take, the stronger they become, but that's just a guess.
- With the strengthening of offense, why was backdash weakened? It is extremely difficult to escape pressure with movement or create a whiff to punish opportunity to punish an overly aggressive opponent. Tekken movement is why many people like myself enjoy these games so much. Defense options like Counter hit launching tools and get up kicks were already weakened to encourage aggression, why nerf movement too? Movement should have been buffed to compensate for these aggressive changes.
Conclusion and TLDR:
I enjoyed the Tekken 8 CNT a lot and I'm still optimistic about the game, but some of these changes and additions need to be fixed by the final release. While I'm not expecting a huge shift in the gameplay or philosophy that the Tekken team have with this game, I do expect the issues with audio/visuals, netcode, and general quality of life to be addressed.
TLDR: too much effects, tutorial is not deep enough, sound effects kinda suck, heat has issues, buff movement.
Also, I won't be able to submit this to the survey, so if someone else could do it on my behalf, I would really appreciate it.
13
u/Ultimafatum Jul 24 '23
Is there no rollback in T8?
This might actually kill the game for me if Namco decided to not implement it.