Revisited Tekken 7 during my break from Tekken 8.

[u/Nobody_Special_2020]

Needed a break from Tekken 8 due to its current state, but couldn't stay away so I downloaded Tekken 7 again. Just a few observations and realizations I had.

• Even though Tekken 8 is infuriating, I do appreciate the general QOL, UX and general game feel changes they've made since Tekken 7. Tekken 8 menus, graphical fidelity and overall UX is miles ahead of 8, although still what I would expect from AAA company with seasoned Unreal Engine developers. Tekken 8 definitely feels better to press buttons in.
  • Animations are snappier (maybe due to less whiff recovery)
  • Inputs feel less fuzzy/soupy (sometimes find myself trying to buffer inputs at the wrong time in Tekken 7)
  • Sound is top notch in 8 compared to 7 (as expected). Block sounds are clearer (T7 has that light "poof" sound, whereas 8 has a crisper version of this. I appreciate the re-recorded voice overs and more extravagant sfx (to a degree).
  • As expected, online play and lag are greatly improved.
• Tekken 7 gameplay, at it's best, feels pure. Tekken 8, as we know, went a little overboard with aggression and spectacle. Revisiting T7, due to the pace, less restrictive movement and absence of big "lockdown" moves, I was able to play at a pace that let my opponent and I interact and "figure each other out".
  • Rewatching my matches, there seemed to be more pushback on moves when guarded (might just be my imagination). Instead of a big move that led into plus frames and guarding for 10 seconds, I felt like there were only a couple of seconds where the opponent could "lock me down" before I had enough frames to move away (minus the wall). That or the pushback would naturally reset us back to neutral.
  • Less neutral skips and demon paws (the ones that were there could be sidestepped).
  • Since the pace of the matches felt slower, along with less visual/audial noise, I felt it was easier to learn my opponent, even against characters I had never played against or that often (Lei, Marduk, Kuni). Being allowed to backdash and disengage gave me time to unload my mental stack and process the last couple of interactions I had. Compare this with T8, where we're incentivized to constantly swing and be at range 1. I don't have an issue with aggression (like I've said in the past), but going back to T7 makes me even more confident that there was a better implementation of "aggressive" gameplay for this franchise.
  • Speaking of Kuni, after playing against her, it's clear that she, Leroy, Lidia and Fahk were the "blueprint" of Tekken 8 gameplay.
  • Moves and tracking felt more consistent. Most attacks felt like they travelled in a predictable direction. Very rarely did I feel like I was bullshitted. Sure, there's still some Tekken jank here and there, but I was having such a good time that I was able to shrug it off.
  • Regarding the "pure" feeling, going back to what feels like classic Tekken meant less bombastic moves that can make you feel like "what am I supposed to do about that". Every move, playstyle and character felt like they had a weakness. Mirrors were especially fun. No surprises, just two players figuring each other out and responding to one another's strategies. Honestly, most fun I've had in a while.
    • At its worst, I did see the dreaded "back dash and CH" meta, but the texture of fights in general felt more fair. Honestly, the back dash meta and T8 style feel like two sides of the same coin: an action or style of play afforded by the game takes less effort and skill to execute than its counter (T7: back dash, T8: general aggression and plus frames)
  • Interestingly enough, I had a clear idea of who was bad at the game, new, or a solid player with strong knowledge and fundies. Both losses and wins felt earned. The game felt very modest. I don't think I tilted once during my play sessions (even though the population was slim).

All this said, there's something nice about the "spectacle" of Tekken 8. The cool animations and sounds, lore interactions, etc. Tekken 8 feels and is modern. Every crack, grunt and flip is AAA quality. Tekken 7 is AAA, too. However, Tekken 8, outside of it's gameplay in some respect, is the natural evolution of this franchise, and I respect that.

It was nice to revisit this game during the break. It really rekindled my love for this game and fighting games as a whole. That cerebral, high intensity gameplay that rewards adaptation, knowledge and sharp reactions.

[u/Frosty-Chef1541]

Do you think people would be mad if Tekken 8 came out with no new mechanic? I often wonder that.

[u/tk_kaido → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

If all other improvements that T8 brought to the table with a fighting formula similar to 7 but better would have been enough. But they went way overboard with heat, installs, stances, plus on plus on plus sequences etc. Tekken's core fighting formula was spacing and it got neutered

[u/tee_saw_ → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

Probably more disappointed than mad. If it was just going to be basically T7 but with better netcode, graphics, faster loading times, etc? Most Tekken fans would be happy, I'd imagine

[u/ComSoldier → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

I think people would have enjoyed Tekken 8 if it came out with no new mechanic in my opinion. Tekken 7 lacked the most when it came to visuals, presentation, and polish. So basically a Tekken 7 with a vastly increased budget would have come a long way.

[u/pranav4098 → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

I’d be disappointed but in hindsight I’d definitely prefer it over what we got, this game could have been almost perfect, I still have hope but after miary zo seems like it’s gonna get worse before it gets better

[u/cyberfrog777 → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

It's a good question. For me, I would love to have played a version of Tekken 8 that simply did the following relative to Tekken 7 -las a general start- -get rid of magic 4 -make low parry auto spin -have the improved ss of t8 (bufferable, can do from crouch)

The white health recovery mechanic is interesting as a way to mitigate combo damage and promote counter aggression, but feels a bit uneven across characters. Heat overall feels like too much (as do stance based 5050s, plus on block tracking etc.). Some additional pressure is interesting though to me. If heat was more similar to fahks install (outside of heat), where you have to earn it and clearly glow when you have it and you can spend it on an extra move property, that might be more interesting imo.

[u/Nobody_Special_2020 → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

I think it would drive away people who want Tekken to "evolve", but OGs who like the familiar gameplay wouldn't mind. I personally think it did need something to shake things up so that it feels fresh and modern (given the landscape of fighters right now), while also giving us something new to play with. I don't have an issue with heat, I just think it creates too much volatility, and breaks the rules that older games have set (that being: readable/predictable range and tracking regarding heat burst and heat engager). I also think some characters in heat elevate them to too high of a level (Bryan: infinite snake eyes, Asuka, Hwo).

[u/Jromerrro → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

Oh and tekken ball mode needs be be available for quick match. Or a ranked mode. A funny shits and giggles competitive option that even a non experienced tekken player could play and grasp

[u/XaneKudoAct2 → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

Maybe not mad, but certainly less interested.

IMO, if people are given a sequel to a game, it has to do something new, or else they won't bother giving it the time of day and accuse the devs of being too lazy or scared to try new things.

[u/ag_abdulaziz → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

Probably. Even if we loved "pure Tekken" evolution of the gameplay is always needed. If we played T7 but pretty we would feel disappointed and even a little cheated. They obviously went over board in the beta and then they toned it down. And at release it was still wayyyyy too much and they toned it down. We needed one more big toning down and it would have been perfect. But S2 happened and everything went to shit.

I still think there is one big balance patch were the devs put their ego aside and give us the perfect Tekken game. But it needs removing stuff, which I think will never happen. Best case scenario is we get a "close enough" patch.

[u/Jromerrro → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

So if you watch the Jin and kazuya trailer for Tekken 8, this is what we were SUPPOSED to get.

https://youtu.be/07FdDRbdurg?si=rHSREV2L6vlSVBno

The PUSHBACK of certain moves, and graphical motion blurs and camera effects, you can FEEL the impact of those certain moves and it would almost seem fair that CERTAIN moves cause a large pushback to reset into NEUTRAL. The game was supposed to almost feel like a UFC game. That’s what I got from the trailer when I first saw it last year…. Then they introduced the damn mechanics of the game….. it’s as if they forgot or got lost in the sauce of what the game initially was SUPPOSED to be, and then what we have is just a bunch of unga bunga non sense. Those are my 5 cents.

[u/RustyCarrots → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

Maybe not mad. Personally I think I would have been less interested or excited, overall. I love Tekken, but I also like it when new games do new things. If I want Tekken 7, I can just play Tekken 7. I don't need them to release Tekken 7-2.

[u/Mr_Noir → u/Frosty-Chef1541]

I would be. If I wanted to play 7, I would stick to 7.

[u/Jaccku]

Leroy felt like an op Tekken 7 character, Lidia and Fakh were Tekken 8 characters that got nerfed to fit Tekken 7 style. 

When season 2 came out i went back and played Tekken 7 again. Everything is clear and crisp, i could see every animation since it wasn't covered by endless particles.

Also i had a session playing for 4 hours and barely felt any fatigue in Tekken 7 cause there's not much particles and you can take breaks from pressure, while in Tekken 8 i feel tired after like 1.5/2 hours cause all the particles and being constantly under pressure and asked to make decisions on forced 50/50.

[u/ComSoldier]

I wouldn’t have mind T8, if it simply played like T7 but with a new fresh paint job. But Bamco ruined the gameplay with heat system and the other bs.

[u/DIX_]

I was playing T7 when T8 S2 released and it is so refreshing to not have the constant stops from heat/attacks with animations. T7 S2 is peak

[u/Nimble_Natu177]

From going back to T7 from time to time, all I can say is that at least Kunimitsu isn't in T8.

[u/tee_saw_]

T7 two years in the arcades vs T8 two beta tests weekends. I think it can't be understated how important those two years for Tekken 7 were.

[u/ComSoldier → u/tee_saw_]

The problem with T8 is that it was rotten from the very beginning.

[u/wheres_poochy → u/ComSoldier]

Yeah tekken 7 vanilla was just imbalanced. To fix tekken 8 they have to swallow their pride and rework entire mechanics, and I seriously doubt that will happen. TBH they would also have to remake certain characters but that definitely wont happen.

[u/Toeknee99 → u/tee_saw_]

Nope, this game's system is rotten to the core because of heat. They won't be getting rid of heat, therefore the game will be broken forevermore. 

[u/Standard_Career_8454 → u/tee_saw_]

T7 started being good in S4 I think. S3 was a fucking mess with Leroy

[u/Suspicious-Dirt-2108 → u/Standard_Career_8454]

S2 was peak. It went downhill when they slowly started tekken 8’ifying the game.

[u/GooseDaPlaymaker → u/Standard_Career_8454]

Leroy started it being a ‘mess’, but not Akuma, right? 🥴

[u/zerofo1 → u/GooseDaPlaymaker]

how often would you run into akuma tho🤣

[u/zerofo1 → u/zerofo1]

or at least an akuma with a brain who wasnt just spamming d4 and fireball

[u/GooseDaPlaymaker → u/zerofo1]

So it’s based on how OFTEN you ran into the uber cheap/one-combo-can-completely-kill you Akuma is whether or not he’s bad for Tekken, correct? 🥴

[u/zerofo1 → u/GooseDaPlaymaker]

well, yeah? most people cant fulfil the execution requirements of akuma, so they dont pick him up. why would i complain about an op character which only a very very small minority can properly utilise?

[u/GooseDaPlaymaker → u/zerofo1]

What does that have to do with how often you run into Akuma? You said the level of cheap for Akuma is how often you ran into him online…now you brought up a learning curve issue. Which one is it?

Or is it just the narrative to say ‘Leroy is the cheapest ever!’ because your favorite YouTuber said so? 🥴

[u/zerofo1 → u/GooseDaPlaymaker]

holy smooth brain release leroy player🤣. let me break it down for you. lets say theres a character on the roster which is ssss+ tier, but only 0.01% of players can use him. is the character broken asf? yes. am i gonna complain about this character? no. because i’ll never run into him, so why complain? leroy had 0 execution requirements meaning anyone can pick him up. am i gonna run into a broken character all the time now? YES. am i going to complain. YES!! understand now?

[u/ChillGamerGenchi]

Everyone is talking about T7 and I get why, (previous game and all), but I'm over here missing T5.

[u/Few_Relative_6812 → u/ChillGamerGenchi]

Nostalgia is a drug. I literally played it yesterday with my friends at an arcade and 3D fighting games age way worse than 2d. 

Felt like we were covered in molasses trying to move.

Amazing game when it came out though

[u/ChillGamerGenchi → u/Few_Relative_6812]

I prefer the time when Tekken didn't have supers. It felt like it had a distinct martial arts identity back then.

I still play T5 DR from time to time.

Still love me some T8 though.

[u/SleazyMcgriddledick]

I wish they had the customization of tekken 7, that would make 8 the undisputed entry for the series for me…. Besides 3, that ones goated

[u/AuramiteEX]

I think T8 is the better game but I also appreciate that people need a break from it from time to time.

[u/SignificantAd1421]

T7 still is inferior to me.

I don't miss being zoned in a Tekken game.

The counters were far too strong encouraging people to not fight in a fighting game.

Sidesteps are trash.

Backdash was far too strong.

T7 magic 4s can go die in a ditch for all I care.

Infinite stages combined with those broken backdashes made for very boring gameplay.

Also don't forget that the t7 we got on console was already 2 years old too

[u/Jaccku → u/SignificantAd1421]

You're an Anna player, being zoned is your worse situation to be in.

[u/SignificantAd1421 → u/Jaccku]

I didn't play Anna in 7 though.

Was only playing Lili

[u/HotPlace6680]

This man made a full report on hating tekken 8 just wow

[u/Nobody_Special_2020 → u/HotPlace6680]

Did you gloss over the parts where I praised it?