The highly-anticipated Tekken 8 finally received a release date this week, being lined up for release in January 2024. The game will feature a huge roster, fresh fighting mechanics, and even a new mode. Tekken 8 will focus on the conflict between Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama after Mishima's showdown with Heihachi in Tekken 7.
The title will have one of the biggest modern fighting game rosters, with 32 characters total - although currently not all of Tekken 8's fighters have been revealed. During combat, they'll be able to utilize the Heat system which will make moves more impactful, as well as attacks that are fresh takes on old favorites. A new kind of gameplay called Arcade Mode was also introduced during Gamescom Opening Night Live, where players will compete as their own personalized character in different activities meant to teach them things about the franchise and hone their skills.
Screen Rant sat down with Tekken 8 project director Katsuhiro Harada and Tekken 8 project producer Michael Murray to discuss the title's new mechanics, Arcade Mode, and what surprises are still left in store for fans.
Screen Rant: So first, I would love to talk a little bit about how there's a new Heat system and updated moves for characters. What can players expect on that front?
Katsuhiro Harada & Michael Murray: It's kind of like overarching system, but it also it allows you to kind of continue to be on the offense because it makes it easier for you to attack. Or maybe you deal more damage, because your attacks are like the recoverable gauge, etc. There's that aspect to it, but then it also adds another layer of uniqueness to the characters. It gives them new abilities. When we say it powers them up, it does it in different ways. For example, Kings' throws maybe come stronger in some manner or Kazuya, you know, Wind God Fist is his most famous move, and there's a more difficult version that a lot of advanced players use, but when he's in the Heat state you can automatically get that better version of the move.
So it really makes the characters even more unique in whether they go on offense. Since it is a new installment, obviously, even outside of the Heat system there's been a lot of new additional techniques added to each character. So there's that to look forward to as well. Also, I would just add that for the Heat system, one other thing that's kind of interesting is for rage. It's only available when your life gets depleted to a certain amount, but you can choose to do the Heat system anytime so you can directly trigger it right away, or you can hit certain moves to trigger it. So it's different than the other systems in that you can trigger it anytime you like, so that adds another layer to the strategy.
I know there's also a lot ing the environment to your advantage during fights. What does that entail?
Katsuhiro Harada & Michael Murray: So obviously, the elements of the stage destruction that people like from Tekken 7 are still there, where you can break walls or floors and approach new areas. But also, there's different elements this time around. Maybe some people noticed in some trailers we've released, but there's certain areas and stages that if you can smash right into them it actually blows up and send them flying, you can do combos that you normally wouldn't be able to do.
And of course, I would love to hear more about Arcade Mode, sort of what inspired that in the first place and how that whole system works.
Katsuhiro Harada & Michael Murray: So the Arcade Quest mode is actually kind of a love letter to arcades, the culture and community there. Since this title is the first title in the Tekken series where we haven't gone from arcade version to console; this is going straight to console. We wanted to especially put a lot of detail into this arcade, though, so that people from our generation, maybe if you actually played in the arcades, can kind of get that nostalgic feel and atmosphere from that. Also, since the arcades pretty much disappeared from most countries, there's probably a lot of people who have only heard about the arcades from their older siblings or their parents.
So we feel that it might feel quite new to these people who haven't been able to experience that culture firsthand, so that was kind of the starting point for this. What we designed for them, the look and feel it is supposed to emulate arcades, but what you're actually doing is - although there's a story mode in Tekken 8 as well where you're following the story arc of a saga and characters - this arcade quest follows the story of the player themselves as they're competing in various arcades. So while you're progressing through the story, it's also for this mode, it's also teaching you the fundamentals of Tekken and then also some of the new mechanics of Tekken to kind of get used to the game.
So it's quite valuable for people who are new to the series or returning after a long time. But also, for more advanced players who already know these kinds of things, or they're very quickly adapting to it, they can enjoy the story elements and also unlock various customization items available in that particular story. We're hoping that people will get a feel for why people love to go to arcades and play the game with other people, so that they'll be inspired to maybe go to one of the local events, or even participate in the second World Tour.
And lastly, what do you think will surprise players about this new installment in the series?
Katsuhiro Harada & Michael Murray: That's a hard question, because there's still loads we haven't announced yet, so we think they'll be surprised by some of that. And some of the content they haven't talked about yet. Also characters maybe - we announced there's 32 of them, there's still a few left and we haven't said who they are. So I think we're seeing a lot of surprises for Tekken 8. We think it's also probably a big surprise too, that this game has been developed only for the current generation, the newest generation of hardware. And since we had to make everything from scratch, the character models and environments, all that, the number of characters itself is quite a surprise because all the other fighting games have much less than that.
Check out more Gamescom 2023 coverage here!
Source: PlayStation/YouTube
Tekken 8 will release January 26, 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Murray both translated Harada's answers and added their own, so we've billed the pair together.
