As a true Tekken fan, this game is honestly 6/10. Here's why.

[CrimsonZako]

I know a lot of people are going to foam from the mouth and angrily type on their keyboard to defend this game, but I've spent over 250 hours in this game, and have had plenty of time on Tekken 6 and Tekken 7 and was able to play them for years, yet I'm already bored of this game play and I'm going to put it down for a while.

Balance is Awful

Hopefully balance patches will fix this issue in the future, but for now, it's just not it. You have completely busted characters like Feng, Xiaoyu, Jun, Azucena and DJ. While you have other characters who require no knowledge of the fundamentals like Azucena, Alisa, Victor, and Dragunov. It's 2024, there's NO reason for this many characters to be brainless and/or overtuned, SF6, KI hell even MK1 doesn't have this many characters were you can play with your brain turned off, it's unacceptable.

Incompetent Developers and Directors

The developers and directors are trash. Half of the time they communicate with us it's for things that's not even relevant, and they refuse to take actions on things that actually matter. Example time.

Plugging Propaganda: Again, it's 2024 and not taking actions against pluggers and people who alt+f4 is not only ridiculous, but also stupid. Now the rank system is completely out of whack and we have people who are in purple/blue ranks without even knowing how to actually play the game. It makes people not even want to touch ranked, and no, banning one streamer and saying you have an excel sheet doesn't do anything nor does it solve the issue. One time I even saw a reddit post about Tekken 6 punishing pluggers. A 17 YEAR OLD GAME. How laughable.

Their Ignorance: We've been given two CBT's before the game released, so there's NO reason there should be this much imbalance. Especially since most characters were in and half the top tiers were in (Jun, Xiaoyu, Azu, Feng) yet despite the advice from the community, they did nothing for the most part.

Lying to the Community: Before the shop was introduced, Harada tweeted that the team wasn't able to implement old outfits into this game because they "wouldn't look good in today's graphics." Whatever tf that means. Yet a week or two later, we get old outfits like King's Tekken 2 outfit, Xiaoyu's Tekken 4 outfit, and Kazuya's Tekken 4 outfit.

Murray. This director is a man child. Just go check his Twitter, self explanatory. It's clear he doesn't know anything about Tekken and the direction it's going, then he questions why he gets backlash and gets defensive and cries when people don't agree with him, he never aged since elementary school.

"Aggression" and Mechanics

Tekken has to be the only fg that built their game to be offense only, and boy was it a bad idea. 20% of the time you'll find yourself in a position where you weren't even able to fight back, and thanks to the heat mechanic, you're always forced into a 50/50 and have to eat a potential 80% combo, this is Tekken, combo damage was always high but making it more 50/50 based was bound to be a bad idea. Throw RA's just for the middle finger cherry on top. Whatever though, the devs and directors don't know how to play anyway.

Gutted Customization

You all knew this was coming. We all wondered why the customization was so limited. Why we're forced to wear outfits without mis-matching. It's all for stupid micro transactions. There's no excuse for this one, why does a 17 year old game (T6 and TTT2) have better customization? It feels like we're always taking one step forward and two steps back.

The Netcode

Again, for the third time, it's 2024 and the netcode just isn't as good as other fg's that released not too long ago. It's so bad that playing against Wi-Fi players is just impossible. I played last night and tried to play against a 4 bar ethernet Kazuya. Never again. No wonder Tekken tournaments are always offline.

The Community Sucks

The Tekken community honestly has the biggest ego I've ever seen in a fgc. Mfs will pick op characters and go yolo while you're trying out a new character you've clearly never played before. Then they'll ki charge at the end and one and done. It's just baffling, yes there can be toxicity in other fg's but Tekken honestly takes the cake for being the most toxic. I tried playing Raven and was ofc matched up against a Jun, I got 2-3 rounded and she won from a 50/50 engager push and I guessed wrong and lost. She ki-charged and waited for the 10 seconds then left. This sugar mommy has brought out a new evil in people.

Conclusion

Yeah, this game has a LOT to fix, and a long way to go at that, I'll be taking a break because I'm just not having fun nor does it feel engaging, and honestly you should too if you feel the same way.

[toxicologist]

sir buy the TEKKEN COINS

[Pelikan]

I think that 2 of your points are fair, concerning the Plugging and Cheating cancer of this game and the direction of the gameplay ( though I think it is not as bad than you seem to think).

However for the rest, I respect how you feel about it but I think that you exaggerate a bit. I mean the game just the came out, they will release many balancing patches during its lifecycle.

For the customizations or the personality of the devs, honestly I don't care much about this as long as the game is great, well balanced and that it can provide a professionally implemented online experience.

For the netcode, maybe i am wrong but I don't think it is worse than T7, actually i feel that it is a tad better. But I don't think it is fair to compare it to 2d fighting games, Tekken has more things going on per frames, it is a more complex game.

Regarding the aggressive nature of the game compared to previous Tekkens, yes the heat system, chip damage and generous frames on block seems to be an intended design choice.

So I agree that I would have preferred a more balanced approach closer to Tekken 7 but IMHO it is still really a good game to me, we just need to adjust. They could alter heat in future updates ( like reducing its duration, or making heat smash unusable past a certain point for example) and tweak frames on block values a little for most chars.

But the only thing that might make me give up the game at some point if nothing is done, is plugging and cheating. That is really the huge problem that they really must fix organically in my view ( as like you said, banning is just PR , it doesn't solve the weakness of the system fundamentally).

[birthday boi]

ok bye

[ShadowSplit]

2/10 online; 6/10 single player/offline

At this point of the game's life I feel plugging is justified in some case. Especially in case of King, Dragunov, wifi Law, etc.

[Geo]

Took all of the words out of my mouth. This game will end up digging it's own grave just like MK1 if nothing's changed in the future.

[Arbor]

Originally posted by ShadowSplit:

2/10 online; 6/10 single player/offline

At this point of the game's life I feel plugging is justified in some case. Especially in case of King, Dragunov, wifi Law, etc.

I’ve been thinking the same thing. I think a good chunk of the people complaining about plugging probably play a top tier and don’t understand how bad the balance of the game is right now.

Hell people don’t want to rematch me sometimes and I don’t blame them. In order to be successful in matches I have to not even think and just mash. I was shaking my head as I typed that out.

[Azor]

true tekken fan moment.

[ShadowSplit]

Originally posted by blackzephyers:

I’ve been thinking the same thing. I think a good chunk of the people complaining about plugging probably play a top tier and don’t understand how bad the balance of the game is right now.

Hell people don’t want to rematch me sometimes and I don’t blame them. In order to be successful in matches I have to not even think and just mash. I was shaking my head as I typed that out.

I've been playing against 11-17 characters all the time. There are some characters I've seen only a few times, including one I'm playing - Zafina. And all of them play the same obnoxious gameplay. Of course it's not up to me to say how one should play. Simply, balance does not exist in this game.

In general I refuse rematches because I'm mostly feel so stressed after one game, that I know everything will go south in the next one. It's better to cool down than up your pressure to eleven. Tekken 8 feels more like a game in testing period than a finished product.

[Jellybrah]

So how does one play Tekken? I sure know how, and rank don't mean anything.

[xunlaiAgent]

I also agree that it is much weaker improvement from T7 than what T7 was from TAG2, if it is improvement at all outside of graphics.

[99xvkJe66]

Well said dude. The current tekken team "directors" are incompetent, and yeah they don't know anything about the game, only how to make it baby mode, Murray's vision probably.

King, Dragunov, Azucena, Feng players are the most carried ive seen. It's crazy how in blue ranks most with top tier characters have absolutely no defensive skills, same goes for Jin, Yoshi players that just spam the usual lows or other crap like flash and unblockables. Then you also have powercrush spamming lol.

It's truly disgusting what Tekken has become, but this is because again of the directors.
Jin and Law among other characters got dumbd down, here comes Eddy soon who is also easy mode now, as they said press one button to do combo like Victor does.

Ranks don't mean anything, Fujin ranks play like damn green ranks in Tekken 8.
Full Unga Bunga.

"If tHeY aRe SpAmMiNg YoU, aND yOu CaN't FiGuRe OuT hOw To CoUnTeR iT, iT's A sKiLL iSsUe!"
Don't you love that idiotic reply from meta scrubs who got carried with busted bs?

I just play every character now, honestly I don't expect any changes, I'll just go back to Tekken 7 like I have done so, I play that old one too since it's more fair and when I lose I know I lost to a good player, not a spammer who just abuses the most broken attacks just to get easy win, with absolute no defense or fundamental knowledge in general.

[RawTheory]

I agree with every single point. I gave you an award. I'm addicted to this game but its my first tekken in many many years and it still pisses me off. I picked Bryan and its torture enduring endless Azcenas and Kings that don't know ♥♥♥♥ about the game yet can win so easily.

[Powercrank]

"why isnt the early untested not even in the arcades version of this game as polished and balanced as the 7 year old iteration of the last one that was in arcades for a year before it even came out?"
top kek

see you back in a few weeks bro

[Arbor]

Originally posted by IIVEll:

Well said dude. The current tekken team "directors" are incompetent, and yeah they don't know anything about the game, only how to make it baby mode, Murray's vision probably.

King, Dragunov, Azucena, Feng players are the most carried ive seen. It's crazy how in blue ranks most with top tier characters have absolutely no defensive skills, same goes for Jin, Yoshi players that just spam the usual lows or other crap like flash and unblockables. Then you also have powercrush spamming lol.

It's truly disgusting what Tekken has become, but this is because again of the directors.
Jin and Law among other characters got dumbd down, here comes Eddy soon who is also easy mode now, as they said press one button to do combo like Victor does.

Ranks don't mean anything, Fujin ranks play like damn green ranks in Tekken 8.
Full Unga Bunga.

"If tHeY aRe SpAmMiNg YoU, aND yOu CaN't FiGuRe OuT hOw To CoUnTeR iT, iT's A sKiLL iSsUe!"
Don't you love that idiotic reply from meta scrubs who got carried with busted bs?

I just play every character now, honestly I don't expect any changes, I'll just go back to Tekken 7 like I have done so, I play that old one too since it's more fair and when I lose I know I lost to a good player, not a spammer who just abuses the most broken attacks just to get easy win, with absolute no defense or fundamental knowledge in general.

I think the only people defending the game are playing a busted or scrubby character so they don’t know any better.

[Arbor]

Originally posted by ShadowSplit:

Originally posted by blackzephyers:

I’ve been thinking the same thing. I think a good chunk of the people complaining about plugging probably play a top tier and don’t understand how bad the balance of the game is right now.

Hell people don’t want to rematch me sometimes and I don’t blame them. In order to be successful in matches I have to not even think and just mash. I was shaking my head as I typed that out.

I've been playing against 11-17 characters all the time. There are some characters I've seen only a few times, including one I'm playing - Zafina. And all of them play the same obnoxious gameplay. Of course it's not up to me to say how one should play. Simply, balance does not exist in this game.

In general I refuse rematches because I'm mostly feel so stressed after one game, that I know everything will go south in the next one. It's better to cool down than up your pressure to eleven. Tekken 8 feels more like a game in testing period than a finished product.

Yeah I feel you. In Tekken 7 I could lose 20 times in a row and not even feel stressed out or bad about it. Playing Tekken 8 I’m just frustrated, stressed and angry. It’s like I keep hoping that the game will be fun again but it’s not going to happen.