The Aggressive (Mashing) Era of Tekken

[CDs]

Seen this topic float around and simply want to ask here if that is the case? I'll just make my argument to setup for discussion. I find myself mashing more here than T7 and I think that's not a good thing. Coming from T7 this type of play was always punished. Especially in higher level of play. But that isn't the case in T8. I mean yes pros will play more cautious than the average player and they just aren't the same as 90% of the playerbase. I've encountered mashers, armor crush abusers, and frame trappers and I can't play passive. But when I go Unga Bunga, I more than half the time, can squeak out a win and that sucks. With defense nerfed and aggression being the game, my interest is deteriorating. Almost nobody argues against it for the most part now. Before release fans were unsure of the game and complaining. Now when the game's fully released almost everyone's just praising it, glazing it even. Presentation, story-telling, extra features are all great but the gameplay is just slowly waning on the ooh-ah factor for me. Most of the Tekken content creators have no real criticisms on the game and choose to just adapt. Hardcore Tekken fans and pros will tell you that this series was more footsies based than aggressive and that it's a mind game. But with Tekken 8 I feel like my mind is on autopilot every time and footsies aren't really there anymore either. Change can be good and for the better even, but with this word "Aggressive" being that change, I don't see myself putting hundreds of hours into this game. Do you feel different about the direction Tekken is heading? Is eveyone glazing Tekken 8? What are your thoughts?

[$OULJA $TRIFE]

7 is way more mashy by default since both back dash and side step ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck

[CDs]

Originally posted by $OULJA $TRIFE:

7 is way more mashy by default since both back dash and side step ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck

With the heat mechanic mashing is worse in 8 than 7. KBD and sidestep were good in 7. Almost everyone will say this when comparing 7 and 8.

[Insomniak]

Agreed. In T7 you had more counter hit tools, which is why mashers were easier to deal with. The better players danced around, poked each other to death and looked for an occasional CH like magic 4. In T8 it feels like everyone is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ desperate to mash as many buttons as possible, cause they can't defend, so offense becomes the best defense in this game. Fastest CH launchers being 13 frames, makes it a lot harder to be respected by your opponents, and even that CH launcher can be useless cause everyone constantly heat engages and eats up any attack you throw out. After 2k hours in T7, I'm probably never gonna acclimate to the heat mechanic and the aggression it allows.

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by Bubbas:

Originally posted by $OULJA $TRIFE:

7 is way more mashy by default since both back dash and side step ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck

With the heat mechanic mashing is worse in 8 than 7. KBD and sidestep were good in 7. Almost everyone will say this when comparing 7 and 8.

Yes sidestepping in T7 is better and most characters had like 1 or 2 dedicated homing moves. Jun, for example, got 6 homing moves that I've counted and that's just bs in my eyes. After playing T8 for 100 hours and going to T7 for a bit, I can move a lot better in T7...

[nubi]

i never played 7, but this game does feel way more of a mash fest than Tag 2, i think they can still fix it by making mobility stronger again like it was in Tag 2, i just get the feeling they don't want to fix it :|

[HoneyDrake]

Tekken in general requires you to lab against characters regularly, all the time.

Understanding frame data, using it in your favor, knowing your own movesets and counters, etc is way more important than in many other titles.

It's still early, unlike SF6 you will see balancing patches more regularly here, and they will switch some stuff up, similar to how they did on 7 (the difference of a few months in 7 was quite big, many overpowered stuff was changed and a lot of proper balancing was done, regularly, it will happen in 8, too).

It's more aggressive in comparison to 7, defensive styles got slightly nerfed or even butchered (like Leeroy and his counters being quite bad, while also having barely any follow ups).


The game will be quite different once balancing patches roll out.

[Necropants]

No, if you are mashing it's a you problem.

[Make otgf -9 pls]

Originally posted by Necropants:

No, if you are mashing it's a you problem.

Victor has 15f high crushing powercrush heat engager and basically version of dvj samsara then this 20f high crushing ch low in heat chips to half hp you can play flow charts all the time and win plus frames are non existent cause 15f high crushing powercrush eats all no brain required add heavy tracking and you are good to go mashing is literally the optimal strategy here opponent will never use plus frames cause you can just ignore them every time

[FireStarter]

I dont like t8. it did my mains dirty. law now braindead, yoshi braindead. i dont like the chip damage and heat stuff, this game would be better without them. I hate that tekken devs try to apeal to casual players more than to players who put efort in this game. t7 had it flaws, but it was still tekken, this game tho, looks like its been made by someone that used to make 2d fighting games before.... oh wait.

[Iridius]

Originally posted by Dance Commander:

I dont like t8. it did my mains dirty. law now braindead, yoshi braindead. i dont like the chip damage and heat stuff, this game would be better without them. I hate that tekken devs try to apeal to casual players more than to players who put efort in this game. t7 had it flaws, but it was still tekken, this game tho, looks like its been made by someone that used to make 2d fighting games before.... oh wait.:DMCJester1:

Same, Asuka feels like such crap in this game I just dropped her

[Overcaptain]

Originally posted by Iridius:

Originally posted by Dance Commander:

I dont like t8. it did my mains dirty. law now braindead, yoshi braindead. i dont like the chip damage and heat stuff, this game would be better without them. I hate that tekken devs try to apeal to casual players more than to players who put efort in this game. t7 had it flaws, but it was still tekken, this game tho, looks like its been made by someone that used to make 2d fighting games before.... oh wait.:DMCJester1:

Same, Asuka feels like such crap in this game I just dropped her

Oscar wouldn't drop you. Not with those hulk hands.

[HoneyDrake]

Originally posted by Iridius:

I guarantee you that it will be impossible to change due to the heat system and I don't think they'll make it less oppressive

Making more stuff unsafe on block, for example, is a way to change the tempo.
Having less ~11-14 frame pokes which can be stringed into combos on counter, is another way.

Like we had in 7, I expect something similar to happen in 8.

It will be an aggressive title (and I am not arguing with you about it), but they will take off some of the steam.

[Ring Master Jesus]

I kind of agree. I hate that many strong chars get a launch if you guess the 50-50 wrong. I also dislike the resplat on the wall and the overall wall damage. Its pretty much game over when you get corner pressured with your back against the wall. I also dislike that some grabs remove the recoverable health gauge, that needs some nerfing.

[👑THE STORM QUEEN👑]

It's sad

[CDs]

Originally posted by NxVkS:

Nope it's not just you, and streamers MainMan , KingJae said it too how they dislike this "aggressiveness", everyone is a masher now, especially these crappy unbalanced new characters.
Characters with ungabunga stupid lows like Xiaoyu will get you up to purple ranks for sure, free wins if you keep pressuring, they almost have no weaknesses.

I do see KingJae posting in-game bugs or broken moves on Twitter. Good to hear TMM hates the aggressive style of T8. If you're interested, Lil Majin did a video on King having bugged throws and chain throws that need fixing.