Tekken is Quite Realistic

[af]

Hello all of the Tekken community.

The last time I played Tekken long enough was around ten years ago, which was too far back to matter, so I am pretty much a newbie since I have started around a month ago. Back then, little me had no idea of the frame concept in the game mechanic.

After studying the mechanics and frame data, I was surprised how realistic Tekken 7 is on a fundamental level. It follows its real life counterpart better than many may expect. While I haven't been playing the game for a while until I started the middle of last month, I have been training in martial arts for around a year. Granted, it's a self taught schedule with a friend who is experienced in wrestling for years with a lot of other knowledge on the side. But this was enough.

Use of Moves Assessed by Damage and Speed
The concept of "start up" and "recovery" in relation to the damage a move does is accurate for the risk assessment of when a move should be used. Larger, heavier moves that do greater damage have greater start up frames and likely, longer recovery frames which increases vulnerability. The same applies for the opposite, where moves that inflict less damage require less start up frames. It's similar with the concept in reality of how a full on sucker punch make an attacker more vulnerable compared to if they were to execute a simple jab with their frontal arm. This is why practitioners often recommend students to not rely too much on heavy attacks that are harder to land, and focus on speed, timing, and precision instead with simpler tactics.

Enemy Aggression, Distance, and Flow of the Fight
Not only are frames a realistic part of the mechanics, the need for abusing enemy aggression and optimizing distance are also prevalent in real confrontations. Even better to note the flow of matches between people of different ranks. I have watched matches of various ranks between players so far. I have seen that the more experienced the players are, it's much more likely for a majority of the match to be a calculating, "waiting" phase. Once there is a slip up, that's usually the end as it invites wall cornering and optimized aerial combos. This flow is similar in real confrontations as two opponents usually wait until the other slips up, which takes a while until the actual showdown. It's extremely instant.

Side Steps and Strafing
The one part of Tekken that grabs my attention is the integration of a sidestep/strafe mechanism. It seems somewhat rare in other fightings games I have come across so far (Soul Caliber, Injustice, so on). It's what actually makes Tekken three dimensional. Although I would like to spoil myself and wish sidesteping was ever so slightly faster in Tekken 7 (if I recall correctly, side steps are 6 frames...?), it is accurate to say that sidestepping in reality is also not as powerful as it looks. It is much easier to improvise one's next attack using side steps, possibly even by charging forward all together. The Tekken equivalent to this may be the negative/positive difference between frames by combining moves or executing moves of your own in accordance to specific moves the enemy makes.

Conclusion
Sure, one can't fire lasers, launch tigers, use secret jet packs in their backs or fire hadoukens in reality. The characters also can't improve their speed and skills. New moves can't be added or learned, and neither can start up and recovery be trained to make movements faster. We could argue fictionally that each character in the game is the pinnacle of human potential for the martial art each one specializes in, which is why there would be no room for improvement other than the players optimizing the moves they use. Yet the fundamental basics of Tekken (and other franchises of the fighting genre) make the game in itself realistic because of its impressive optimization. So far, almost all start up and recovery frames of moves are set in relation to other moves to balance the game overall. In other words, similar to the real setting, catfight button mashing only occurs because of the nature of the two opponents, not because of the nature of the game. The game in itself creates opportunity for skill based gameplay and is designed to ensure rewards for better appreciation and understanding of the mechanics.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this content as much as I did writing it. It was a thought I had from a while ago and decided to write about recently. I found it interesting to assess how well Tekken is built to simulate its real life counterpart. With additional, fictional flair by adding devils, androids, and others, the game overall does exceedingly well to imitate the fundamentals of real hand to hand combat.

[Mordbane]

Accurate observations. I've been playing Tekken since Tekken 1 in arcade then on PS-1 and was always impressed with how it mimiced real fighting styles and techniques. Power Crush and the Rage stuff aren't realistic but are fun high risk mechanics to playaround with.

[Froz7y]

Quite realistic? IT is very realistic actually.

Its mocap and choreo from real life martial artist.

Then Tekken 7 comes out, and then anime takes over.

Anime logic my friends.

[pablonesmrtelny]

Agreed 100% Tekken is one of the most realistic fighting games on planet. Especially on PC...

I hope that Tekken won't give up on realism in future. I'd like to see more of it. It has great potential in this aspect.

There are plenty of fighting games that don't care about realism at all.

[Froz7y]

Originally posted by pablonesmrtelny:

Agreed 100% Tekken is one of the most realistic fighting games on planet. Especially on PC...

I hope that Tekken won't give up on realism in future. I'd like to see more of it. It has great potential in this aspect.

There are plenty of fighting games that don't care about realism at all.

Most realistic fighting games on the planet. Lot of fighting games dont care about realism.

Man that is really sad. Why arent there more.. and Tekken 7 is slowly turning into anime. Not that its bad.. but no sexy bikinis.. that sucks.

[pablonesmrtelny]

Originally posted by Midknight Battler:

Originally posted by pablonesmrtelny:

Agreed 100% Tekken is one of the most realistic fighting games on planet. Especially on PC...

I hope that Tekken won't give up on realism in future. I'd like to see more of it. It has great potential in this aspect.

There are plenty of fighting games that don't care about realism at all.

Most realistic fighting games on the planet. Lot of fighting games dont care about realism.

Man that is really sad. Why arent there more.. and Tekken 7 is slowly turning into anime. Not that its bad.. but no sexy bikinis.. that sucks.

There are imho several reasons why there aren't many realistic fighting games.

They are simply way harder to make. Real life physics, tactics and strategy are much more complex than simple 2D fighter like Street fighter for example. Any single realistic aspect of the game is like a pain in the a.s.s for developers. Easiest way is to ignore realism and make the move so it "works".

And of course realistic game would be harder to learn. Imagine how incredibly SIMPLE Tekken is and how much time and dedication it takes to be decent at it.

And the "fun" factor is connected to this argument - would realistic game be fun enough to impress people? That is also huge task to make the game interresting and realistic at the same time.

And lastly - realistic fighting games have no tradition. They were impossible to make in past since they were too demanding for development - so only now the time comes when they could rise - when we could have actually good realistic fighting game.

I have high hopes but I am patient ;)

[AGA | prinnyuber]

Bears and pandas knowing martial arts, robots, cyborgs, vampire(s), an immortal shotokan karate practitioner, a mob leader who can survive a fall from a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skyscraper multiplle times, and devils. Yep, thats prinny much a very realistic checklist in the character roster.

[pablonesmrtelny]

Originally posted by prinnyuber:

Bears and pandas knowing martial arts, robots, cyborgs, vampire(s), an immortal shotokan karate practitioner, a mob leader who can survive a fall from a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skyscraper multiplle times, and devils. Yep, thats prinny much a very realistic checklist in the character roster.

Yeah - all that being in one of the most realistic fighting games only prove the point that realistic fighting games are very rare commodity.

Nevertheless I would not even want Tekken to be completely realistic - it would have to abandon too many mechanics. But it certainly can embrace some more realistic elements. Step by step.

[SpaceGoatMage]

All this talk of realistic fighting games got me thinking about goofing around in Bushido Blade back in the days.

[Ahriman]

virtua fighter..?

[pablonesmrtelny]

Originally posted by Ahriman:

virtua fighter..?

I haven't played it since it is not on PC but I have heard (and seen) that it is also one of the very few fighting games with realistic elements.

Unfortunately it looks pretty dead.

[af]

Originally posted by Mordbane:

Accurate observations. I've been playing Tekken since Tekken 1 in arcade then on PS-1 and was always impressed with how it mimiced real fighting styles and techniques. Power Crush and the Rage stuff aren't realistic but are fun high risk mechanics to playaround with.

Although Rage Arts and Drives aren't real, I can see where they brought the concept from. It's (thankfully) seldom seen, but when people experience extreme fight of flight adrenaline rushes in fights, they go full on berserk mode. Extreme focus, extremely swift, precise movements within a short time frame. Best to think of it as the final push to turn the tide. Rage Arts and Drives are very similar since they're powerful moves for when the health bar is critical.

[af]

Originally posted by Midknight Battler:

Quite realistic? IT is very realistic actually.

Its mocap and choreo from real life martial artist.

Then Tekken 7 comes out, and then anime takes over.

Anime logic my friends.

Lucky Chloe? I definitely didn't expect to see her pop up in a Tekken game either, a franchise which felt more focused on "badass" type characters. I would argue however that we should also have been surprised to not have seen a character of her type for this long in a Japanese game, especially when idols and the otaku culture is a major part of Japan's identity. I do hope though they keep her as one of her own kind and don't introduce more anime type characters, it would be redundant and a tad obnoxious.

[af]

Originally posted by pablonesmrtelny:

Agreed 100% Tekken is one of the most realistic fighting games on planet. Especially on PC...

I hope that Tekken won't give up on realism in future. I'd like to see more of it. It has great potential in this aspect.

There are plenty of fighting games that don't care about realism at all.

I know literally nothing about Soul Caliber, but I do feel Injustice is unrealistic for obvious reasons. Superheroes and villains that have supernatural abilities to the extent some are labeled as demi gods. I played it for a short while, but strangely enough, Dead or Alive's mechanics also have three dimensional side stepping and strafing. In my comparison to Tekken however, I would have to say it requires much less skill.

[af]

Originally posted by pablonesmrtelny:

And the "fun" factor is connected to this argument - would realistic game be fun enough to impress people? That is also huge task to make the game interresting and realistic at the same time..

This is extremely important for almost all games. Fictional elements in any form of entertainment is a chance for provide products such as games a sense of identity. People would lose interest in something that replicates real life too far - it would defeat the purpose of making it a ficitonal simulation. It brings in unexpected scenarios which can provide a new dimension for the game. Granted, an optimum needs to be found between fiction and reality, and it seems Tekken has found a decent middle ground.

[af]

Originally posted by prinnyuber:

Bears and pandas knowing martial arts, robots, cyborgs, vampire(s), an immortal shotokan karate practitioner, a mob leader who can survive a fall from a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skyscraper multiplle times, and devils. Yep, thats prinny much a very realistic checklist in the character roster.

Originally posted by Yare Yare Da Ze:

Sure, one can't fire lasers, launch tigers, use secret jet packs in their backs or fire hadoukens in reality.

Ffs.