Tekken 8 is a fun game, but it has it's issues. I loved Tekken 7 for how complex it was - players would have to rely on reads, timing, spacing, movement, matchup knowledge, mind games, poking, punishment, etc. in order to secure wins. With Tekken 8 a lot of that is no longer optimal, skill is not required for you to win anymore. A player with 20x less experience and knowledge than yourself can beat you easily because Tekken 8 is mostly just braindead aggression with quite limited counterplay. Everyone has a 50/50 centered playstyle and the new heat mechanic lets you get away with mashing like never before. Ranked being set to FT2 instead of giving you infinite rematches forces a spammy, knowledge checky and a flowcharty playstyle - you just have to win once or twice and you switch the opponent, they might not stay long enough to download your spam and come up with proper counterplay, so why use your brain in the first place? I feel like the way the game is now the developers were aiming to push it towards a more casual audience to try and secure more sales. It is still "Tekken", but a shadow of it's former self, it is very dumbed down in terms of gameplay and skill expression and it's quite frustrating to see. Currently the balance of the game is in a very bad state and I hope that the developers will do something about it to ensure a better future for the legacy loyalists and pro play. I love Tekken, I'll keep pushing through and hope for the future patches to bring both better balance to the game and reward the players who actually deserve it instead of pushing a gameplan that benefits baby chimps who slam their head against a controller in order to entertain the zoo-keeper to receive a banana.

Despite my negative review, I recommend this game to anyone new, it will be a very fun experience and if it interests you there are many goals to seek and many ways to learn and improve within the game as well.

This review is set during the 1.03.01 patch.

Tekken 8 is a fun game, but it has it's issues. I loved Tekken 7 for how complex it was - players would have to rely on reads, timing, spacing, movement, matchup knowledge, mind games, poking, punishment, etc. in order to secure wins. With Tekken 8 a lot of that is no longer optimal, skill is not required for you to win anymore. A player with 20x less experience and knowledge than yourself can beat you easily because Tekken 8 is mostly just braindead aggression with quite limited counterplay. Everyone has a 50/50 centered playstyle and the new heat mechanic lets you get away with mashing like never before. Ranked being set to FT2 instead of giving you infinite rematches forces a spammy, knowledge checky and a flowcharty playstyle - you just have to win once or twice and you switch the opponent, they might not stay long enough to download your spam and come up with proper counterplay, so why use your brain in the first place? I feel like the way the game is now the developers were aiming to push it towards a more casual audience to try and secure more sales. It is still "Tekken", but a shadow of it's former self, it is very dumbed down in terms of gameplay and skill expression and it's quite frustrating to see. Currently the balance of the game is in a very bad state and I hope that the developers will do something about it to ensure a better future for the legacy loyalists and pro play. I love Tekken, I'll keep pushing through and hope for the future patches to bring both better balance to the game and reward the players who actually deserve it instead of pushing a gameplan that benefits baby chimps who slam their head against a controller in order to entertain the zoo-keeper to receive a banana. Despite my negative review, I recommend this game to anyone new, it will be a very fun experience and if it interests you there are many goals to seek and many ways to learn and improve within the game as well. This review is set during the 1.03.01 patch.