Bandai Namco had a couple of surprise announcements for Tekken fans at Evo this past weekend, with a free update for Tekken 7 coming later this month with a bucket load of balance adjustments and new tactics, and then… a little teaser for Tekken 8!
Tekken 7 is still going strong to this day, featuring at many a fighting tournament around the world, and for that reason, Bandai Namco have put together a promising free update to the game that will make certain “balance adjustments” to the fighting game, and adding “new tactics”. What these mean we’ll have to wait and see, but we can expect some characters to get slight nerfs and buffs on the microscopic level to balance their frame data, as well as some new options and combos for players who are a bajillion times better at fighting games than I am!
The Tekken 7 update will be out for free on 17th August next week.
But then the screen fades to black and comes back with an iconic scene from the end of Tekken 1, as Kazuya Mishima chucks Heihaci off a cliff. Except, just as it zooms into his face, it suddenly cuts to show Kazuya’s face in a much more modern visual style and fidelity.
The words “Get Ready” appear as well, indicating that some more formal announcement could be coming soon.
It’s been seven years since the release of Tekken 7 in arcades and five since the console launch, and while it’s received plenty of updates and new characters that included Negan from The Walking Dead and… the in-universe Polish Prime Minister, six years is a long time for any fighting game. We’re now seeing fighting games last for an entire console generation, supported by seasons of content, significant overhauls with updates and character additions, and so it’s time for Bandai Namco to look to release Tekken 8 to make the most of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Looking back on Tekken 7 at launch, we awarded it a mighty 9/10 in out review, saying:
“Tekken 7 is a phenomenal fighting game experience and one I’d highly recommend. It’s by no means perfect, as the game is not without a few technical issues online, some long loading times, and minor continuity errors, yet as far as most people will be concerned, it delivers a stunning, up-to-date fighting game experience from one of the masters of arcade fighting games. A solid return to form.”
Source: YouTube