Tekken 8 Preview: Flashy, easy to pick up and encourage offense
The latest sequel to the 3D fighting game "Tekken" series "Tekken 8" will be launched on January 26, and many players have participated in the previous closed beta tests, so they should have a certain understanding of this work. Not long ago, we went to Bandai Namco to try out the official version of Tekken 8 and experienced the various modes in the game, so I would like to introduce you to the experience.
Preview Video:
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Interview with the Game Director of Tekken 8
At the invitation of Bandai Namco, we recently tried out the official version of Tekken 8 (see the preview video for details), and interviewed the game's game director Kohei Ikeda and marketing director Naoya Yasuda with a number of media outlets, asking many questions about the design concept of Tekken 8.
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Can you tell us about the design concept of Rina the new character in Tekken 8 and what is her relationship with the Mishima family?
Producer: Players who are interested in Rina will be able to get to know her through the story mode, as well as learn about her true identity and purpose for participating in the Iron Fist Tournament. What can be revealed is that she will play a very key role in the story of the Mishima family.
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Tekken 7 previously had a VR mode, is it possible that Tekken 8 will support PS VR2?
Producer: At the moment we have no plans to add a VR mode to Tekken 8.
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I feel that the story of the "Tekken" series has reached its limit, how will the story develop in the future?
Producer: Although the story is getting bigger and bigger, there has always been a main axis, that is, the father-son struggle between the Mishima family, and we will continue and complete the related story. There are also many events and characters in "Tekken 7", and their subsequent development is also continued in the story mode of "Tekken 8".
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Jun Kazama didn't appear in the main pass for a long time. Can you please talk about the reason for her to fight again in the main story?
Producer: In the main story of this time, there is a great need for Jun Kazama to reappear, because when Ichihachi Mishima and Ren Kazama face off, she needs to appear in order to continue the story.
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The combos recommended to players in the "My Replay & Tips" mode have a star rating, how did the production team determine this star rating?
Producer: Star ratings are mainly based on the amount of damage from aerial combos. Players want to improve their combat skills, if you just watch the replay repeatedly, it may be difficult to master the skills from it, so players need to determine the counterattack for various moves, we hope to tell players at what point in time to defend and counterattack, if you can understand this, you can improve the player's combat level. In addition, we want players to be able to directly cut into the practice Xi during the replay, so that they can improve and improve the shortcomings, so we added the element of directly cutting into the practice Xi in the replay. Finally, there is the function of players playing against AI Ghost, so that players can learn what moves they Xi used to when playing against their own Ghost, so that they can find and improve their own problems. You don't need to be online and play against people, you just need to learn on your own to grow.
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There was a field size hint when choosing a match map, what was the reason for this?
Producer: Because Tekken is a 3D fighting game, if you know the map information in advance, it will increase the strategy of the battle. Some scenes will have traps or explosions, walls that can be destroyed, etc., all of which can be beneficial for the player to attack and increase damage. Pre-match hints allow players to think about what strategy they should use to attack.
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What is the Xi learning ability of Ghost in this work, and will it use the current mainstream AI learning Xi system?
Producer: The most difficult part of the Ghost development process is how to reproduce the types of moves used by the player and the time of the moves. This game uses the Q-learning Xi system, which is the result of many years of research by our Tekken team, and you can find that after playing against the AI for more than ten seconds, the AI has begun to imitate you, and when you play against the AI 4-10 times, you will see that the AI has grown to the extent that it can play against players. We are very confident in the AI in this game, we are not pursuing how strong the AI is, but to make it very close to the player's fighting style and Xi, and can also reproduce the player's fighting style in the shortest time.
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Will Ghost's battles be recorded in addition to Arcade Quest and will it record special and arcade-style battles separately?
Producer: In addition to the Arcade Quest mode, online and offline battles will also be recorded. Ghost doesn't separate the memorization style from the arcade style, but faithfully presents the player's control style.
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Did the production team have any particular preferences when choosing characters for the martial arts of each country?
Producer: When we choose which combat styles to include, we will first refer to previous works, and then incorporate some new martial arts styles, so that players can experience more diverse elements. When incorporating new elements, we will also consider the characteristics of the new characters, and choose some martial arts styles that can bring out the charm and characteristics of their characters. For example, the newly included Victor, who is Raven's boss in the story, has a fighting style that is biased towards the melee CQB style of army combat, and in order to increase the depth and charm of the character, we have given him a lot of weapons in battle according to his attributes. As I said earlier, we will bring out the best in the background of the character itself.
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If a player doesn't go online for a month, his ghost will be deleted. Isn't it a pity that some of the players like the masters will disappear if they don't go online for a long time, and will the production team consider keeping some commemorative Ghosts permanently, such as the champions of the annual e-sports tournaments?
Producer: Ghost allows players to download, if you have a particular favorite player then you can download his Ghost to keep around. Ghosts that haven't been online for more than a month will be deleted because this total amount is very large, and it would be a big burden to save them to the server. When you go online more than a month later, your Ghost will be re-uploaded, not that your Ghost is gone forever.
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There is a practice mode of "definite counterattack" in the Xi Xi training mode, and I personally think that the timing of the reversal is a little less obvious, how do you set up the general mode and advanced mode in this Xi training mode?
Producer: This part is still thinking about how to further improve it, and determined that in order for players to practice Xi to counterattack in the shortest possible time, the best way is to provide players with frame rate display, which will look easy to understand. Determining that the counter-attacking part is not as intuitive as other Xi, and we will find ways to improve this aspect, and currently intend to provide more information and when the player should counter.
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Are you worried about the special style added this time will affect the balance of the game?Can you switch between the special and arcade styles at any time in the battle power of players vs. players?
Producer: The addition of the special style is to condense the fun and psychological warfare of the Tekken series into this mode, hoping to make it easy for new players to pick up, and also to perform thrilling moves such as aerial combos or Heat skills in battles. If you're a very skilled veteran, you'll find that the moves you can use in a special style are relatively limited. The ideal state for us to introduce special styles is that when you are not familiar with the character, you can first use the special style to understand the character's characteristics, and then gradually switch back to the arcade style, so that you can gradually improve your character's moves and proficiency, and experience the fun of "Tekken" and the joy of growing yourself through this process.
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Regarding the Arcade Quest mode, the character styling here looks very different from the style of the Tekken series, and it feels like the style of European and American social media games. There are also some gameplay designs for quest lines. Why did you adopt this design idea?
Producer: The characters in Arcade Quest are really different from the world of Tekken, we wanted to present a world view that belongs to the player, and we wanted to recreate the arcade center style of North America, Europe, and Japan, which almost disappeared more than a decade ago, and we wanted to recreate the atmosphere of community in this mode for everyone to feel.
As for the gameplay design of the questline, if we make it a teaching mode, probably not many people want to play it. We wanted to make the feeling of going to the arcade hall before, so that the players could grow up with the character Max in the game, which is what I felt in the arcade back then, and I hope that everyone can gradually grow up while playing Tekken, so as to feel the fun of this game.
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This time the pace of the battle feels faster, but the difference in the level of the new and old players feels greater, the Heat system increases the damage, and the new players seem to have a hard time keeping up with the old players when fighting and are quickly defeated. Will there be any further adjustments to the Heat system, combo damage, and offensive and defensive balance?
Producer: The introduction of the Heat system this time is actually to shorten the gap between new and old players, the previous gap between new and old players was mainly because new players could not ideally achieve the desired operation in the battle, this time the Heat system can be easier to do, we think this will make the gap between new and old players smaller. We will continue to make adjustments to other systems and intensities, so we hope that players will enjoy the game first, and then we will make further adjustments based on player feedback.
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Finally, I hope you two have something to say to players in the Chinese region.
Kohei Ikeda: I've been to Hong Kong and Taiwan a lot, and I can see that fighting games are thriving here. This time on PS5, XSX|It is a very good time to launch "Tekken 8" on the S and PC platforms at the same time, and the story mode, Arcade Quest mode, Ghost battle and other modes are full of the pursuit of the development team, hoping to condense the charm of "Tekken" in it, hoping that more players can experience it for themselves, and hope that more and more players in Asia will play "Tekken" together.
Naoya Yasuda: We will launch a trial version of "Tekken 8" on PS5 on December 14 and Xbox and Steam on December 21, mainly for everyone to experience the offline single-player mode, and I hope that more players who have heard of the "Tekken" series but have not played it can actually experience the charm of "Tekken". If you pre-order this game, you will be able to play against players from other countries and regions when it is officially released.,I hope that "Iron Fist" will become a part of everyone's life in the future.,We'll continue to work hard for that.,Thank you.。