Tekken 8 Hands-On Preview: Return of the King (of the Iron First) – IGN First - IGN
There are a lot of impressive fighting games out there, and you can’t go wrong with any of them. Tekken 8 may be the newest kid on the block, but it isn’t chasing anyone. From what I can tell so far, it’s running at the head of the pack.
Tekken 8 Hands-On Preview: Return of the King (of the Iron First) – IGN First
“Accept all; chase none.”
POSTED: OCT 11, 2023 12:00 PM
“The tastiest drink in the world is coffee, or nothing!” says Azucena, Tekken’s newest character, when she runs into Lili. “I’ll teach you of the majesty that is tea!” Lili shoots back. It’s a dialogue exchange that only happens when these two characters go head-to-head, and in this case, it’s appropriate. Tekken producer Michael Murray is drinking coffee and playing Azucena. I’m drinking tea and playing Lili. Michael destroys me. I don’t often play Lili, and Michael is, unsurprisingly, a very good Tekken player. But even though I lost that match, I was having an absolute blast. We were laughing, complimenting strong moments in each other’s play, sharing surprise at certain interactions, and generally having a great time.
Naturally, I switched to Azucena the next match. I’ll never give up on tea, but there’s nothing wrong with switching characters, right? Like every other character I played in Tekken 8, she was a lot of fun. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a little.
Tekken 8 screens
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I was at Bandai Namco’s office in Irvine, California for two days last week, and much of that time was spent playing Tekken 8, talking to Michael Murray about Tekken 8, and playing Tekken 8 while talking to Michael Murray about Tekken 8. We were throwing down in an early version of the Tekken 8 Closed Beta Test that folks can get their hands on from October 20th to 23rd. That dialogue exchange between Lili and Azucena is just one of many examples of the defining quality that seems to run through Tekken 8: attention to detail.
There are a lot of beautiful fighting games these days, but the Unreal Engine 5-powered Tekken 8 might be the prettiest of them all.
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The first place you’ll notice this is the graphics. There are a lot of beautiful fighting games these days, but the Unreal Engine 5-powered Tekken 8 might be the prettiest of them all. You’ll notice the attention to detail in everything, from the way the environments break when characters smash into them, to how some stages move from day to night between rounds. The Urban Square stage looks like you could stumble across it while wandering around Midtown Manhattan.
Tekken 8 - Official Feng Wei Gameplay Reveal and Closed Beta Test Trailer
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Tekken 8 - Official Feng Wei Gameplay Reveal and Closed Beta Test Trailer
And then, of course, there’s the way the characters get dirty and beat up as they get hit and knocked down. After one match, Nina’s wedding dress, one of the four costumes that she (and every other character) brings to the CBT, had gotten wet and dirty as we played.
Speaking of characters, there are 19 of them in the CBT. Sixteen - Jin, Kazuya, Jun, Paul, Law, King, Lars, Xiaoyu, Jack-8, Nina, Asuka, Leeroy, Hwoarang, Lili, Bryan, and Claudio - return from the Closed Network Test. They’re joined by three new faces: Feng Wei and Raven, who return from Tekken 7 and Tekken 6, respectively, and Acuzena Milagros Ortiz Castillo, who is new for Tekken 8.
