Hot off a recent Guinness World Record (which surprisingly isn’t for most times a man has been thrown into a volcano and survived), Bandai Namco’s been pulling out all the stops for Tekken 8 ahead of its early 2024 release. Last week during The Game Awards marked the second time that Wccftech has gotten hands-on with the longest-running fighting game narrative in history.

　　While our earlier preview coverage focused on the competitive spirit and one-on-one multiplayer battles, Bandai Namco opened up the floodgates and allowed both media and influencers to explore the opening hours of the latest entry in the Mishima saga. This meant not just the first chapters of the story mode but also dabbling a bit in the training features and new community/experiential hub. This presentation was held by Michael Murray, long-time Bandai Namco veteran and currently the Producer on Tekken 8 in addition to being the interpreter for both Harada-san and Kouhei Ikeda, whom we interviewed during the event.

　　Tekken 8’s campaign mode opens amid a climactic fight between Tekken’s mainstay leads, Jin Kazama filling the role of series protagonist, and Kazuya Mishima, now head of the G Corporation since his father Heihachi may finally be confirmed dead. This flashy battle served as a showcase for Bandai Namco’s work with Unreal Engine 5, featuring seamless transitions from action scenes into playable combat and back again. The cuts are still a little jarring but still far smoother than anything the series had offered before. Some QTE and choices also pop up to force the player to pay attention to the action rather than walking away to grab a new drink. To make the action more accessible to the widest range of players, the campaign forces players into Special Style, the redesigned control scheme that simplifies attacks down by function rather than per limb.

　　Bandai Namco only allowed the Tekken 8 preview to run through the first four chapters of their main campaign, The Dark Awakens. This was enough time to get acquainted with Jin Kazama once more, from getting a beatdown by his rival Kazuya to recuperating and entering the latest King of Iron Fist Tournament. After all, it wouldn’t be a proper Tekken without a tournament of the world’s finest as the backdrop. It’s here that Jin begins to reawaken his Devil Genes, but our preview was cut short while still wrapping up the qualifiers, leaving so much of the story to be seen firsthand in the full release.

　　These days, it isn’t just enough for your fighting game to have a versus mode to pit your fighting potential against other players across the globe. Every mainline fighter has offered some sort of bonus mode to keep players engaged and continue playing beyond the occasional rematch, and Tekken 8 is no exception. Arcade Quest is the newest addition to Tekken’s roster of content and seems to be directly inspired by Street Fighter’s World Tour mode in a few ways.

　　Now, it’s not your personal avatar that will be attacking the roads and squaring up against random pedestrians, no. In Arcade Quest, players create an avatar and insert themselves in the story of global domination at the arcade level. Murray talked about the game as being the story of the player winning clout at a variety of arcades and eventually the Tekken World Tour. Your mentor, Max (not to be confused with the real-life Maximilian), teaches the basics of Tekken and various mechanics that aim to make the player themselves a Tekken player of the highest caliber.

　　Once a player grasps the basics, Tekken 8 introduces players to their rebuilt machine-learning systems with Super Ghost Battle. Previous Tekken titles did have Ghost battles but were largely limited to specific combos or attacks. With Super Ghost Battle, Murray promises that the AI will pick up on real player tendencies more often, including dropping combos at a similar ratio. Not only that, but the AI can pick up on player movement, so adding in that Mishima wave dash can be an easy addition. Remember, kids, it’s forward, slight pause, quarter-circle forward, and repeat. Now, instead of needing to be trained on hundreds of matches, the Ghost can be updated on the fly and even pick up new strategies in the middle of a match.

　　Now, while Tekken does feature the traditional 1-on-1 battles, Bandai Namco is bringing back a series favorite for day one: Tekken Ball. If you’ve played Tekken Ball before, you already know how crazy yet cathartic it can be to combo into a massive beach ball and smash it into your opponent’s face. While it may have been DLC for an earlier title, this marks the first time since Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for the Wii U. The ball mechanics feel a bit off in terms of weight with how tight Tekken’s movement and attacks normally are, but it’s just a small annoyance in the greater scheme of things.

　　If you can’t wait for the release of Tekken 8, Bandai Namco will release a demo later this month. PlayStation 5 owners will get early access to the playable demo on December 14th, while both Xbox and Steam players will get their golden ticket to the King of Iron Fist Tournament on December 21st.

　　No matter which platform you play on, Tekken 8 will be available on January 26th, 2024 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.