At the tail end of a historic six months for fighting game fans, after the releases of Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1, Bandai Namco is about to respond with Tekken 8. In a recent press tour, we checked out a near-final build of the game and also joined a press roundtable Q&A with Game Director Kohei Ikeda to ask for clarifications on various content and features.

　　As a reminder, Tekken 8 is set to launch on January 26, 2024 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.

　　WCCFTECH: You are finally showing The Dark Awakens. Will that story mode solely be focused on playing as Jin?

　　Yeah. The focal point of the story is going to be Jin Kazama. That said, while progressing through the story, different characters appear at different places and you can control them instead. And there's other ways to play through the story, too. I would add that Tekken was kind of known in the past that you would clear through a series of arcade opponents and then you'd get the CGI movies. There is something similar here for each of the 32 characters in the character episodes, so that's another way to learn the story.

　　Another aspect of the story mode this time is the King of Iron Fist Tournament has always been a backdrop for the story, but this is the first time it's actually been brought to the forefront, and you're actually seen participating in the tournament, so that's kind of interesting the way that that's portrayed. It's just little ways like that that we enhance the story experience.

　　I had a question regarding the Heat mechanics and the choices that went into implementing the new Heat system into the game because it all feels a lot faster overall. I feel like there are tendencies in contemporary online multiplayer to go for faster rounds, to make everything quicker, to make people in and out, or were there other thoughts that went into the design?

　　It might feel that way in some instances because when you're just starting out and you learn the full power of the Heat system to do massive damage to your opponent, it might feel like that. But when you and your opponent get better at the game and learn the ins and outs... You can even recover health using certain characters' attributes, and there are options that the Heat system gives you to add to that level of strategy, the back and forth, then you're able to defend a little bit more, then you probably see that the matches play out at a similar length as before.

　　If I'm just starting out in Tekken 8 and you're pummeling me with the Heat system, I might just be like, I got to wait until he finishes. But when I get more aware of the game then I'll be like, okay, the heat engager has armor attributes, so I'll just engage right in the middle of your attack and stop your flow, and now it's my turn to attack. When you learn the ins and outs, I think that changes up the speed a little bit.

　　Back to the topic of the story. Tekken 8 is obviously an ongoing series and the story has been ongoing for a long time. Is there anything in place for somebody who is just getting started and wants to play Tekken 8? Is there anything that's going to catch them up to the story with all that came before?

　　I don't think you got to experience it today, but when you first play the game, you will be asked if you want to check out the digest of the story from installments one through seven. You can choose to do that to get you up to speed. Also, in addition to that main story arc, there is a character episode for each of the 32 characters which gives you another glimpse into their background and sometimes the relation to other characters and that dynamic. Playing through those as well gives you a better understanding of the story. Also, I'd say since you're waiting for Tekken 8 to come out next month, there's this Netflix anime series. Jun Kazama is returning after such a long time, so watching the anime will give you a little bit more background about the dynamic between Jun and Jin (mother and son).

　　As you all mentioned, it's the longest-running story in games. You've been telling basically the same story since the first game. Why did you all make that decision? In other series, after a while, they go into reboots.

　　Tekken has a lot of characters that take part in the story arc, so we thought that the fans really wanted to see what happens after the epic conclusion of Tekken 7. It really never came to mind about doing a reboot. Some of my favorite series, they've done reboots and although it looked really pretty and the action was great, I knew what was coming, so there weren't any surprises I was a little bit less motivated to go towards the end. I think we made a better decision in continuing that story arc.

　　WCCFTECH: Coming back to character episodes, will these be similar to your traditional arcade mode?

　　It's almost like in Tekken 5 and 6 where you have some kind of intro that tells you why they're taking part in the tournament and then you have to fight about five opponents. What's different is it's not just someone random; it's chosen specifically for that character because of their dynamics and they even have unique scenes before fighting where they speak their minds. So you have those five battles and then you're rewarded by the CGI movie sequence at the end.

　　WCCFTECH: Okay. As a very quick follow-up, are the cutscenes all CGI or do you also have the visual novel-style scenes?

　　I think you're talking about what we did before, right? It's not anything like that. The intro scenes are in-game cinematics with different camera work for cinematic flair, and then there is a proper CGI ending.

　　Regarding competitive online modes, I don't believe this was made obvious, but is Tekken Ball going to have an online component?

　　Yes!

　　Are competitive players and multiplayer online players going to be able to adjust the settings of matches, attack values, etc.?

　　No. Basically, it's a standard ruleset. You can change the number of rounds for some of the matches.

　　I wanted to ask about the philosophy behind the special style and the simplified controls. Why did you decide to add that to Tekken 8?

　　It's really designed so that with limited buttons you could perform a variety of different attacks

　　that allow you to enjoy what the game is all about, so not just the standard attacks of your character but also combinations that make use of the Heat system and Rage Arts if you have them available. The player, just by using the simple inputs, can have a variety of these tools at hand. It's designed so that newcomers can easily jump into the series, but even for advanced players so that you can easily pick up any one of the 32 characters even if it's not your usual character, and be able to enjoy the game. I think it's a really great addition because you can turn it on or off at any time. I don't know if you noticed, but it optimizes what attack you have available depending on your situation. The moves you have available kind of depend on the situation and it does it for you automatically, which I think is super cool.

　　We saw in the Arcade Quest mode games like Galaga, Xevious, and Dragon Spirit on the other arcade cabinets. Will those be playable again?

　　We wanted people to learn about arcade culture and get that atmosphere of the arcade in which those cabinets play a very important role. But the idea is then to graduate them into going to the Tekken 8 lounge and playing online, so at the moment we're really focused on trying to provide that kind of funnel for players to get into the game. We would love to have those games playable at some point but right now not so much. We also don't have an arcade version this time, so making all of this stuff from the start from launch, there was just so much that had to be made. That's one thing that we've always talked about but weren't able to get around to before launch.

　　Thank you for your time.