Tekken 7

[Supernature]

Tell me 'here' is Chicago pls.

Sorry to disappoint, 'here' is Paris.

[ChibaMariners]

Sorry to disappoint, 'here' is Paris.

Nice. How's the online so far with lag?

[Supernature]

Nice. How's the online so far with lag?

I haven't played online much. So far I've spent most of my time in Treasure Battle (I already hate Kazumi) and Practice Mode to learn the new moves and mechanics.

Will start Story Mode today.

The game plays really well but a lot of my go-to old combos don't work anymore. Need some practice.

[Username taken]

Is there engaging content for single players?

Injustice 2 really raised the bar for single player content in fighting games.

[Harpsikord]

Is there engaging content for single players?

Injustice 2 really raised the bar for single player content in fighting games.

I believe that Tekken 7 promises an immersive story campaign, so yeah.

[Mormel]

I just watched the entire story mode cut scene compilation on Youtube, and found the whole Mishima angle quite touching. Without delving into spoiler territory, I didn't mind so much that either non-Mishima characters weren't featured so prominently or that some characters with close ties to the Mishima clan were absent or secondary. This is really Heihachi and Kazuya's story.

I'm technically not allowed to disclose this, but for my job I actually had to handle countless copies of Tekken 7 prior to its international and console release, and that had me totally stoked. Not sure I'm actually gonna buy (I hardly ever play video games anymore), but I'm heavily considering it.

[CraigTheCylon]

I'm technically not allowed to disclose this,

YOU NAUGHTY BOY.



Anyway, had the game a few days now. Not the collectors' edition I preordered from Amazon and has since vanished (grrr) but enough to say that it's pretty good! Not perfect, and some of the disappointments are perplexing to say the least, but overall the crush of some 19 years for me remains very much real.

That the thing looks fantastic in motion is probably obvious. I'm on regular PS4 rather than Pro (since I don't have a 4K TV anyway) but other than some rough-edged hair the models are smooth and absurdly detailed, the new stages are impressively detailed - particularly those with changing weather effects - although it's the dynamic camera zooms and those all-important slow-mo breaks that are the stand-out. It feels like such a small thing to have everything go slow when it's a close-up move exchange between fighters with low HP, but every time it makes you hold your breath for that couple of seconds before being deflated or punching the air...most modern fighters aim hard for 'spectacle' these days, usually in very distracting ways involving scenery changes or super-moves so long the Undertaker could make a WrestleMania entrance before they're over. This trick makes nearly every fight 'cinematic' without taking control from the players, and it's pretty much genius.

Of course, I mentioned super-moves so I should probably touch on Rage Arts. As a tool I don't know that they're 'necessary' but tying them into Rage limits them to a last minute make-or-break situation. You roll the dice, and either even the scales...or whiff embarrassingly and get pummelled. Again, very dramatic. The moves themselves are mercifully quite brief, though some just...aren't very cool. Mostly the ones from the 'vanilla' T7 arcade line-up; they tend to just look like canned juggle combos with a different camera angle, while the latter-added characters get more unique and impressive animations. Of course, the fact that King gets 2 through his Okada gear gives me some hope that future DLC might add extra Arts for other characters...

Story Mode could've been done better. For one thing, the narrator/reporter's voice actor could've sounded like he gave half a crap about anything. Dude talks about the rage he feels over his dead family in the tone I use for ordering Chicken McNuggets. Also, the way it accommodates rookies is perhaps unwise. You can hold down the left shoulder button for an assist mode that delivers a useful canned move sequence with a single face button tap, and while it's certainly useful, it doesn't teach anyone anything. If a newbie gets used to it, then goes to play the game normally, they won't know what to do without the training wheels. And there's nowhere else they'll realistically learn this stuff without some numpty shouting 'GIT GUD' at them. Oh, and the new characters aren't involved, save for Claudio. They'd probably feel shoehorned in if they were, but at least it would make people curious about them. As it stands it's hard to imagine any of them breaking out of the pack.

Still, beyond that, the story works. It's low on coherence but high on excitement and melodrama, as is the Tekken way. There's a relatively small cast, though not so small you don't get those hilarious scenes where 3 people are talking, all in different languages, and understand each other perfectly. Cutscenes are frequent and mercifully directed with greater verve than the lifeless talking heads interludes from T6, and the primary narrative succeeds at filling in a few blanks of the overall Mishima history (while also digging some fresh holes to agonize over for years) and in providing a goddamn all-upper-case E P I C of a finale. I do rather wish the direct continuation of the T6 plotline got more time, but - without spoiling - there's only so much they could move around there without treading on what I assume is the plan for T8.

Oh, and we need to talk about Akuma. You're stuck playing as the big-nosed git for 2 subchapters, which was the exact point I turned the difficulty down to 'easy'. Story Mode fights do not screw around, with most enemy fighters having solid AI and tweaked move properties that make them far more fearsome than in normal play; trying to handle that with a guy who doesn't play at all like a Tekken fighter proved too much for my patience. Anyway, the game goes out of its way to treat Akuma like he's a big deal; his every appearance is grand ceremony, and he's allowed to basically prove his dominance over the 2 guys who are on the damn cover without anyone stopping him. And yet, he accomplishes nothing. He shows up, says he's gonna kill Heihachi and Kazuya, kills neither of them and then is all 'I HAVE TO GO, MY PLANET NEEDS ME'. Never mentioned again. It's just weird. Whatever, don't let the door hit you in your stupid glowy back-of-shirt sign thing, *******.

Beyond that, I question the weird scarcity of modes. There's a regular Arcade ladder, and the new Treasure Battle, which asks you to chain up wins against progressively harder opponents for customization unlocks. Given the sheer amount of custom stuff there is, this is a pretty addictive time sink, and the occasional matches with boss characters or turbo mode keeps things spicy. But that's kind of all there is right now. Where are the old staples of Time Attack, Survival and Team Battle? S'not like they ever needed much extra coding to assemble. Those last 2 could've been made really interesting too, if they'd used the same tricks as the repeat-enemy fights from story mode, wherein you fight multiple Tekken Force soldiers or similar one after another, and each new arrival drops seamlessly into the arena without a loading pause, even while his defeated comrade is still out on the floor. Imagine that's how Team Battle worked, with your next picked fighter leaping into the fray a second after your first choice goes down. Badass.

Knickers, this post is getting long. Gonna leave it here for now, maybe try online tomorrow. Suffice to say, though, I'm a happy guy right now.

[ChibaMariners]

Tekken Bowl was discovered in file dump, so there should be even more stuff on the way for season pass owners.

[Xero Kaiser]

God, the customization in this is awful. It's the same problem Soul Calibur 5 had. Everything is a goddamn joke item. It's almost impossible to make your character look like anything but a fucking clown.

[CraigTheCylon]

As the ancient legends foretold, the first big DLC addition is Tekken Bowl - but now it's ULTIMATE Tekken Bowl! Which is almost the same thing but with less confusing history, and Hwoarang suddenly looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson:



Yeah, half the trailer is another of Harada-san's home movies. It does look nice though, and I've always been a sucker for this mode.

[Gryphon]

[CraigTheCylon]

So is he supposed to be like a half bird guy or what

(somebody help me, only kof games i ever played were the maximum impact ones and they sucked too much for me to retain any solid memories of them)

For real: much though I grumble over another cocking projectile fighter appearing in the fighter I play primarily to escape from that sort of thing, Duckman here does look a lot less cheesetastic than Akuma, and it looks like they put some serious effort into making his animations work within the game artistically. So I guess I can put up with the occasional Double Rebuking (or whatever) and see how he pans out.

[ChibaMariners]

PREDICTABO!

Can't wait. Geese is definitely a fighting game icon.

[Gryphon]

So is he supposed to be like a half bird guy or what

(somebody help me, only kof games i ever played were the maximum impact ones and they sucked too much for me to retain any solid memories of them)

For real: much though I grumble over another cocking projectile fighter appearing in the fighter I play primarily to escape from that sort of thing, Duckman here does look a lot less cheesetastic than Akuma, and it looks like they put some serious effort into making his animations work within the game artistically. So I guess I can put up with the occasional Double Rebuking (or whatever) and see how he pans out.

His name is Geese but no he isn't half Bird. He was the villain of the fatal fury games and the father of rock howard.

[ChibaMariners]

Looks like some of the T7 file dumps were correct