Do you want to know more about the Tekken 8 release date? One of the biggest fighting games in the world, Tekken 7 was the series’ most impressive game to date, so it’s no surprise that fans are excited to see what the developers have in store for the next entry.
One of the most anticipated fighting games got its big reveal during Sony State of Play in September, pleasantly surprising Tekken fans with the shocking reveal that Tekken 8 was in development, with a trailer showing the game in the new game engine. Given the critical and commercial success of Tekken 7, there’s a good chance that Tekken 8 will make it to our list of best PC games in the future. Now that we know the game exists, here’s everything we know about the Tekken 8 release date, trailers, gameplay, story, and more.
Speculation on the release date of Tekken 8
The game is unlikely to hit stores anytime soon, with most expectations being for a late 2023 release at the earliest or a more realistic 2024 release. As of this writing, there are no of confirmed release date for Tekken.
During The Game Awards, a new trailer revealed various story beats and showed off some of the returning characters. However, it looks like we’ll be waiting a while to find out the release date. Series creator Katsuhiro Harada has confirmed that the game is built from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5, with no assets being reused from Tekken 7.
On a more interesting note, the gaming press got a chance to play Tekken 8 for a few hours at the end of March. Although Bandai Namco hasn’t talked about a release date for Tekken 8, the fact that there is a playable version with ten characters is great news. This might suggest that Tekken 8 is closer to release than people think, but we still don’t expect to see the game release until 2024 due to the large size of the Tekken games roster.
Tekken 8 Character List
Here are the confirmed characters in the Tekken 8 roster so far:
- nina williams
- Jin Kazama
- kazuya mishima
- pablo phoenix
- Martial law
- Jack-8
- Ray
- Lars Alexandersson
- junior says
- Ling Xiao Yu
Trailers the Tekken 8
The first trailer for Tekken 8 features the series’ two main characters, Jin Kazama and his father, Kazuya Mishima, face to face in the middle of a stormy, barren wasteland. The two swap back and forth before Jin deals a final blow to Kazuya using the power provided by his Devil Gene.
An interesting feature of the trailer is the disclaimer at the start of the trailer which seems to suggest that the footage is real-time, in-engine, which if true means we can expect the final game to have equally impressive graphics.
Over the past few months, Tekken 8 has released a number of character trailers highlighting each fighter and some of their movesets. The most recent character trailer was for Ling Xiaoyu, a returning fighter who has competed in every Tekken game since Tekken 3.
tekken story 8
While the trailers seen so far don’t reveal too much of the story, they do confirm that the story will focus on Jin and his companions as they plan to defeat Kazuya once and for all. We also see the canonical return of Jun Kazama, Jin’s mother, for the first time in the series since Tekken 2.
Tekken 7 ended with Kazuya seemingly killing his father, Heihachi, and continuing the year-old global war between G Corporation and the Mishima Zaibatsu. Meanwhile, Jin recovers from a coma to plan to take down Kazuya.
Much of the series’ more recent entries have focused on the Devil Gene, a genetic power possessed by both Jin and Kazuya that allows them to shapeshift into more powerful demonic forms. While Kazuya has already learned to control his evil gene, Jin has yet to do so and is likely to be taken over by his evil form.
However, the end of the trailer seems to suggest that Jin has also learned to control the Devil Gene. So it will be interesting to see how this affects his story, as well as Devil Jin’s presence as a separate character.
tekken 8 gameplay
The graphics in the trailer seem like a big improvement over Tekken 7, but the gameplay itself is pretty similar. Characters tend to retain most of their gameplay between titles, and we can probably expect the same to happen in Tekken 8.
Recently at the Tekken North America Regional Finals, Harada explained some of the gameplay features you might have missed during the Tekken 8 trailer shown at The Game Awards 2022. First up we see the version of this game of Jack slamming into a wall, which continues to explode, dealing a large amount of damage to the stage and to Jack.
A major addition in Tekken 7 was the Rage Art and Rage Drive systems, which were integral to the game’s meta. Rage Arts is set to return when we see Paul using one against Law. It’s not yet confirmed if Rage Drive will return, but there is a new mechanic, “Heat.” This is completely separate from Rage, and there are two ways to activate it: by performing a “Heat Engage” move, which causes your character to run towards the enemy after hitting them with Heat active, or by pressing a single button (the developers use the R1 button of a PlayStation pad in the video). This starts a timer that quickly runs out but briefly pauses whenever an opponent is hit or blocks your moves.
We know that Heat differs between characters, such as Jack getting a powerful combo, Jin getting a medium combo-cancelling move that allows skilled fighters to extend combos, and Kazuya transforming into his devil form. There are also shared shares, so be sure to watch the video above for the full breakdown.
A new system coming to Tekken 8 is the Recoverable Gauge. The damage you take is similar to Tekken Tag Tournament games in that some of the damage you take from blocking large moves or air combos will remain as a white chunk. This does not recover independently, but instead recharges when you hit an opponent or block their attacks.
Want to play something new with friends? Our list of the best multiplayer games has what you’re looking for. Be sure to read our list of the best action-adventure games if you decide to take on multiple enemies at once.