Tekken Archives - Dot Esports

The first season of Tekken 8‘s post-launch content is coming to a close, and Bandai Namco is closing things out with an unexpected crossover.

Hot off the heels of their win for Best Fighting Game at The Game Awards, Tekken 8 revealed the final character for the season one character pass: Clive Rosfield, the protagonist from Final Fantasy 16. Fans had been speculating who the final character would be, with many believing it’d be a guest character due to how big of a stage TGA is, rather than simply announcing something at a Tekken-specific event.

After multiple teases from DisguisedToast about potential entries into a fighting game-adjacent title, his team finally pulled the trigger. Backed by Chipotle, Disguised is now fielding a Tekken player in Phi “PhiDX” Lam.

PhiDX might not be the biggest name in Tekken, but he is one fans will recognize as a player who consistently shows up and performs at every event he is able to. Since he got his big start at the end of 2020, that meant entering dozens of online Tekken 7 tournaments and finishing mostly in the top eight leading into Tekken 8.

Tekken 8 dropped a full trailer for the first season of content, revealing plenty of new content releasing over the next several months. This includes story DLC, several free features, and the return of Lidia—which has the community mixed on what future fighters could be coming next.

During the Tekken 8 top eight at Evo Japan 2024, Bandai Namco shared an updated roadmap for Season One following the release of the first DLC fighter, Eddy Gordo, on April 5. This next wave of content will include an expansion for Tekken 8’s main story—something that rarely happens for fighting games—and multiple free updates will be available to all players, while teasing the next DLC fighter, Lidia Sobieski. 

In the brief three months since Tekken 8 launched on Jan. 26, the game’s Steam review ratings have taken a nosedive falling to “Mostly Negative” primarily due to a recent update that implemented microtransactions through the Tekken Shop.

Many players were dumbstruck when, a month after release, legendary Tekken developer Katsuhiro Harada announced on a live stream the introduction of an in-game shop for advanced customization options and fighter purchases. Many fans of the franchises have complained that a $70 game shouldn’t cost you another $70 once you’ve purchased it. One player went so far as to say that adding a surprise battle pass or microtransaction after players have spent up for a game should be “illegal.”

It has barely been a month since the successful launch of Tekken 8, and rage quitting has already become a central problem for the game. The Tekken community has voiced their frustration with the situation on several online platforms, and devs are now responding.

Tekken 8, like many competitive fighting games, features a ranking system that categorizes players based on their skill level, achieved through winning and losing matches in online mode. To avoid losing their hard-earned red or purple rank, some players will quit the fight mid-game to avoid going down to a lower rank, such as orange or yellow. But one dev has already publicly stated the Tekken 8 team would love to ban players that repeatedly rage quit.

The news of an upcoming in-game shop for Tekken 8 in the near future has caused an uproar among fans. Players are voicing their frustration over Bandai Namco’s decision to introduce the shop post-launch, a move many see as dishonest. The unexpected addition has sparked accusations of deceit, leaving a sour note in the otherwise highly regarded game.

Tekken 8 has enjoyed a tremendously successful launch, with 2 million copies sold in three weeks. It is precisely because of its overwhelmingly positive reception that this new, unannounced, in-game shop has got the community fearing the worst. To quote just one out of many Tekken fans on Reddit, “Tekken 8 couldn’t just come out and be a good game, they had to add some bull**** business practices in post-launch.”

Tekken 8 has fighting game players new and old hitting the sticks hard early this year, grinding ranked or learning the game to reach that point eventually. While there are still hiccups, T8 has streamlined the process of leveling up your game.

Tekken 8 brings a lot of firsts to the franchise that makes it the most accessible for new players, whether it be the Special Style controls letting players pull off combo moves with one button press or the replay system that lets you jump into gameplay and test different scenarios. Pair that with improved online and multiple modes designed to help players learn at a higher than casual level, and Bandai Namco may have opened the floodgates when it comes to player growth.

During a recent live stream on Twitch, popular streamer Forsen hosted a Tekken 8 viewer battle where his fans played against one another. The stream immediately took an unexpected turn when the very first participants showcased their characters customized to resemble a certain Austrian dictator and his peculiar mustache.

A viewer battle is a segment where viewers play against each other while the streamer watches and comments. While this allows for fantastic engagement between fans and content creators, it also reveals the unpredictable nature of viewer interactions, as exhibited by Victor Chevalier’s, Leo Kliesen’s, and Jack-8’s Nazi uniforms during the Tekken 8 live stream.

From the first preview to its full release, Tekken 8 promised to be a gigantic leap forward for the legendary fighting game franchise. From overhauled features and stunning visuals to a blockbuster story, Bandai Namco has delivered a knockout blow with only a few missteps.

After almost nine years with Tekken 7, Tekken 8 makes all the right moves to modernize the series to compete with the best fighting games. The game plays like a dream and has the looks to match across its offline and online modes, so you can’t really ask director Katsuhiro Harada for more.