Ronny Barrier is a gameplay producer for IGN. Hopefully they can iron out the network issues, and if they do, I’m confident we’ll have a great new combatant for the King of Iron Fist Tournament. But I can only relay my experience, which was not always optimal.Īfter a few days of learning a few things, getting the ever-loving tar beat out of me, and then managing to squeak out some wins, I’m even more excited for Tekken 8’s final release. Game Director Katsuhiro Harada tweeted over the weekend that this was a known bug, and again, I must stress that this is a Network Test, and is designed to work out kinks they find with online play, so hopefully this will be remedied in the final release. Long stretches of time would go by where matches would fail to connect repeatedly, or not match me with anyone at all. But that won’t stop all the online issues, as matchmaking was also a bit spotty. Thankfully, the connection screen gives a WiFi indicator, so you can avoid those players altogether if you wish, and I would strongly recommend plugging in an ethernet cable. I’m not sure if this was a network issue or a performance issue, but it was very distracting nonetheless. There was also an issue with stage transitions where they would hitch almost without fail. You can change the rollback settings to Prioritize Graphics or Prioritize Response (I chose Response), but it’s really just a pick-your-poison selection as you’ll be dealing with more delay as a tradeoff for less hitching. It’s hard enough to judge spacing when someone has a handle on Tekken’s complex movement, but when they suddenly appear to teleport, it made me feel like I was taking a counter hit to the face in real life. While about half of my matches were great, and this is very specifically a network test, some of the connections were downright rough, especially against WiFi warriors, with rollback artifacts and hitching both present. Unfortunately, what had me less excited across the board was the online performance. Rumors of Jun's death were GREATLY exaggerated. Finding new ways to activate my Heat, using the buffs it provides before it runs out, and then finishing it up with a Heat Smash, all made me excited to jump back into training mode as soon as I was able. I felt like I was barely getting a handle on what Jun could do in this first weekend, but I’m excited to explore more of her kit during the next test period.īoth characters gave me a lot of confidence that the Heat system is ultimately going to end up being a great change for Tekken 8. ![]() But if you activate Heat mode, you can use those moves freely without damaging yourself, and even do extra healing, giving her an extremely powerful toolset with no drawbacks for a limited time. She can use powerful attacks and strings at the cost of her own life bar. She can also use her Heat Smash (the high damage ender you can use to end Heat mode) from her back-turned stance as a low attack, giving her multiple ways to land big damage.Īnother character that stood out to me was Jun Kazama, returning in her first canon appearance since Tekken 2. Going into Heat mode in Tekken 8 boosts her evasiveness, letting you use your command hop twice in a row by holding the button down, and using these hops actually increases your heat meter, meaning you can keep your offense going for longer. Lili, my main from Tekken 7 – other than Armor King – is well known to be one of the most evasive characters in the series, with a fantastic side-step, tricky launchers, and even a command hop that can be followed up with either a low or mid attack, forcing you to guess if you need to block standing or crouching. Given the limited time available for the Closed Network Test, I’ve tried to focus on some of the newly added characters: specifically Lili and Jun. It’s still a lot to wrap your head around, but thankfully the closed test included a quick tutorial to run down these changes. Instead of certain moves using stocks of your Gauge, both Heat Drives and Heat Smashes now just use the rest of your bar. I’m happy to report that this holds true with the characters that have been added since the build he played, although they’ve simplified the Heat system just a bit. In our earlier preview, IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman covered the new mechanics introduced with the Heat system, noting that it doubled down on the uniqueness of each character. And after my time with the first weekend of Tekken 8’s Closed Network Test, it seems primed to bring the Heat to a new generation, despite a few hiccups that can hopefully be attributed to normal pre-release obstacles. Between the success of Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6, and the general improvements to netcode across the board, the genre seems to be at its strongest since the arcade days. ![]() ![]() I’ve greatly enjoyed the fighting game renaissance over the last few years.
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