(electronic tones) - [Narrator] Welcome
back to another episode of "Before You Buy", the show where we give you some
straight up game play and our first impressions of
the latest games releasing. Hi folks, it's Falcon and today on game ranks the
fighting game "Renaissance" continues with what may be
the biggest "Tekken" game yet, maybe not so much in terms of roster but content-wise, this game
is huge, absolutely massive. In a fighting game landscape dominated by pseudo 2D fighters where your combatants duke
it out on a single plane, "Tekken" is the last 3D
fighter left standing and man is it good to be back. Now I've always had a real soft spot for "Tekken" games despite
not being good at them. These games are complex, they
have big rosters of characters who have like 100 plus moves each. A lot of characters have
multiple stances, special inputs, unique mechanics and "Tekken
8" doesn't simplify that. What it does do though is
offer some fantastic tutorials and practice settings. So whether the way you're
a beginner is legitimately that you just started playing or you're just perpetually
a beginner at this game, like moi, this is probably the most approachable "Tekken" game yet. Again, not less complex, it just makes more effort
at teaching you how to do the complex stuff and the sheer amount of stuff
you're getting is impressive. After "Tekken 7" somewhat
lackluster feature set, this game is packed with stuff to do. There's tons of offline
modes that'll keep you busy. The online mode is a huge
improvement over the previous game when it's working at least. Put a pin in that for a moment. We'll talk about it, but yeah,
extra modes, they're great, but at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters with the fighting game
is the actual fights and "Tekken 8" combat is fantastic. This is some of the most fun I have had with the series in years. The fighting's snappy, it's hard hitting, the
new mechanics add a layer of tactical depth to the game and every match just
feels a lot more exciting. It's an ambitious update to the series and it's a series that's mostly gotten by on staying the same. So it's kind of a out of left
field move that they decided to do this, but in my
opinion, pretty much all of the changes are for the better. If you're a fighting game fan "Tekken 8", it's a super easy recommendation
and that's my intro. I think you get where
we're going with this, but there's so much to say and you're gonna want to hear all of it if you're interested in
this game, so let's go. In terms of content, the basics are this. There's 32 total fighters,
three new characters, a major new combat
mechanic called Heat Mode, a cinematic story mode
called The Dark Awakens, a full adventure mode called Arcade Quest, the Tekken Fight lounge for online play and a whole mess of customization
options for fighters and for your avatar for
the quest mode and lounge. That's not actually even everything but it covers most of the major stuff. Also, Tekken Ball is back from "Tekken 3", remember Tekken Ball? It's back, there it is, there's
Tekken Ball, look at that. Now for a "Tekken" game, a 32
fighter roster isn't massive, it's no "Tekken Tag Tournament 2", but it's a solid selection of fighters. It's a nice mix of classic characters and relative newcomers. A lot more returning faces from
"Tekken 7" than I expected. Everyone gets a new coat of paint. It seems like the developers
have taken special effort to really make each fighter
stand out, feel unique, and you know, have a reason to be there, which wasn't always the case
with previous "Tekken" games. Sometimes some fighters got a little samey and with a game like this
where movement is fast, having characters look a little
samey, it can be a problem, but this is also especially
true for the three newcomers. The amount of new characters
might seem a little small, but they're all really fun to play as. Victor who's basically a French John Wick plus JetStream Sam's Katana
from "Metal Gear Rising" because how could we make John
Wick cooler that, that's how. This guy's completely nuts in combat. He's super easy to pick up and play and he's really powerful. Then there's Reina, the cool punk girl, every fighting game is
contractually obligated to have now, not complaining, she's actually cool. She's the inheritor of hey
Heihachi Mishima's power, which means she has a lot of his old moves but they're remixed
into something original. Last is Azucena, a Peruvian MMA fighter who also has a coffee business. Sounds like a joke, but they
went all in, from the dancing to the match ending advertising
to the special replies, each fighter where she
asks about favorite drinks. Clearly the devs put a bunch
of love into this character and it shows, she's also a
fairly complex fighter with a lot of stance changes to augment her unusual MMA
slash dancer combat style. All three new characters, they're awesome and they're high bars in the
series in terms of appeal and personality, but to the game's credit, they actually don't feel
that outta place compared to the rest of the roster 'cause pretty much everybody has gotten an upgrade in "Tekken 8". A big reason why comes from this game's major new
mechanic, which is heat mode. Notice the new meter
under your health bar, that's the heat meter. Every character starts
a round with it full and you can trigger it by
using a heat engager move or a heat burst. In general, when you're in
heat mode, you unlock new, more powerful moves, you trigger a dash, so you can close in on
the opponent faster. You can do scratch damage to enemies who are blocking and can
perform a powerful heat smash which uses up the remaining meter. Heat mode only lasts about
10, 15 seconds depending on how you trigger it, but it
completely changes the dynamic of battle in "Tekken 8" and it's a lot to keep
track of for a newbie. Each character has different heat engagers and unique special moves
when they're powered up. So if anything, this new mechanic
actually makes the fights more complex than ever before. Overall I think it's an
improvement that really does change how battles are fought in "Tekken". Normally in these games,
defensive play is king at higher skill levels,
but with heat mode, it's guaranteed damage even while blocking so it encourages much
more aggressive play. There's other ways the game
rewards aggressiveness as well, like that new scratch
damage mechanic I mentioned a second ago. Now in "Tekken 8", you accumulate damage that can actually be recovered but only by attacking your opponent or forcing them to block. Depending on the situation, this can lead to a huge turnaround, like you could be practically dead and have half your health restored. It's just one more way "Tekken
8" revolutionizes the series and I really like this because
it's dependent on skill. If you have a bad moment but you're really skilled at
this game, you can recover and I have a feeling it's going to cause some really
insane intense matches. Like if I'm honest, I'm really excited to see professionals get acquainted with and play this game professionally. They've created some stuff that could legitimately be totally nuts. Also, rage arts are still here, but they're more bombastic
somehow than in "Tekken 7". Ever wanted to see a bear
whip out a robot rocket fish to blow up their opponent? I don't know why you would because I don't think that
you've ever thought of that, but it's something that they
have thought of and it is here. Overall combat is super fast, it's hard hitting, and it's fun as hell. I can't speak to how
balanced everything is 'cause I'm not really a "Tekken" expert. I kind of suck at it, I love playing it. I can tell the difference
between a lot of what's going on and I love watching
professionals at this game 'cause it's one of those
series that kind of gives a lot of ground to people who
are really skilled at it. But these changes and
improvements, they're stuff that I am having a very good time with. Even if you're a crappy
player, it's still fun to just get in the game and press buttons and you eventually will figure
out like some actual things. It's a little more intuitive
than I think maybe it sounds, but it is also infinitely complex. Now in terms of visuals, this is the best the series
has ever looked, period. The environments and characters, they all look completely phenomenal. It is an incredible looking game. It has lightning fast load
times between each match. Customization menu on the other hand, maybe a little bit annoying
in terms of load times and I'm not sure why this load's slow while matches load fast, it's whatever. I don't know, it's
annoying I will say that. There is a delay whenever
want to view an item on a character. It does get old fast. I don't know why it's so
stuttery in this mode, but everything else loads in an instant and in a fighting game that matters. In terms of offline content, there is so much stuff to keep you busy. The cinematic story mode here, huge improvement over the weird slideshow that we got in "Tekken 7". The Dark Awakens is like a full
blown "Mortal Kombat" style cinematic story that goes
hard right from the start. If you're not deep into the
world of "Tekken" you'll be kind of baffled as to what's going on, but it's a hell of a spectacle. It's also kind of short and if that was it for offline modes, I'd be kind of disappointed. But as far as fighting game
story modes goes, it does a lot of cool stuff like seamlessly inserting cinematics into the fights. The presentation alone
puts it over the top tier of fighting game story
modes, the actual story, totally ridiculous, but
in the goofy "Tekken" way where everything's over
the top all the time, pure excess, lots of fun. I mean it's fighting game story mode. It's one of the last vestiges of this extremely goofy weird crap that's really fun in video
games and it's all here. Along with the main story, there's also character
episodes, which is kind of classic arcade mode, five fights, special intro ending for each character. It's where those classic
goofy "Tekken" CGI endings are and this game does not
disappoint on that front. Some of the endings here
are absolutely bizarre. Like look at Puma's ending, what the hell? What is happening? But to be fair, they're
not all as insane as that, but some are pretty damn
goofy and lighthearted. They're not essential or anything. But as somebody who's always
loved the bizarre effort they put into "Tekken"
arcade endings in the past, I am happy they're here. Again, last message of that kind of weird video gamey story nonsense. I do wish we saw more of that more often. Not for everything, of course
there is a limit to how much of that you can get before
it stops being enjoyable. Like if every game was like
that, it wouldn't be enjoyable, but I'm happy "Tekken 8" is like that. The last major offline
mode here is Arcade Quest, which is kind of a simplified version of "Street Fighter 6" arcade mode. You create an avatar, you explore virtual arcades. The whole mode is kind
of an extended tutorial, but in the best possible way. I love how the mode shows you
recommended moves and fights after teaching you about
a new game mechanic. That's great. Playing through arcade mode like makes me understand "Tekken" in a way I haven't previously, which I mean we're a ways
into the series at this point, so it's nice to feel like I
got something new out of it. Like this does a really good job of introducing you to the mechanics. It's a fun thing to screw around in. It's not as long or as
in depth as "World Tour", but as a more elaborate
version of the ghost battle or treasure mode from
previous "Tekken 8" games., it's fantastic. The avatars themselves have
a little too much Xbox Live avatar look to 'em for my liking, but they serve their purpose. It's a little jarring,
these little cartoon guys running around in a "Tekken" game, but the actual game mode's super fun. So I don't care a whole lot. The last major offline
mode is Super Ghost Battle, which involves one of "Tekken
8" coolest new features, ghost opponents. These guys are created from
actual player data so they tend to fight like a real
player at least compared to another AI. In Super Ghost Battle, you train a fighter
based on your own inputs and then face them, which is a fun and intuitive way to
find your own weaknesses. It's just one of the many ways "Tekken 8" gives you the tools to get better. Along with some great
practice mode options, "Tekken 8" has some really
cool replay functions. On top of being able to
watch back your matches, you can also jump into the game
at any point and experiment to see how to respond to certain moves. The game even offers up tips to better help you understand
what you're doing wrong or understand how you should respond to certain types of pressure. As a practice tool, it's one of the best I've
ever seen in a fighting game. I did say to put a pin in
the online kind of stuff in terms of how well it's working. I haven't gotten a chance to mess around with the online options as
much as I'd like to mostly 'cause it's kind of a mess right now. On PlayStation Five, I experienced
multiple crashes trying to play online and
apparently the PC version also has similar issues. While the "Tekken" Fight
Lounge is a fun way to find other players to
mess around between matches and overall the online
options seem a lot better than they did in "Tekken
7", it doesn't really matter if you can't get into a match. Hopefully things improve
in the next couple of days. I have a feeling they will. I'm sure somebody's getting
chewed out maybe unjustly because as you know, oftentimes games are put
out without enough time to finish the things
that need to be finished and the developers who put
the actual work in get blamed for stuff when it's actually executives that have given them
certain time allotments, knowing that you can fix
things after launch now and that's the thing they're going to do for the next month or two. Post-launch crunch, ha, that being said, I don't feel right making any kind of real judgment about online. It was too broken to do
enough to really know what it's about, which is
kind of an unfortunate note to end on because I really enjoyed
the time I've spent with "Tekken 8". The new mechanics made
this the most aggressive and flashy "Tekken" game yet. The new characters are great, the new modes are a lot of fun. The customization options
actually are pretty decent this time around. And finally, shirts aren't
three inches thick anymore. They kind of look like shirts, look, clothing looks like clothing instead of like burlap bags that have
been adapted to clothing. It's a nice touch. I wish I had more to say about the online, I just was not able to do much with it. "Tekken 7", their online issues
ended up hurting the game in the long run. So I do hope they
managed to get this fixed 'cause there's tons of potential here. Like all the options are really good. But in terms of the online stuff, it doesn't really matter if
you can't actually play it. So if you're primarily
interested in getting online with this game, probably hold off. Wait 'til things improve because on the first day
the online is practically, it's unplayable, it's
just gonna frustrate you and it's not worth the time or energy. In terms of offline options
though, there's so much to sink your teeth into and once you do take that bite man, oh man, does it taste good. "Tekken 8" is an easy
recommendation for me, for anyone who's curious at
all about fighting games. But if you want to go
online, wait a few days, see what people are saying. I hope it improves 'cause it's kind of what keeps fighting games alive and I really do want "Tekken 8" to last for a really long
time, it's fantastic. And that's all for today. Leave us a comment, let
us know what you think. If you like this video, click like, if you're not subscribed,
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right here on Gameranx.
