Want to know more about the Tekken 8 release date? One of the biggest fighting games in the world, Tekken 7 was the most impressive game in the series to date, so it’s no surprise that fans are excited to see what the developers have in store for the next entry.
During September’s Sony State of Play, Tekken fans were pleasantly surprised with the shock reveal that Tekken 8 was in development, with a trailer premiering showcasing gameplay in the new game engine. Now the game is confirmed to be in development, here’s everything we know about the Tekken 8 release date, trailers, gameplay, story, and more so far.
Tekken 8 release date speculation
At the time of writing, there is no confirmed Tekken 8 release date. With the new trailer bringing a lot of excitement among the Tekken community, it looks like we’ll be waiting awhile for new on the release date, with the trailer simply saying ‘Stay Tuned’ in place of even a release window.
Series creator Katsuhiro Harada confirmed that the game is being built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5, with no Tekken 7 assets being reused, so it’s unlikely that the game will be hitting stores anytime soon, with most expectations being a late-2023 release at earliest, or a more realistic 2024 release.
Tekken 8 trailer
The lone Tekken 8 trailer right now features the series’ two lead characters, Jin Kazama and his father Kazuya Mishima, clashing in the middle of a barren, stormy wasteland. The two trade blows back and forth before Jin lands a finishing blow on Kazuya using the power that his devil gene provides him.
One exciting feature of the trailer is the disclaimer at the start of the trailer seems to suggest that the footage is real-time, in-engine footage, which if true, means that we can expect the final game to have similarly stunning graphics.
Tekken 8 story
While the trailer doesn’t give too much away story-wise, it does confirm that the story will centre around Jin and his companions as they plan to take down Kazuya one and for all.
Tekken 7 finished with Kazuya seemingly killing his father Heihachi and continuing the now years-long world war between the G Corporation and Mishima Zaibatsu. Meanwhile Jin recovers from a coma to begin planning how to bring down Kazuya.
Much of the more recent entries in the series have focused on the devil gene, a genetic power possessed by both Jin and Kazuya, allowing them to transform into more powerful devil forms. While Kazuya has already learned to control his devil gene, Jin hasn’t yet and is prone to being taken over by his devil form.
However, the ending of the trailer seems to suggest that Jin has now also learned to control the devil gene, so it will be interesting to see how this affects his story, as well as the presence of Devil Jin as a separate character.
Tekken 8 gameplay
As previously mentioned, series creator Katsuhiro Harada has confirmed that the game is being created from the ground up, while the trailer doesn’t give much away with regards to features, meaning we can’t guarantee much.
While the graphics in the trailer appear to be a massive upgrade on those of Tekken 7, the gameplay itself looks largely similar. Characters tend to retain the vast majority of their gameplay between titles, and we can probably expect the same to be true in Tekken 8.
One major addition in Tekken 7 was the Rage Art and Rage Drive systems which were a core part of the game’s meta, and the trailer ends with Jin using a move which bears many similarities with his Tekken 7 Rage Art, although the feature itself hasn’t been confirmed.
Tekken 8 roster
Unsurprisingly, the Tekken 8 roster is highly anticipated, and while we don’t know much for sure, there’s a lot of characters that are likely to return.
Naturally, Jin and Kazuya are all but confirmed after featuring in the trailer, but other characters with large roles in the story can be expected to make a return too, like Lars Alexandersson, Lee Chaolan, Alisa Bosconovitch.
Meanwhile, fan favourites such as Paul Phoenix, Yoshimitsu, and King are solid bets to return given their popularity and standing within the series, while we can probably expect Tekken 8 to feature DLC characters like Tekken 7 did, giving less popular characters the chance to return too.
The big question is whether Heihachi will return, given his apparent demise in Tekken 7, but it wouldn’t be the first time a character has survived being thrown into a volcano. Given its potential for a big plot twist, it’s unlikely that we’ll find out Heihachi’s fate before the full release.
The future of guest characters like Street Fighter’s Akuma and King of Fighters’ Geese Howard is also up in the air, with speculation that the licences for these characters not being renewed appears to point to them not returning.
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