Tekken 8 has finally started to demonstrate what its roster will be capable of doing once the game launches. The latest announcement about this next entry in the fighting game series was a trailer that brings back Nina Williams. This announcement was revealed during today’s Tekken World Tour 2022 Finals, which also has a 35-minute trailer that explained the game’s mechanics.
Let’s start the preamble with the news everyone will want to hear. How does Tekken 8 play and what are the new mechanics that the game will have? Here’s Katsuiro Harada and Kohei Ikeda to explain them in extensive detail:
The Rage System and Rage Arts mechanics come back as beautiful looking as ever. However, Rage Arts are now a common command, unlike before when each character needed to press a different combination of buttons. Additionally, we saw that Tekken 8 will reintroduce the Recoverable Gauge, with the key difference being that players regain their strength by hitting opponents.
The core mechanic of Tekken 8 revolves around the Heat System, which brings the game’s new aggression philosophy to a new level. You can enter into a Heat state in which the character can become enhanced for a short period, allowing you to deal more damage at the press of a button or by hitting the opponent with a character’s Heat Engager move.
The Heat System will allow players to access special actions and inflict chip damage while also allowing characters to be enhanced. This mechanic allows you to be more aggressive while being able to do special cancels or perform highly damaging attacks during combos. The enhancements are based on the character’s specialty, so engaging in Heat will depend on how you play them.
But what better way to demonstrate the newly showcased Heat system than with a new character that shows it in action? This is where the second trailer comes in, bringing back Nina Williams:
Nina returns to Tekken 8 with a set of pistols as part of her moveset. She can use them to either extend her combos or even to finish them. She also has access to various Heat Engager attacks that can be introduced into her combos as enders, allowing you to enter the Heat state easily. You’ll be able to notice Nina entering her own Heat state as she becomes surrounded by a blue and flamey aura.
And, as is to be expected, the trailer ends with a showcase of Nina’s Rage Art, which shows her blowing up her opponent in spectacular fashion. Tekken 8 will be slated to launch sometime in the future on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Pre-order information and DLC information are currently unavailable at this time.
