Tekken 8 Q&A with Game Director Kohei Ikeda – Tekken Ball Online Confirmed

wccftech.com:

At the tail end of a historic six months for fighting game fans, after the releases of Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1, Bandai Namco is about to respond with Tekken 8. In a recent press tour, we checked out a near-final build of the game and also joined a press roundtable Q&A with Game Director Kohei Ikeda to ask for clarifications on various content and features.

As a reminder, Tekken 8 is set to launch on January 26, 2024 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.

WCCFTECH: You are finally showing The Dark Awakens. Will that story mode solely be focused on playing as Jin?

Yeah. The focal point of the story is going to be Jin Kazama. That said, while progressing through the story, different characters appear at different places and you can control them instead. And there's other ways to play through the story, too. I would add that Tekken was kind of known in the past that you would clear through a series of arcade opponents and then you'd get the CGI movies. There is something similar here for each of the 32 characters in the character episodes, so that's another way to learn the story.

Another aspect of the story mode this time is the King of Iron Fist Tournament has always been a backdrop for the story, but this is the first time it's actually been brought to the forefront, and you're actually seen participating in the tournament, so that's kind of interesting the way that that's portrayed. It's just little ways like that that we enhance the story experience.

I had a question regarding the Heat mechanics and the choices that went into implementing the new Heat system into the game because it all feels a lot faster overall. I feel like there are tendencies in contemporary online multiplayer to go for