Bandai Namco on Thursday brought Tekken 8, the next game in its flagship fighting game franchise, to The Game Awards, revealing that fighters Paul Phoenix, King, Law, Lars, Jack-8 and Jun Kazama will join Jin and Kazuya in join the sequel. A dramatic and destructive new trailer hints at the story ahead.
Tekken 8 will feature gameplay focused on “aggressive” tactics, Bandai Namco said in a press release, with “visceral screen-shattering attacks and environments that are both dynamic and destructible.” A new heat system gameplay mechanic triggers these aggressive attacks, which improve characters’ abilities and special moves.
The Tekken team first teased Tekken 8 at this year’s Evo Fighting Championship Series. In September, the game was officially unveiled in a trailer in which series mainstays Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima challenged it in classic Tekken fashion but with impressive high-fidelity.
Tekken 8 is coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
The previous game in the franchise, Tekken 7, was first released exclusively to arcades in 2015 and brought to consoles two years later. Bandai Namco supported its fighting game with four seasons filled with new characters and stages, culminating in March 2021 with the release of what appeared to be their final DLC character, Lidia Sobieska. The game was hugely successful: Tekken 7 sold more than 9 million copies Dating, according to series producer Katsuhiro Harada.