The Tekken 8 Network Test As Told By Harada
Tekken 8 had its first beta released to the public over the weekend and plenty of folks got a chance to get their hands on the new game. The Closed Network Test was a special, invite-only, event made to examine the online capabilities of the game. Fans are very excited from what they’ve seen and much of the series’ success is attributed to Tekken’s long-time director, Katsuhiro Harada, who’s very vocal in the FGC space online. So here’s a look at what Harada had to say about the network test and how it was received by the public.
Chances To The Battle System Are Guaranteed
Tekken is one of the most beloved legacy fighting game franchises around. Its quick and flashy gameplay lead it to overtaking its predecessor, Virtua Fighter, as the top 3D fighter around. But some of that flash can lead to some frustrating experiences, especially for new players. Harada himself believes that the new “Heat” system isn’t quite working as intended.
He says that some of the combos in Tekken 8 are too long and damaging. Also that some of the chip damage, or damage you take even when blocking, is also too high. This leads to strings where a round could end after 2-3 combos, which is much too fast in Harada’s eyes.
Tekken Favorites Will Come Before Guest Characters
Also confirmed by Harada was some of the calculus behind which characters will make it into Tekken 8. In Tekken 7, Bandai Namco made waves nearly every year by including some of the most off-the-wall guest characters in all of fighting games. Some came from other fighting franchises like Akuma (Street Fighter) and Geese Howard (King of Fighters/Fatal Fury). Others came from other game franchises like Noctis (Final Fantasy XV) and some weren’t even from video games at all like Negan (The Walking Dead).
When asked on Twitter about the number of guest characters coming to T8, he said that their focus is on fighters that have already appeared in the series. However, he didn’t confirm if there would or wouldn’t be new original characters. Finally, Harada did say that Tekken 8 will have more fighters to choose from at launch than the average game.
Most of the Testers Were In Europe
One hiccup that did occur with the network test was the long wait times to match with players. Harada tried his best to explain this saying that most of the players in the beta were in the European region. This meant that prime time for that area was often too late for Japan and too early for the US. This made finding matches especially difficult for players on the American west coast, as 8 pm Pacific time is nearly 5 am in Paris or Berlin. Also, the director did reveal the number of total participants for the CNT. He said only about 40k people were allowed on the PS5-only event. A test that includes Xbox and Steam is scheduled for July 28th.
