Surprising absolutely no one, Bandai Namco’s upcoming Tekken 8 will see the return of longtime antagonist Kazuya Mishima. More in line with his depictions from Tekken 5 onward, this iteration of Kazuya will put a strong emphasis on his Devil Gene abilities. While you still won’t have a full Devil Form transformation, it’s cool to see him keeping up with his son, Jin.
What’s truly impressive about this trailer is the visuals on display. Tekken has always been on the cutting edge of graphical technology, but it was hard to visualize how much better something like Tekken 7 could look. I guess with the change to Unreal Engine 5, Bandai Namco has been able to push the visuals to even more absurd heights.
As far as Kazuya’s move set is concerned, there isn’t too much new in this trailer. Pretty much all of his normals and specials from Tekken 7 make an appearance in Tekken 8. This series has always been one of the more iterative fighting games, placing an emphasis on legacy skill over completely changing with each installment. That’s good, too, as it means you don’t need to relearn abilities when a new game gets released.
Tekken 8 is currently scheduled for release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S sometime in 2024. We’ll likely learn more at this year’s EVO tournament in the summer.
