Tekken 8 preview (PS5): The King of the Iron Fist is off to a strong start

Tekken 8 was available to play on PlayStation 5 this past weekend. A select group of players was invited to participate in the King of the Iron Fist tournament. Those lucky few only had access to Ranked Battles, the tutorials, and brief access to the practice mode - while you waited on a match with a real person. Thankfully, I was one of those players diving into matches online.

However, I’m not someone who plays a lot of Tekken, despite being a huge fan of fighting games. Though I didn’t win all of my matches, I managed to scrape by a few times. Since Tekken as a franchise doesn’t change often, fans could easily jump in and play Tekken 8. But how does it perform in general?

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How is the gameplay in Tekken 8?

The most important thing in Tekken 8 is the gameplay. Sure, it looks pretty, but how is the actual moment-to-moment combat? In a word - incredible. Again, I’m not a major Tekken player, but I do dabble in such fighting games.

I found that the characters I played in this iteration of the game handled similarly to how I used them in 7. Some inputs even felt easier - Asuka Kazama, for example.

It’s an easy game to understand - four buttons, two punches, two kicks. You also have a button for your Heat and Rage activation.

Perhaps the best way Tekken 8’s gameplay can be described was by my manager at Sportskeeda - Tekken’s a rhythm game. If you can keep a good rhythm, the combos and inputs are quite easy.

During this preview session, there wasn’t much in the way of determining your skill other than fighting against an NPC. It would then give you some Tekken Prowess Points and start throwing you into matches.

Every single Tekken 8 battle I took part in was at least 20,000 points higher than me - some significantly more than that. That isn’t a big deal or point of contention, though. The only way to improve in a fighting game is to play people with higher skill sets. Getting perfected is a miserable experience, nevertheless.

The gameplay felt smooth and sharp. I experienced a solitary moment of slowdown, and that’s with most of my opponents being in Europe. The netcode felt terrific, and no matter how far away my opponents were, I didn’t lag.

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Let’s talk about Special Style

I feel like we need to talk about Special Style because a lot is being said about it right now. For those who haven’t seen it, this system allows players of all difficulty levels to gain access to a set of slightly more complicated moves.

For example, it lets you perform signature moves and an air juggle combo. Now, Tekken 8’s combos and actions aren’t complicated to perform. However, you may have problems with them or, in a pinch, want to drop a quick combo.

You can turn Special Style on and off at will. Some people may compare it to Modern Controls in Street Fighter 6, but I don’t think that’s fair. They’re both restrictive, but you get maybe four or five things to do in Special Style.

SF6 allows players to perform a wide array of moves and sets up easy combos. They’re both excellent for new and intermediate players, but Modern offers more. You must also commit to Modern, whereas you can turn off Special Style. Nevertheless, it’s not going to ruin Tekken 8.

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Tekken 8 looks gorgeous in Unreal Engine 5

The long and short of Tekken 8 is that it’s a beautiful game. None of the assets of Tekken 7 were re-used. Everything was built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5, and it shows. The game is truly impressive, from the visuals to the sound effects.

There are some minor things that I think are silly - Paul’s hairstyle among them. You can see how some of the characters have grown older or tried on new styles. The backdrops for these battles are beautiful, to boot. It’s doing a great deal to stand out from the rest of the current fighting games on offer.

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In Conclusion

So far, Tekken 8 has been a fantastic experience. We’ll be back with more coverage next week when it comes to PC as well. While I’m still fairly mediocre at the game, it felt like I could easily get back in and start practicing again.

Sadly, there’s no release date for Tekken 8, but it already feels great. It’s smooth, and the netcode is definitely in a good place. I cannot wait to get my hands on a more fleshed-out build of the game to see what else Bandai Namco offers its fans.