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Official Site: Bandai Namco

is a fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Arika. Bandai Namco Entertainment published the game for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on January 26, 2024. It is the eighth canon release and tenth overall entry in the Tekken series. The game story mode, titled The Dark Awakens, takes place six months after the events of its predecessor and focuses on the final confrontation between the main characters, father and son Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama, with the latter wishing to kill the former in order to end the chaos within their family lineage. The game's story features 32 former and new characters, each with their own narrative that contributes to the overall story.

Development of Tekken 8 was first teased in August 2022 at Evo 2022, with an official presentation made the following month at Sony's State of Play event. Focusing on more aggressive tones, Tekken 8 was developed using Unreal Engine 5, and it features upgraded fighting elements and systems from its predecessor. Tekken 8 also introduces brand-new mechanics, such as the "Heat" system and "Tornado" hits. Arcade Quest was another addition to their online mode, which includes tournaments, arcade features, customisable avatars, and specialised currency that is featured throughout the game.

Tekken 8 follows the same fighting game format as previous Tekken games. Katsuhiro Harada, the game's producer, stated that Tekken 8 will be "more aggressive" than its predecessor, indicating that the system will reward players who are proactive in attacking rather than those who are defensive. To achieve this, the game introduced a new system known as "Heat". When a character unlocks the "Heat" state, they cause not only chip damage and additional movesets, but also changes the properties of some of their moves, such as a heavy guard break. These fighters can also dash cancel their moves while in the "Heat" state. Heat's timer can be stopped if fighters' movesets are used. Fighters will also receive chip damage when guarding against a normal state's heavy attack or Heat State characters, allowing them to regenerate their health bars. Unlike the Tag mode-only health bar regeneration system from the Tekken Tag Tournament games, fighters' recoverable health can only be restored by attacking their opponent.

Tekken 8 includes a number of technical updates and reworked features. The "Rage" system, which debuted in the previous entry, returns in Tekken 8 with new changes. For example, the "Rage Drive" has been separated and reworked as "Heat Smash", a "Heat" system super move. The "Screw" mechanism was removed from Tekken 8 and replaced with a "Tornado" extender; the system places opponents in a ground-bound state when they fall to the ground quickly. Specific stages in the game also have hazards, such as some with harder walls and floors that must be broken multiple times by fighters' harder knockout attacks, while others will cause damaged opponents to blast upward when hit by an explosive on the walls and floors.

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