It won’t be long before BANDAI NAMCO releases its latest addition to the TEKKEN franchise with TEKKEN 8. As one of the more highly anticipated installments in the series, the game promises more fiery battles than ever before. With an already stacked lineup of fighters announced over the past few months, the hype is definitely real for its impending release. Fortunately, I was able to have an opportunity to participate in the game’s Closed Network Test (CNT) this past weekend to try out what’s new!

Let’s just say that, even in its beta form, it’s already looking like the most promising upgrade after a long wait.

Bringing the Heat

During the CNT, I got to try out the much-elaborated-upon Heat System that will be coming to TEKKEN 8. In summary, the Heat System serves as a main combat feature that enhances your moveset’s power and pushes players to stay on the aggressive. It’s a way for the game to remain as action-packed and relatively fast-paced as possible, and truly favors players that simply can’t help themselves.

Each of the sixteen playable characters during the CNT has their own way of activating the Heat System, and is often paired with combos that bring a whole new level to the experience. Honestly, as someone who often plays TEKKEN with a controller, some of the combos took a while to figure out and master. The good thing about it so far is that once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to integrate into your designated moveset and elevates your mastery of the fighters, as well.

Also, the Heat System activation timeframe feels properly balanced to an extent. In my experience, when you’re not being as aggressive, it punishes you by speeding up the timer. However, when you do stay on the attack, it doesn’t feel like you’re in a state of Heat for too long — which would make fights incredibly one-sided. I’m already imagining more experienced and professional players finding ways to keep the Heat running!

Roster and moveset updates

Of course, it wouldn’t be a TEKKEN game if we don’t talk about the roster of fighters — at least, the ones available in the CNT. As mentioned earlier, you can choose between sixteen fighters that have already been announced prior, especially some new and returning faces to the mix. As with every TEKKEN game I have touched since TEKKEN 5, I picked Lili first as she is my main!

For most of the fighters, their fighting styles and movesets are a bit more refined compared to before. This was something I particularly observed when playing Jin, Kazuya, Paul, Lili, and Claudio. Also, with the Heat System in place, some of the more hard-hitting characters felt more satisfying to activate combos for. Even their Rage Arts felt more bone-crushing than before, especially with some of the animations.

Jun and Asuka Kazama, and yes they have identical fighting styles

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me during the CNT happened when I was playing Jun Kazama, the MOTHER herself! Given that her last appearance was all the way back in TEKKEN 2, there wasn’t really much to compare against. Although, what sets her apart from the others is the fact that some of her attacks either do self-healing or self-damage, which is a mechanic that will get a lot of players to learn her moveset later on.

Initial game redesign

Upon loading up TEKKEN 8, it already gave me some chills with Kazuya staring into your soul. From the get-go, the main menu only consisted of just Ranked Play and the Tutorial, which wasn’t much given the circumstances. However, my focus was honestly more on the Character Select Screen that I hope they maintain in the final version.

To be honest, it’s just like any character select screen you can imagine for most fighting games. This time around, TEKKEN 8 now shows you fighter stats and their specific fighting style — a first in the franchise! I feel like that’s really more for the diehard fans to appreciate. Also, something about one of the characters struck me the most but let’s not spoil it just yet!

Everything else about the design of the game and the stages, what else needs to be said? Even though there were only five stages, each of them looked incredible on my Xbox Series X. From the lighting to the different gimmicks per stage, it felt amazing to do battle on all of them!

Hopefully more to come

I am genuinely excited for what’s to come for TEKKEN 8 when it comes out. Coming from the CNT, it looked like the game was in a polished state with minimal bugs to report. Also, the Heat System served as a fine addition to the formula and made every fight worth commiting to. If anything, I wished that the queue times for Cross Platform Play in Ranked were a bit faster, though. Hopefully, with more people playing this game later on, that wouldn’t be a problem.

My other hope for the game later on is that they keep adding more fighters to the pool. Honestly, it would be better if some of them were not locked behind DLC to pay for unlike TEKKEN 7. At the top of my head, I’m looking forward to fighters like Anna Williams, Yoshimitsu, Kuma, and Alisa Bosconovitch, among others. Also, could we please bring Mokujin back?

As of now, there’s no official announcement yet on when the final version will be released. Hopefully, it will still be on track for an early 2024 launch time. But, so far, so good, TEKKEN 8 — the hype for you is indeed real!