Why Tekken 8’s Guest Characters Are a Disappointment Compared to Tekken 7

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The video game Tekken 8 is marching into its second year with assurance, wrapping up its first DLC season and Tekken World Tour competitive series by the end of 2024. Although it will take some time for sales to reach the peak achieved by Tekken 7, the game’s progress is steady, as it consistently releases new content while managing fan feedback. The journey of Tekken 8 hasn’t been entirely smooth, with certain DLC items causing debate due to their pricing and release structure, and many players still pondering over the Heat System. However, the outlook for 2025 is promising.

At present, Tekken 8 seems content to wait and strategize as it doesn’t have any competition in the 3D fighting genre until the next Virtua Fighter is released, which might still be a year away. While Bandai Namco continues to work on the second DLC season and the following World Tour, they also have the opportunity to add more game modes and single-player content due to the additional story mode that was recently released. Despite the fast-paced nature of Tekken 8’s Heat-focused gameplay, there’s no sense of urgency, not even in areas that Tekken 7 addressed early on.

The State of Tekken 7 and 8’s Guest Fighters

2025 marks the commencement of Tekken 8, featuring a solitary guest character – Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy 16. He officially joined the T8 roster in December 2024, sparking surprise yet general approval among players who got a glimpse of him. Although Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7 garnered more vocal supporters, Clive continues the trend initiated by Noctis from Final Fantasy 15 joining Tekken 7. While Tifa’s inclusion hasn’t been confirmed yet, her supporters are hopeful that their requests will be acknowledged. Initially, it was uncertain whether guest characters would be included in the first DLC season of Tekken 8, so this confirmation was a welcomed addition to the game’s development.

Tekken 7 Grabbed Guests Unusually Quickly

In contrast to Tekken 7, the introduction of guests in Tekken 8 might as well be a completely new strategy if Clive had been saved for season 2. Guest characters were a significant aspect of Tekken 7 long before its console release, with Street Fighter’s Akuma being included in its Fated Retribution arcade update and later starring in T7’s story mode. The initial DLC for Tekken 7 was entirely dedicated to Fatal Fury’s Geese Howard and Final Fantasy 15’s Noctis Lucis Caelum. However, the second year and its DLC season took a more conservative approach with five returning characters, only to surprise fans in the end with The Walking Dead’s Negan.

Why Tekken 8 Is Handling Guests So Differently From Tekken 7

Tekken 7 and 8’s Priorities May Be Completely Different

It appears that Bandai Namco anticipated shock and curiosity, as four guest fighters in the initial two years of console Tekken 7 significantly contributed to its success. This strategy is even more noticeable in Tekken 8, where Clive was its first guest fighter at a time when Tekken 7 would have already had three. It’s widely expected that more guest characters will be added to Tekken 8 down the line, but it seems unusual for them to slow down the pace after the strategy proved so effective in T7.

It’s plausible that the DLC characters for Tekken 8’s first season, which includes Eddy Gordo, Lidia Sobieska, Heihachi Mishima, and potentially Clive, were carefully chosen to appeal to long-time Tekken fans or favorites. While it seems Clive may have been designed with the recent release of Final Fantasy 16 in mind, the rest of the characters might not have been tied to any specific timeline due to Tekken 7’s DLC having different priorities and showing that a strong guest character can boost sales at any time. Regardless of Bandai Namco’s reasoning, it appears that Tekken 8 aims to avoid repeating the same steps as Tekken 7, and we’ll have to wait and see if this strategy proves successful.

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2025-02-20 23:35