by theygamesWant to know more about the Tekken 8 release date? One of the biggest fighting games in the world, Tekken 7 was the most impressive game in the series to date, so it’s no surprise that fans are excited to see what the developers have in store for the next entry.
One of the most highly anticipated fighting games got its big reveal during September’s Sony State of Play, pleasantly surprising Tekken fans with the shock reveal that Tekken 8 was in development, with a trailer premiering showcasing gameplay in the new game engine. Now we know the game exists, here’s everything we know about the Tekken 8 release date, trailers, gameplay, story, and more so far.
Tekken 8 release date speculation
At the time of writing, there is no confirmed Tekken 8 release date. During The Game Awards, a new trailer was broadcast, revealing a bunch of story beats and hinting at some of the returning characters. However, it looks like we’ll be waiting a while for news on the release date.
Series creator Katsuhiro Harada confirmed that the game is being built from scratch in Unreal Engine 5, with no Tekken 7 assets being reused, so it’s unlikely that the game will be hitting stores anytime soon, with most expectations being a late-2023 release at the earliest or a more realistic 2024 release.
Tekken 8 characters speculation
Since the debut of The Game Awards 2022 trailer, we can begin to speculate about the Tekken 8 roster. Here are the fighters we reckon will be playable upon the game’s release:
- Jin Kazama
- Kazuya Mishima
- Paul Phoenix
- Marshall Law
- Jack-8
- King
- Lars Alexandersson
- Jun Kazama
Tekken 8 trailer
The first Tekken 8 trailer features the series’ two lead characters, Jin Kazama and his father, Kazuya Mishima, clashing in the middle of a barren, stormy wasteland. The two trade blows back and forth before Jin lands a finishing blow on Kazuya using the power that his devil gene provides him.
One exciting feature of the trailer is the disclaimer at the start of the trailer seems to suggest that the footage is real-time, in-engine footage, which if true, means that we can expect the final game to have similarly stunning graphics.
Tekken 8 story
While the trailer doesn’t give too much away story-wise, it does confirm that the story will centre around Jin and his companions as they plan to take down Kazuya one and for all. We also see the canonical return of Jun Kazama, Jin’s mother, for the first time in the series since Tekken 2.
Tekken 7 finished with Kazuya seemingly killing his father Heihachi and continuing the now years-long world war between the G Corporation and Mishima Zaibatsu. Meanwhile, Jin recovers from a coma to plan to bring down Kazuya.
Much of the more recent entries in the series have focused on the devil gene, a genetic power possessed by both Jin and Kazuya, allowing them to transform into more powerful devil forms. While Kazuya has already learned to control his devil gene, Jin hasn’t yet and is prone to being taken over by his devil form.
However, the ending of the trailer seems to suggest that Jin has now also learned to control the devil gene, so it will be interesting to see how this affects his story, as well as the presence of Devil Jin as a separate character.
Tekken 8 gameplay
As previously mentioned, series creator Katsuhiro Harada has confirmed that the game is being created from the ground up, while the trailer doesn’t give much away with regards to features, meaning we can’t guarantee much.
While the graphics in the trailer appear to be a massive upgrade on those of Tekken 7, the gameplay itself looks largely similar. Characters tend to retain the vast majority of their gameplay between titles, and we can probably expect the same to be true in Tekken 8.
One major addition in Tekken 7 was the Rage Art and Rage Drive systems which were a core part of the game’s meta, and the trailer ends with Jin using a move which bears many similarities with his Tekken 7 Rage Art, although the feature itself hasn’t been confirmed.
Tekken 8 roster
Unsurprisingly, the Tekken 8 roster is highly anticipated, and while we don’t know much for sure, there are a lot of characters that are likely to return.
Naturally, Jin and Kazuya are all but confirmed after featuring in the trailer, but other characters with large roles in the story can be expected to make a return too, like Lars Alexandersson, Lee Chaolan, Alisa Bosconovitch.
Meanwhile, fan favourites such as Paul Phoenix, Yoshimitsu, and King are solid bets to return given their popularity and standing within the series, while we can probably expect Tekken 8 to feature DLC characters like Tekken 7 did, giving less popular characters the chance to return too.
The big question is whether Heihachi will return, given his apparent demise in Tekken 7, but it wouldn’t be the first time a character has survived being thrown into a volcano. Given its potential for a big plot twist, we’ll unlikely find out Heihachi’s fate before the full release.
The future of guest characters like Street Fighter’s Akuma and King of Fighters’ Geese Howard is also up in the air, with speculation that the licences for these characters not being renewed appears to point to them not returning.
Fancy playing something new with some pals? Our list of the best multiplayer games has what you’re looking for. Don’t forget to give our list of the best fighting games on PC a read if you want to play something before Tekken 8 launches.