Tekken 8is finally upon us, giving many newcomers to the genre a chance to jump on board and giving veterans new things to grind their teeth on. While fighting games have been on fire recently, nothing like Tekken has been released in quite some time, making the jump from a more traditional 2D Fighter a bit more daunting for beginners.
Fortunately, Tekken 8 offers many ways for players to familiarize themselves with its systems and mechanics, making it an excellent jumping-on point. It also helps that it has a robust roster of 32 characters, almost guaranteeing you will find one that fits your playstyle and vibes!
Choose The Character That Interests You Most
With an eclectic roster of32 fighters,there are many characters to choose from when booting Tekken 8 up for the first time, which may be daunting for newcomers. The good news, however, is thatyou will most likely gravitate toward a few of them.
While you will undoubtedly see some character’s names getting tossed around as ‘the best in the game’ or the go-to ‘meta’ options, you shouldalways choose the one that speaks to you the most,as you will have themost fun learning and mastering themrather than forcing yourself to learn a character you have zero interest in for no other reason that ‘they’re the best.’
This isn’t exclusive to Tekken, either, and should be applied to every other fighting game. There will undoubtedly be stronger characters than the one you like, butall characters are strong and can be deadly in the right hands!
Arcade Quest Will Show You The Way
Once you have chosen your character, we strongly urge newcomers to dive straight into the newArcade Questmode, as it does anexceptional job of teaching you the basics and gradually introducing more challenging enemiesthat will test your skills.
Arcade Quest isone of the best on-boarding modesin a fighting game, being overshadowed only by Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode. However, it is stillexcellent at explaining the systems and mechanicsto you in a way that feels organic and easy to understand.
Upon completing Arcade Quest,we strongly urge you tocheck the game’s Main Story mode out, then move on to the Character Stories,as they will allow you to hone your skills, play new characters, and familiarize yourself further with the systems and mechanics of the game!
Arcade Quest has seven different areas, each getting progressively more challenging as you advance. If you are a newcomer to Tekken, this mode also has tremendous tool tips and challenges for you to take advantage of that will gradually ease you into the game’s many combat systems and mechanics at play!
Don’t Be Afraid To Use Special Style
Special Styleis a control method that can betoggled on or off mid-match,enabling you toexecute flashy combos and Special Attacks by pressing a single button.While this may seem controversial, it can be of tremendous use to newcomers in various ways.
For example, if youperform a combo with the Special Stylecontrol method, you will see whichmoves link into one anotherand which of yourattacks is best used as a combo starter.you’re able to thenuse that information to experiment with your own combos or try replicating the combowith manual inputs.
Furthermore, Special Style is also anexcellent way to just press buttons and see cool things happen.And… that’s perfectly fine, too. There’s no reason to force yourself not to have fun because a few grumpy people on the internet are mad at someone ‘spamming Special Style.’
Fight Your Ghost To Learn Your Weaknesses
Amongst Tekken 8’s many new systems, mechanics, and modes, one of the more impressive is the newSuper Ghost Battles,allowing you tofight against AI Ghosts uploaded by other players or even your own Ghost.
TheseAI Ghosts learn as you battle them,punishing you for using the same move over and over while also abusing your weaknesses, forcing you to come up with different strategies to emerge victorious, making it an excellent way to master your favorite characters.
Relying too heavily on the same combostarter? After a while,the AI Ghost won’t let that fly and will punish you accordingly,making you dive deep into your move list to find a suitable response. Is theAI Ghost hitting you with the same attack repeatedly?Expect them to keep it up until youlearn how to handle it properly.
AI Ghost Battles are anexceptional way to learn the game without the stress of diving into an online matchand getting de-ranked or absolutely bodied. If you want to take your play to the next level, we cannot recommend throwing it down with your own Ghost or someone else’s for hours on end!
Train To Hone Your Skills
Next up is the game’sTraining Mode(AKA Practice),which has all sorts of goodies that allow you to hone your skills andlearn flashy, high-damaging combos.Within this mode, you can also accessCombo Challenges,which will provide you witheach character’s basic combo routes,giving you a base understanding of their capabilities.
Now,this doesn’t mean you should obsess over the nitty-gritty thingssuch as Frame Data or anything of the sort at first, as that is for more advanced players. But jumping into the Training Mode andlearning how to respond to specific attacks or follow up after landing certain attacks of your own can go a long way.
Outside of the Combo Challenges, you will also have access toPunishment Trainingwithin the mode, allowing you tolearn how to counter and effectively readand- well -punish specific movesfrom each character. Typically their strongest and most spammable. This is an excellent way tolearn how to deal with many attacks without diving into Frame Data!
Losing Is Learning, And Losing Is Okay
Lastly, we have some advice for playerslooking to jump online and throw down with other players,as that is likely where most players will graduate after exhausting all the offline-focused modes.Whether you’re playing Ranked or Quick Matches,we urge younot to take losing to heart and learn from each fight,as that’s where the genuine fun lies in fighting games.
If youcan go into each match with a goal and execute it or gain more insightinto why it is or isn’t working,you will have an absolute blastwhether you come out the other side victorious.
Want to land that flashy new combo you’ve been practicing in Training Mode in an actual match?Make it your top priority, and try tofind ways to execute it during your next few matches.Keepgetting bodied by low-attacks?Focus onblocking and countering them your next time out.
Achieving these small victories within the match can go a very long way.Not only will they make you a much better player in the long run, but they will also make losing not feel as bad, as you will always be learning and improving in each matchup, which is the key to the genre!
