Finally, after many years of waiting, Tekken 8 has been released! From the trailers and the amazing demo by Bandai, the game seemed quite promising. And it truly is!

POSITIVES:

1) The first thing that impressed me was the visual aspect. INCREDIBLE DETAIL! The chaos and the fighting thanks to the Unreal Engine 5 are indescribable! The characters are better designed! Their movements, expressions, and transformations are one of the great positives of the game! Additionally, I cannot overlook the stages. The colors, and the overall color palette they used, created an addictive and impressive result!

2) The roster. The game brings back our beloved characters and more! The new characters (e.g. Reina, Victor) are well-made and fit perfectly into the Tekken universe. Each character has their own story that one can follow by engaging in specific battles! Of course, I prefer the old philosophy of Tekken (fight 10 rounds to see the story), but I have to give credit to the work they have done. We have 32 characters, and gradually this number will increase (I will talk about this later).

3) The game's story is better written compared to the slow and boring story of Tekken 7. More action, chaos, and fighting that will create exciting moments for the player. Of course, the duration is not long (barely 4 hours), but we are dealing with a fighting game. You can't stretch it and create a 10-15 hour storyline when the only gameplay mechanism is the classic battles. They have learned from their mistakes, and I am very satisfied.

* Tekken, no matter what, has a storyline taken from imagination. Families are killed and settle their differences through TOURNAMENTS. Here, one speaks Japanese and the other English. The funny thing is that there is communication. It's silly, but in a good way. It does it so well, without making you care about the why. xD

4) The biggest addition of Tekken 8 (personally for me), the Arcade Quest. A virtual world where you can create your own Avatar and face other players. You increase your Rank, learn how the game works, and make it EASIER and more ACCESSIBLE for new players who want to get into fighting games. It also has a story that is relatively good. I don't think anyone would be interested because it doesn't offer anything extraordinary. Finally, it also features Ghost Battle. An AI that copies and learns from you, trying to improve itself while you improve yourself. Essentially, it's like fighting against your own self. A perfect simulation that will make newcomers and veterans become better players! It has a huge (positive) influence from Street Fighter 6.

5) And since I mentioned ease. As a player, I can say that I am Average. I know a few combos, but I can't glitch the character and perform moves that would take away 50-70% of their health. Tekken 8 wants to bring in new players. Does it do it right? Yes! It has added buttons that execute combos with greater ease, and the best part is that there are guides that won't make the gamer struggle to learn how to play!

6) Regarding gameplay! The game maintains the core that it has built over all these years, evolving it with new additions! One of these additions is the heat system. You activate it either with 1 button or with specific moves that each character has, and immediately you can replenish your health (if you have lost) and become more aggressive towards the opponent so that they don't catch their breath and you continue to beat them until you defeat them! In addition, you can execute more combos than before! Furthermore, I cannot fail to mention the ability to save your battles. That is, when you fight someone online, the game (if you want) can save the battle for you to watch it again through replays. You can take control in real time, and choose a different approach to see what the opponent's weaknesses are or what mistakes you made and lost.

7) Classic and beautiful Costumization that allows you to create characters as you wish!

8) Amazing Soundtrack! Superior to 7, with nicer melodies and intensity!

9) Simple classic online! The game tries to understand where you belong (in terms of difficulty) and puts you with players who are at the same level as you. Don't want to play online? Then invite your friends to spend countless hours in 1v1!

NEGATIVES:

1) This comment does not only concern Tekken but also its competitors. I am an old school player. I played many hours until I managed to unlock all the characters. This era seems to be over because we now live in a period where digital purchases are everything for creators to make extra profit. In our case. Is it possible to be charged 60-80 euros and the game to be incomplete? What I mean is. Remember what I wrote about only 32 characters? Tekken 7 had 36 characters (we have a decrease) and after the addition of DLCs the game reached 51 characters. They are trying to do exactly the same thing. They will charge us with Microtransactions for new characters (which may be old from previous games in the series), and we will pay more money. Let's not forget that they will add new tracks, new avatars, costumes which will also require payment.

2) For some reason, I feel that Costumization is poorer. It's not bad, but it doesn't have the great variety. Of course, we are still at the beginning, they may add many things with updates.

3) Just like in 7, in 8 there is a lack of offline mini games. Yes, they added some goodies, which are quite fun, but it's not enough. Those of you who have played the previous games in the series understand!

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion. Is it worth for a simple gamer to spend 60-80 euros on a fighting game? Personal opinion, NO. There are too many for this genre. Especially when the game will continue to be enriched with things that require extra money from the consumer. What do I suggest? Wait for the price to drop! At 30-45 euros, it's a very good deal. If you are not interested in buying now, you can wait for the complete edition to be released (as was done with Tekken 7) which will have all the DLC characters at a very good price! Let's not forget that fighting games do not have specific hours to complete them. The number of hours the game takes depends on the gamer (one person may say they finished it in 50 hours, having engaged with all the modes, while another may have stopped at 200 hours because they played a specific genre more, such as Offline Arcade or Online).

For the hardcore players, of course, the purchase is worth it. The game will not disappoint you! It is a Tekken that we have been eagerly awaiting! For me, it has not surpassed the greatness of Tekken 5 (nor Tekken 3, of course)! This does not mean it is not good! IT IS A VERY GOOD CONTINUATION FOR THE SERIES!