Tekken 8 is on course to introduce a mechanical change that no one saw coming as part of its massive Season 2 refresh.
During the latest Tekken Talk, in which the game's lead developers gather in order to showcase upcoming changes, it was revealed that throws will now deal chip damage if they're broken. The instant reaction from players has been... loud, to say the least.
So across the entire history of Tekken, throw breaks have been a core mechanic. Basically, if you get grabbed, there's short window where you can hit the relevant button(s) and get yourself out of trouble. Keen-eyed players are essentially rewarded for reading their opponent.
But in Tekken 8's Season 2, players will now be punished for correctly negating an incoming throw — and as longtime Tekken players ourselves, we're really struggling to see the benefits of such an adjustment.
Now, to be clear, the chip damage that the defending player takes is minimal — but that's obviously still more than nothing. To make matters worse, the development team had previously gone on record saying that Season 2 would generally introduce more defensive options in an attempt to counterbalance the title's overly aggressive gameplay flow... but now you're taking damage for breaking throws.
Core system changes like this have always been very few and far between throughout the franchise, which just makes the decision even more confusing. It's possible that the developer will walk this one back ahead of Season 2's launch on the 31st March, but as of right now, this is a fundamental change that players will need to deal with.
Season 2 is promising a gigantic list of changes, both systematic and character-specific. As such, there might be other adjustments that offset this new throw break dynamic — but given that the team didn't go into any additional detail during the Tekken Talk, that seems somewhat unlikely.
What do you make of this Tekken 8 adjustment? Should you really be punished for breaking a throw? Eat that chip damage in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com, via reddit.com]
Comments 19
I think this is the 1st time in fighting games where you're doing a correct throw tech and you as a defender will be punished with chip damage lmao.
But well, i don't play Tekken 8 so good luck to Tekken players cause this thing will be frustrating. Imagine doing throw tech against King over and over lol.
While in many fighting games blocking attacks (punches, kicks- non throws) deal some chip damage, in Tekken blocking blocks all damage. IIRC in 8 there are some heat attacks which deal chip damage- I stopped playing Tekken 8 13 months ago- but the rule in Tekken is "no chip damage" and always has been.
So throws dealing chip damage when most attacks don't is especially strange- much stranger than throws doing chip damage in (say) Mortal Kombat.
@Wiceheid the difference is that chipp damage is recoverable in Tekken. You can get that health back by going on offence. This is not the case in most other games so it's not actually worse IMO.
It's still weird though.
Surely if they’re making a change it should be the opposite, the one going for the throw but blocked should take minimal damage? That would add a fun element of risk
@Hyena_socks nah, high level players are very consistent at breaking throws so this would basically mean removing them from the game (at high level)
Fans Lose Their Minds
Dared to click on the reddit link and it's the same amount of pushback that anything gets, did not see any lost minds...
Ok this is a really stupid move. There's a reason basically every fighter that has throws following Super Turbo has you set back to neutral and avoids chip damage upon techning, because that makes throw, which are already strong, even stronger as you will get a reward no matter what for landing a throw. Like imagine SF6 throw loops with this, people would riot instantly
A very oddball decision to add chip damage like that.
I like this, shakes things up a bit without breaking anything. 99.9% of players wont even notice the difference to be honest. Only those who are hardcore into the game will see it.
Always a good thing to me to throw off the hyper competitive core.
Yeah taking chip for literally reacting and getting the right throw break is an idiotic design choice.
And I'm sure Harada will start blocking people on Twitter who don't like it just like he did with people not liking Anna's hair.
Still hasn't acknowledged the massive cabal of cheaters selling scripts on discord though 🙄
Yeah, this really has no benefit whatsoever. If they're trying to annoy their players, they're doing a great job.
As a longtime Tekken fan, this seems a strange decision. Haven't booted up 8 in a while though, so remains to be seen how it'll feel when I (eventually) get back into it. I just hope they don't nerf my boy (bear?) Kuma - the secret best character. 😏
Removed - unconstructive
@PuppetMaster As someone that's been playing Tekken almost as long as Street Fighter (which is to say, since the mid 1990s), this would probably be only top five most frustrating things about T8.
A real "swing and a miss" game. Lots of changes that feel just for the sake of change.
I think it's important to remember that individual changes don't paint the whole picture. As an example, they may have added chip damage to throws, but maybe they also made them easier to break or nerfed the damage made by throws?
To be clear, I have no idea if that's what happened here, but you should always consider the bigger picture and all of the changes made to the game. Both with major changes and also when certain characters/moves are buffed/nerfed.
I did not see this coming! I can’t remember anything similar in other fighting games too.
Sounds like the reaction was loud for the sake of being loud.
@MrPeanutbutterz Yeah a lot of Tekken players from my local community also feels the same for Tekken 8. Some of them decided to stop playing the game until there's a significant update, some moved to SF 6 or VF 5, while the rest stick with the game.
Further proof this team doesnt know what its doing or doing with its playerbase wants it to do ; remove 50/50's, scale back dmg as a whole, nerf wall splat, glad I left this sinking ship 6 months ago
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