Tekken 8 Mod

The Tekken community has been up in arms for a couple of weeks now, ever since the release of Tekken 8's incredibly controversial Season 2 overhaul.

Things have gotten so bad that many are outright boycotting the brawler, refusing to grant it a place in local fighting game tournaments and the like. Meanwhile, Tekken 7 has actually seen an uptick in its player count, as dejected Tekken 8 players fall back on the older release.

But you know the situation is rough when modders are taking the time to strip Tekken 8 of basically everything that makes it Tekken 8 to begin with.

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A new PC mod from notable Tekken tinkerer KulaGGin is blowing up within Tekken's more hardcore circles; it's gaining significant traction on Reddit and it's being picked up by various YouTube channels (like I AM OP, who posted the below video).

The notion here is that Tekken 8 has become far too aggressive. Too many moves — especially those added in Season 2 — are oppressive to the point where playing defensively feels like a waste of time. This direction has led to many Tekken veterans pining for a return to the series' less flashy, but much more technical gameplay.

And so we have this new mod, which completely removes Tekken 8's signature Heat system — the main cause behind this overreliance on aggression throughout the game.

It also removes Rage, the damage-increased state that activates when characters get low on health, and reduces the tracking capabilities of moves in general. The latter change means that defensive sidesteps — a staple of the series that's been massively undermined in Tekken 8's Season 2 — are now much more viable again.

It's becoming abundantly clear that Bandai Namco needs to address the state of Tekken 8 — and changes must come soon. Evo Japan — the first step on this year's Tekken World Tour — is less then a month away, and if Tekken 8's biggest issues haven't been fixed by then, the game's whole tournament will be ridiculed beyond imagining.

Would you like to see Tekken revert back to something that resembles the older games? What's your take on Tekken 8 right now? Sidestep that electric in the comments section below.

[source youtube.com, via reddit.com]