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It's more than fair to say that Bandai Namco has been on a bit of a winning streak as of late. Its impressively vast library of popular anime licences, paired with the release of heavy hitters like Elden Ring and Armored Core VI, have resulted in a string of profitable and, more often than not, critically well received games. Elden Ring DLC notwithstanding, Tekken 8 is set to be Bandai Namco's next big release - but what have the development team learned from Tekken 7's release to ensure the sequel's success?
A preview in late November finally gave me some insight. Story mode was capped up until the end of chapter 4 and we were only allowed to play a couple of the Arcade Mode chapters, but every character was available to try out in versus, practice and the Tekken Ball mode.
There was also a chance to sit down with Tekken 8's game director Kouhei Ikeda and producer Michael Murray - who also acted as our translator - and ask them some burning questions. Unbeknownst to me beforehand, long-serving series producer Katsuhiro Harada also made a surprise appearance - although in true Harada style, he mostly just sat in the back looking cool and only occasionally chimed in with anecdotes about things like how much he hates Macbooks.