The Tekken team has offered an apology and news of an emergency patch to Tekken 8, in the wake of the disastrous season 2 update as well as Anna’s addition to the game. This update will come on April 17, and aims to fix several key issues with the game that have popped up over the last week or so.
Posting on Twitter as well as the Japanese Tekken website, the Tekken 8 team acknowledges the season 2 update which aimed at improving defensive play in the game encouraged more offensive gameplay, stating the following:
“We sincerely apologize that the actual balance changes did not align with the development intentions and policy previously communicated to players. We deeply regret not being able to address the improvements and adjustments that the community had hoped for. Moving forward, we are committed to distinguishing between issues that can be addressed quickly, and issues that require more time and community feedback for proper review.
Changes include an increase to maximum health, which has been added to mitigate rounds being lost due to one-sided momentum. There’s also gradual adjustments to certain “high-reward” moves, which would repeatedly lead to advantageous situations when used over and over again. An example of this is a new move added to Jack, which players could essentially use on repeat to overwhelm opponents.
In addition, the emergency patch will rebalance the offensive and defensive aspects of the game’s Heat system, as attacking players while using Heat proved a tad too strong. Damage scaling after using Heat Dash is being adjusted, and the properties of certain moves used during Heat is being tweaked too. Chip damage is being looked at too, with chip damage dealt while using Heat being reduced.
Another update is set to release in mid-May, which will also bring additional changes. Harada, the Tekken 8 game director, offered some additional insight on Twitter. He writes: “The battle team is already developing day and night for the next update. There will be more updates in the future, including parameter adjustments for each character and arts, so please wait for more information.”
Hopefully, this will turn the game back around and get it on the right path. The fallout over the season 2 update has proven incredibly visceral, with casual players and content creators alike expressing their frustration extensively. Time will tell if these changes will win players over, reversing community sentiment and building back the game’s Steam review sentiment.
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