Tekken 7 is a fighting game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game is the ninth installment in the Tekken series, and the first to make use of the Unreal Engine. Tekken 7 had a limited arcade release in Japan in March 2015. An updated arcade version, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution, was released in Japan in July 2016, and features expanded content including new stages, costumes, items and characters. The same version was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on June 2, 2017.

Gameplay:


Tekken 7 focuses on 1-on-1 battles. Two new mechanisms are introduced in the game. The first, Rage Art, allows the player to execute critical attacks that deal roughly 30% damage depending on the character once their health bar is critical, in exchange for inactivating the normal attack power increase. The second, Power Crush, lets the player continue their attacks even while being hit by the enemy, although they would still receive the damage dealt by the enemy's attacks. The mechanic also works only for absorbing high or mid attacks. The bound system, which staggers a character to increase opportunity for additional hits, is replaced by Screw Attack, which makes the enemy spin sideways when they are hit airborne, allowing the player to inflict additional hits after they reach the ground. Unlike bound, however, Screw Attack cannot be used to do wall combos. With a new display system, the game's multiplayer allows players to choose which side of the screen to play on. Movement has undergone some changes and now is similar to the movement mechanics found in Tekken Revolution, most notably when characters walk backwards.

The arcade version features the traditional stage-based playthrough, in which the player progresses by beating five different opponents one by one, ending with a fixed penultimate and final stage. Matches may be interrupted if another player joins the game. Online mode is available for both local and international play. Character customization is featured, allowing the player to modify characters' appearances. For the first time in the arcade series, the game features a practice mode, which allows players to train moves against an opponent for a limited amount of time, as well as an option to collect in-game rewards, mainly customization items, through "Treasure Box" by winning enough matches.

Fated Retribution features several gameplay changes to the game. The new "Rage Drive" allows the player to empower certain attacks by sacrificing their Rage Mode. Rage Art is also adjusted so that the amount of damage dealt to the enemy is inversely proportional to the player's current health bar. The update also adds a character-specific feature, the EX/Super meter, which serves as a limiter for some special attacks. This meter is reserved for two characters: Eliza and the Street Fighter guest character Akuma.


Playable Characters:


New characters

Katarina Alves: A sassy Brazilian woman who practices the art of Savate. She was designed to be a beginner-friendly character.
Claudio Serafino: A white-clad man from Italy who's a member of an Anti-Devil organization combating the Devil Gene's threat. Empowered with a Sirius magic.
Lucky Chloe: An otaku who wears a kitten-themed costume and has a "Freestyle Dance" fighting style.
Shaheen: A keffiyah-wearing Saudi Arabian man who handles a "Military Self-defense" fighting style. He was also designed to be a beginner-friendly character.
Josie Rizal: A young Filipino woman who wears a yellow top, a blue miniskirt, and a red bow. She practices Eskrima and Kickboxing.
Gigas: A hulking, red-skinned humanoid who appears to have cybernetics attached to his otherwise nude body. He practices "Destructive Impulse".
Jack-7: A new model of the Jack series, he has a slightly modified design with red hair and green glowing arms. As with the previous Jack series, he uses brute force to pummel his opponents.
Kazumi Mishima / Devil Kazumi: Heihachi's wife and Kazuya's mother, who possesses the Devil Gene. Kazumi's fighting style is Hachijo Style Karate, which is similar to the Mishima Style Fighting Karate as used by her husband and son, but with additional abilities such as summoning a tiger and levitating. She originally served as the game's unplayable final boss prior to becoming the seventh time release character added after launch. Kazumi also has a devil form, which remains unplayable outside of the final stage in which she is fought.
Master Raven: A female ninja with a fighting style very similar to Raven. She is in charge of the organization that the original Raven works for.



Guest character

Akuma: The dark master of the Satsui no Hado from Capcom's Street Fighter, added in Fated Retribution. Within the story, Kazumi asks him to repay a debt to her by killing Heihachi and Kazuya. The player can fight him in place of Kazumi as the final boss if a certain condition is met.


Plot: (FULL Spoilers)


The game's story is told through the perspective of a reporter who attempts to write an exposé about Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation following the deaths of his wife and son in crossfire during the world war precipitated by Jin Kazama. After the events of Tekken 6, though Azazel was defeated and destroyed by Jin, the war between the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation continues to ravage the world. Nina Williams leads the Zaibatsu to find Jin, who is still missing. Heihachi Mishima takes advantage of the vacuum of power to force Nina into submission, thus gaining the Zaibatsu again. Heihachi and Nina then make a deal with Claudio Serafino, head of the powerful Sirius Marksmen organization, to help him expose Kazuya Mishima, head of the G Corporation, as possessing the Devil Gene and turn the public opinion in favor of the Zaibatsu. Claudio senses a powerful force in the Far East that is unconnected to either Jin or Kazuya.

The reporter researches about the history of the Mishima family, learning that Heihachi's coup against his father, Jinpachi and the disappearance of his wife, Kazumi, happened in the same year he threw Kazuya off a ravine. Meanwhile, the United Nations intelligence group has managed to locate Jin, but Jin evades capture long enough for him to be rescued by Lars Alexandersson. Lars takes Jin to recuperate in the Violet Systems, where Lee Chaolan has fixed Alisa Bosconovitch following her destruction in the previous game. The Zaibatsu attacks the compound, but the trio are able to secure Jin. The reporter, having rendezvoused with Lee and Lars, tries to kill Jin in his sleep, but is discouraged by Lars, who says that Jin is the only person capable of stopping the conflict.

The force sensed by Claudio is eventually revealed to be Akuma. Akuma has made his presence to fulfill a promise he made to Kazumi: that he will kill Heihachi and Kazuya. He defeats Heihachi after fending off an attack by an army of Jack-6s at the Mishima Dojo and proceeds to the G Corporation's Millennium Tower. Heihachi, having survived, declares himself dead to the public before capturing and exposing images of a transformed Kazuya to the public. Heihachi then uses a satellite to shoot a beam that obliterates the Millennium Tower. However, Kazuya survives and shoots lasers to bring down the satellite, destroying a town and once again slandering the Zaibatsu. The reporter uses this opportunity to inform the Zaibatsu about the exposé he has written about them, but to his surprise, Heihachi offers to meet him in person. The latter recounts about Kazumi and the night he killed her in self-defense after learning that she possessed the Devil Gene and was in fact sent by her family to kill him.

Heihachi and Kazuya go to a volcano to have their final battle. After a long struggle, Kazuya kills Heihachi and throws him down into a volcano. The story finally shifts to the reporter, who completes his exposé and publishes it. In a post-credits scene, the world is in peril due to Kazuya targeting every nation, however, Jin wakes up and meets with Lee, Lars, and Alisa, promising to put an end to the war once and for all by killing Kazuya.

A special match that follows the credits details Kazuya's encounter with Akuma after killing Heihachi. The outcome of their battle is not revealed.

The Verdict: 

Single Player Modes 


The bulk of the single player content for Tekken 7 revolves around the Story Mode, focusing on the latest dilemma surrounding the bitter Mishima family rivalry. This mode has a "Story Assist" option where players can set a hotkey in the options to allow them to shortcut special moves to one of face buttons - making it easy as pie to do Electric God Wind Fists with the press of a button. This doesn't make Story Mode as a cakewalk as I still found the AI rather challenging at times and fell back to using the Story Assist to even the odds. To make a long story short, the narrative doesn't really resolve anything outside of Kazuya "killing" Heihachi and shifting his focus onto the newcomer Akuma. I honestly can't see them keeping Heihachi dead and there's FAR too many loose threads unexplored and questions unanswered here to say that this game was billed as the "conclusion" to the Mishima family saga. 

There is a "special chapter" that unlocks after you complete this the first time that pits Devil Kazuya against Shin Akuma  that is straight up processed bullshit. I see many of players throwing their controllers in frustration during that battle. I managed to topple Shin Akuma after accurring a staggering number of losses to his various tactics, including but not limited to: instant kill Raging Demon(s), his projectiles are capable of juggling easier and dealing massive damage, he regains a full Super meter all most instantly, and somehow has Ryu/Gouken's ability to parry. I shouldn't be surprised at all of this as this is the same beast that long-time Street Fighter players have dealt with for the last two decades from this iteration of this character in these "special" battles like this. Too bad you can't fight this version of Akuma outside of this mode. Treasure Battle's "Special Matches" don't count either as I haven't had an Akuma instant kill me with a Raging Demon to date. 

Outside of the main Mishima family narrative, Story Mode has "Character Episodes" focused on showcasing single members of the in-game cast during the events of this game. The sad part of these "episodes" is that they consist of a short bit of text to setup a fight that you must complete followed by an ending. That's it. Some of these are rival battles too with alternate endings depending on who you play as for their perspective, so it's rather confusing on which one(s) of these are canon or not. I felt like Namco-Bandai truly dropped the ball on creating something great here with this and with the Mishima-focused narrative. They completely squandered the chance to elaborate and explore these newer fighters' motivations and backstories.

Unlike Street Fighter V, Tekken 7 does have an actual Arcade Mode at launch, but you'll learn less about your character(s) in that mode as you would playing the Character Episodes in Story Mode. It's just a quick set of matches, ending with Kazumi as the final boss (alternately Akuma, if you fulfill the set undisclosed requirements) and your character's ending cinematic.


Character Customization and other Misc. Content


Character customizations are back in full force here with everything customizable from health bars, player panels, and even the playable characters themselves, but the only ways to earn rewards/treasure boxes containing customization parts is to play Treasure Battle (Offline Mode) or win in the top three within Online Tournaments. Online Tournaments are sketchy at best, with one player's poor connection can ruin the experience for everyone overall. The mode seems pretty bare bones to say that this was a big deal in the reveal trailers. Seems like Namco-Bandai didn't put much thought into this mode, even though I do like that it has rewards for everyone involved whether they win or lose. Treasure Battle is Tekken 7's replacement for Ghost Battle from Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and serves as players' primary source of acquiring rare customization items with a Survival Mode style progression system. You merely keep fighting until you are defeated or wish to end the mode prematurely and pick up where you left off at a later time. Random challenges/handicaps (such as Turbo Mode, Double Damage, or Aerial Juggles Only) reward players with rare rewards upon completion for more difficult AI opponents and challenges, while the game ups the difficulty even more with "Special Matches" against a boss version of either Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya Mishima/Devil Kazuya, Jin Kazama, Kazumi Mishima/Devil Kazumi, or Akuma/Shin Akuma (sadly this Shin Akuma isn't anywhere as formidable as the one in the Story Mode - Special Chapter). The problem with this mode is that the game recycles a lot of the same AI opponents over and over with little or no variety and the rewards you receive are rarely for the character(s) that you are playing as. As a result, this makes grinding through this mode for customization items a lackluster chore. I honestly can't decide which one is worse - either the Gear System grind for Mother Boxes in Multiverse modes on Injustice 2 or grinding through Treasure Battle here in this game. I'm crossing my fingers that Namco-Bandai considers adding Ghost Battle into this game in a future update. As it stands, Treasure Battle, much like the bulk of the offline content here - especially the Mishima Family Story Mode, feels like a complete waste of time. 

The Jukebox and Gallery Modes make a return here with EVERY original soundtrack from every Tekken game in this series' history available on the disk from scratch. No need to import media or purchase tracks individually like players were forced to do in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. I'm glad to see that Namco-Bandai were kind enough to provide this much, especially given that this is Tekken's 20 year anniversary. All of the cinematic cutscenes/endings are available too, but they are unlockable with in-game cash. From as easy it is to rake up tons of cash in this game, it shouldn't be no problem at all to purchase all of this content for most players. FYI EVERYTHING (Customizations and Jukebox content) unlocks after you have over 2000+ fights in-game, so that's a plus too. 

The Practice Mode in this game is simply superb, allowing players to recreate just about any (if not all) situations that they would run into in legitimate matches to familiarize themselves on how to tackle the multitude of options and strategies at their disposal. Without a proper tutorial though, newcomers and casuals are going to feel pretty intimidated by all of these settings, while Tekken veterans will feel right at home here.

Online Modes and Netcode functionality


As of this posting (6/12/17), Namco-Bandai has patched the online component on PlayStation 4 after a week of constant disconnects and Ranked/Player Matches being unable to connect at all. After the patch, I felt that the online netcode was about as stable as Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag 2 on last-gen consoles, which was pretty hit or miss back then too. I got the best out of it when I changed the search settings to strictly 5 out of 5 connectivity. It'll take you a bit longer to find matches, but I found 2-4 to be VERY unstable and had far too many random freezes or disconnects as a result. Plus, I doubt players would want to be fighting someone underwater in lag without the ability to react and punish attacks properly. 

Ranked Matches are what you've come to expect out of these Tekken titles with online ranks being your prize for mastering your character(s) at various levels. There's an option of a salty runback/rematch in the form of a "Revenge Match" that can be accepted/denied by your opponents. This can only be repeated once from my experience - possibly to avoid people exploiting it for boosting up the ladders. I found it odd that 1v1 Player Matches don't have this option. I get that Player Matches are supposed to be a "party" setting, but running sets with a friend gets redundant from all of the going back to the lobby, back to the character select screen, then the match-up/sync screen before going back to the actual match without a legit quick rematch option. That shouldn't be too hard to ask for in a future update.


Closing Thoughts



While I enjoyed Tekken Tag Tournament 2 casually and loved watching it competitively on the tournament scene, there was a lot of crap in that game I couldn't stand in terms of mechanics. Rage got toned down big time in this game - you can still get wrecked by it here if you're careless, but nowhere as devastating as in that game. Here, most players will be more willing to gamble their Rage on hitting a Rage Art or Rage Drive and be out of resources for that comeback. Here, I feel that the playing field has been balanced at both ends with veterans and newcomers having a fair chance, without sacrificing too much what we have come to love about the Tekken series.

This game is gorgeous to look at, but Sweet Christmas the loading times are long on PS4. I have heard reports that the looks it's best on PC with better load times to boot, while the Xbox One version is the worst visually appealing iteration of this game.

I just wish they gave us more to sink our teeth into in terms of single player content and offline modes. It feels like a very lackluster effort compared to what other fighters in this genre are putting out at launch. Namco-Bandai had an opportunity to do something truly great here and ultimately dropped the ball in terms of single player content. There's really no excuses to be had here. This is the same studio behind the video games based off the One Piece, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z anime/manga franchises. We've seen them work wonders with those games, but here they put on a lackluster effort with this game for their so-called anniversary? Inexcusable. 

Buy It or Don't Bother?


For newcomers and casuals, I can't really condone purchasing this if you have to spend $30-60 on this at launch. The lack of single player content and the unstable online component isn't acceptable in the least (at least until the Week 1 netcode patch), especially compared to what Injustice 2 and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2 provided at launch. Namco-Bandai didn't even have the foresight to include a tutorial of sorts, despite Harada making fun of Street Fighter V's cumbersome and lackluster launch woes. If you're completely new to Tekken, then you're definitely shit out of luck here with the game doing very little to educate players in the intricacies of this game. There's a few short tips during loading screens, but that's not enough to make most casuals stick with this game for the long haul. The omission of a proper tutorial mode to familiarize players (old and new) of the system mechanics and introduce the Rage Arts/Drives is downright unforgivable with so many other fighters on the market today to enlighten players how to play their games. 

For hardcore and long-time Tekken fans, you're going to be right at home here for the months to come. For you, the hefty $59.99 price tag along with that $24.99 Season Pass isn't going to be problem since you're going to be plowing away at this game for the months to come, whether it's honing your skills in Practice Mode or jumping online and testing your worth against randoms and friends in the various Online and Versus Modes. This sect of players will get more than their money's worth from what is offered here without a shadow of a doubt.

For those players, this game is an easy sell and exactly who Harada-san is marketing this game towards. I humbly suggest everyone else wait until this goes on sale. There's not much here to offer with that $59.99 price tag at launch.



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