The seventh sequel to the ever-present Tekken series may be the first one we cover in the newer HCL portal, but that does not mean that none of us know what to do with that Japanese tabac. With that in mind, I will not be overwhelmed by some technical tricks that have been an integral part of Tekken’s experience since the beginning. They have not undergone drastic changes anyway in the last twenty-one years, so let’s start with something “new”.

One of the most important points Tekken 7 promoted was a new approach to the story, which should now offer a sensible, almost film-like experience instead of short snippets. If you have the mind just dropped NetherRealm Studio with their vision of telling a story you can do, you would not be far from the idea.

Conceptually, this is exactly the same principle as in Mortal Kombat, but except for dramatic strides, every few battles are exploited for something a little different. Among them are retrospectives on events from previous sequences, some of which are even fun, but of course the “quick times” that you do not usually miss in ordinary matches.

This main story relates to the generational conflicts of the Mishima family, more precisely to Heihachi, who no longer dies, and his descendants and heirs that we follow through all the current Tekken sequels. Regardless of a solid and promising start, the overall performance here somehow manages to fail because it quickly loses focus and scratch in less important scenes with no scratches in sight.

The half of that action is told from the perspective of a random journalist whose stubborn face is always outside the edge of the screen for some reason, and to the third sentence telling me that the world in which he lives is horrible, I enjoy watching the panda with a hat on his dancing dance Kazuya looks at the satellites from space. That’s Tekken, in short.

„The world in which Tekken is taking is allegedly horrific. And then you also have Panda Bears dancing with a hat on your head.“

While this bizarre combination of everything and everything skips through time and perspective, specific characters are forgotten while others are not introduced at all, and I can only relinquish the seventh time of who is really in the family.

As the characters in Tekken come from different parts of the world, with different styles of fighting, it is appropriate that the choice of characters is as diverse as possible with regard to nationality. Logically, is not it? Other titles, such as Street Fighter, all of their characters therefore provide English language courses for convenience, but Tekken has always kept the principle that each character holds its native language. There was not too much trouble until just a few sentences at the beginning or end of the bill were made, but when you attempt to make a two-part movie with the same approach, you only get the clutter. It’s not like the Tekken story was otherwise easy to retrieve, because it is not, and this does not make things easy.

„The characters in Tekken do not care unless they understand the other language, but they do not even care if you can not follow them.“

That is why it is a shame that game creators did not take the opportunity to make the action a bit clearer when they have already received these new promising presentations. By doing so, the whole thing becomes bizarre confusing to keep in mind that in one conversation you have a character who poses a question in Japanese, while others do so in Italian, and the third comment in English. How wonderful. The story ultimately ends after only two hours because in essence there is nothing constructive to say or show, and anyway it all seems to be a repetition of earlier events.

Well, though the story may not reach the levels of a more modern Mortal Kombata orInjustice, we know that many do not matter. That is why I also wonder why I have exactly half of this text outlined just that, without actually being overwhelmed by it … This is probably because the other thing is not too much to point out since the real news in Tekken 7 is just a few, Not counting the new shining light effects, nor the simulation of the physics for the clothes of the characters.

The main novelty for the series can be the so-called. “Rage Arts” – an explosive “all or nothing” blow that unlocks you when you’re in the last breath. This is one of the things that for some time kept me convinced that it could undo the experience of Tekken’s gameplay, but with all my happiness proved me wrong when I got the chance to try it personally.

„Rage Arts are explosive bumps that are jerking on your last breath and allow you to reverse the course of the battle.“

Unlike similar specialists like those in the fifties you watch the same animation, Rage Arts lasts for only a few seconds and so does not break too much with the dynamics of the fight, but it does not even get tired to watch multiple times. What’s more, even after you activate it, there is still a chance that your flailing hand greetings in your face and crashes as a board, so the matches often remain interesting until the last second.

The most brutal addition is actually slow-motion zoom that happens at those questionable strikes that would often lean toward the screen in anticipation of who would hit the slam that just did not land. However, I will not mention why the Tekken 7 gameplay is the best Tekkena iteration so far, because it still needs to be proven over time.

For weeks, that’s why it’s a little extra we usually get to get every extension. Some bowling, rolling street, beach volleyball, etc. There is nothing like this here. You just have a bit of nostalgia for fans, as well as a totally useless VR mode for PSVR, where you can close up to look at models of characters.The greatest attention is therefore provided by a collection of 36 fighters, each with a hunk of customization and one hundred of feasible moves to learn. Among them is a surprisingly large number of new faces, but for some reason medo and panda now stand out as distinct characters, other candidates like Anne Williams, Lei Wulong, or even Panjevski Mokujina are no longer present. It is quite possible that these favorites will appear through some future DLC extensions, but I do not consider this to be a good case either. Unless, of course, they are not free, I doubt it.

„Do you remember cult Tekken characters like Leo Wulong or Mokujin? There was no place for them during the week.“

However, Tekken 7 still offers an impressively large selection of characters that you can hang out for a long time, and it’s quite a great design decision that the tagging segment takes place before it starts searching for online competition. This does not only save time, but also overlook the annoying situations when a “colleague” is waiting for you to choose for the first time, so that he knows who he is going to contradict you with.

Even better performance is while waiting for matchmaking to do yours not looking at a ball that goes back into the corner rather than having a running mode to get a little warm up and sharpen your skills before doing things. Also, among the novices there is an online tournament mode in which up to eight fighters battle parallel to the ladder to the prize pool.

That’s where we come to an element that unfortunately is pretty stingy, at least on the PS4 console. Only maybe every fifth opponent found will successfully connect to you while everyone else will drop linkage errors. Although it is possible to tolerate it with little patience, as far as we know the PC version, you will not have such problems. With a bit of luck, it will soon be resolved by patches, but in each case once everything goes well and the battle goes, everything goes as well lubricated, and this is still the most important thing for a good party. I’m not even looking for anything here.