PaigeFTW: ‘Tekken 7’ Refines The Formula
Tekken 7 is all about incremental change. What was introduced in 1994 is still recognizably the same in 2017, with the same faces, even, bouncing around.
The latest installment of the King of Iron Fist Tournament sees refinement of the series’ core systems, with a few small additions, as is par for the course. You can expect controls to do the same things, and characters to move the same ways.
The major additions this time are Rage Arts, which are super-strong moves that unlock once health reaches critical levels. It is fine, but hardly essential for longtime players.
A few familiar faces have dropped off the roster (Anna Williams, Lei Wulong and Julia Chang, among many others), though a number of new faces have joined the party. Standouts are Kazumi Mishima (yes, Kazuya’s dead mother), Filipino fighter Josie Rizal and exorcist Claudio Serafino. All are fun, though some (weeaboo Lucky Chloe) feel more like fanservice than anything.
Online matchmaking takes forever to connect, but runs smooth as butter once the battle starts. The structure remains simple and without frills, and that’s just fine.
Offline modes have been dramatically reduced from previous titles. Gone is Survival and Time Attack, and in is Treasure Battle, where every match wins you customization items of increasing value (it’s really very fun).
Story mode has been getting a lot of negative lip service. It’s an hour-long attempt to whip Tekken’s convoluted plot into a coherent narrative, and it kind of works. Sort of. Not really. But it occasionally boasts cool cinematics, and it’s so quick that who cares? What’s more disappointing is that the non-Mishima family fighters have much less to do — don’t expect the traditional mini-movies detailing their exploits of the past. (Luckily, Tekken 7 has a theater mode featuring every cutscene ever from every Tekken game, ever, to make up for it.)
Did that feel like a long laundry list of small improvements? Well, that’s exactly what it was. Tekken 7 may not be groundbreaking, but it reminds players why Tekken has been around for 20 years — it’s already pretty darn good.
