Tekken 8 has rolled into its second year with confidence, having just completed its first DLC season and Tekken World Tour competitive series by the end of 2024. While sales will need to climb for a while to reach the heights of Tekken 7, the game is moving at a steady pace, releasing content intermittently while navigating fan responses. Not everything in Tekken 8 has gone smoothly, with the pricing and release structure of some DLC items stirring controversy, and many players are still sorting out their thoughts on the Heat System. Even so, prospects for 2025 are looking good.
For the time being, Tekken 8 can afford to bide its time while calculating its next moves. Bandai Namco’s lone current-gen fighting game won’t have competition in the 3D fighting space until the next Virtua Fighter is ready, which could take another year. Work on the second DLC season and the next World Tour is happening behind the scenes, and the door is open to more modes and single-player content thanks to the extra story mode released. Despite how fast-paced Tekken 8’s Heat-oriented gameplay can feel, the game is in no rush, not even in an area that Tekken 7 correctly covered early.
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The State of Tekken 7 and 8’s Guest Fighters
As of the beginning of 2025, Tekken 8 has a single guest character. Clive Rosfield, protagonist of Final Fantasy 16, joined T8’s roster in December 2024, eliciting surprise, but general support after players saw more of him. Even though Final Fantasy 7’s Tifa Lockhart had more outspoken supporters, Clive continues the pattern started with FF15’s Noctis being added to Tekken 7, and requests for Tifa have at least been acknowledged. It wasn’t even a sure thing that guest characters were going to be part of Tekken 8’s first DLC season, so finally having that confirmed was also nice.
Tekken 7 Grabbed Guests Unusually Quickly
The approach to guests could only be more different between Tekken 7 and Tekken 8 if Clive had been left until season 2. Guest characters were a big deal in Tekken 7 before the game even launched on consoles, as Street Fighter’s Akuma was added in its Fated Retribution arcade update, and went on to star in T7’s story mode. Then, Tekken 7’s entire first year of DLC was made up of Fatal Fury’s Geese Howard and Final Fantasy 15’s Noctis Lucis Caelum. Year 2 and its DLC season calmed things down with five returning veterans, but ended with The Walking Dead’s Negan, shocking fans and onlookers alike.
Why Tekken 8 Is Handling Guests So Differently From Tekken 7
Tekken 7 and 8’s Priorities May Be Completely Different
Surprise and outsider attention seem to be exactly what Bandai Namco was counting on, as four guest fighters in console Tekken 7’s first two years are considered one of the secrets of its success. That only makes Tekken 8’s approach stand out more, as Clive became its first guest at the point where Tekken 7 would have already had three. Few players doubt that more guest characters are coming to Tekken 8 in the future, but their pace slowing to a crawl after the opposite worked so well for T7 is a strange course of action.
It’s possible that this will only apply to Tekken 8’s first season in retrospect, as its initial three DLC characters — Eddy Gordo, Lidia Sobieska, and Heihachi Mishima — were all either essential Tekken mainstays, fan favorites, or both. Meanwhile, Clive was probably meant to synergize with Final Fantasy 16’s recent Steam release. This whole season was laid out far in advance with different priorities than Tekken 7’s DLC, possibly because T7 revealed that a compelling-enough guest character will drive sales no matter when they’re released. Regardless of what Bandai Namco’s logic was, Tekken 8 seems committed to not retreading Tekken 7’s steps, and time will tell if that strategy pays off.
- Released
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January 26, 2024
- ESRB
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