Review #613: Tekken 7

 Neat game mate, now where's the rest of it?

 It's Tekken, yo! This latest installment of the long-running fighting game franchise is a bit of a gamechanger: Finally we've got new designs for returning characters, something that seemed stagnant since Tekken 3, finally we have a fresh cast of characters, some old, some new, as opposed to bringing everyone back and, finally, we've got a completely new spin on the same old gameplay. This Tekken feels a bit like 3 and 4 since it dares change the status quo, unlike 5 which went straight after Tekken 3's coattails and 6, which was content at simply expanding upon 5.

 First of all, the new story mode, and staple of Tekken. Tekken 3 had Tekken Force, which was alright, Tekken 4 also had Tekken Force, which was better, Tekken 5 had Jin's beat'em up mode, which was the right direction but not the best execution, and, lastly, Tekken 6's Story Mode which was a souped up version of 4's. Tekken 7 brings us 'Story of the Mishima's', which should've been renamed to 'Story of Heihachi', and I hope you like Heihachi, because he is the main character. By the by, I hate Heihachi, so by the end I grew tired of how hard Harada, the director, was shilling his pet. They tried to make him more 'sympathetic', but it doesn't work, he is evil and he sucks. There's a handful more characters involved in the Story Mode, a few which you get to play as including Street Fighter's Akuma, but for the most part, it's only about Heihachi VS Kazuya. The games' boss, Kazumi, plays only a very, VERY small part. As a matter of fact, this mode is rather short and feels like it's just the prologue for Tekken 8, once I got to the credits I exclaimed aloud 'That's it?'. It was. It's a bit of a Spoiler, but the fact that Jin Kazama spends the entire story mode asleep should tell you just how bland this mode is. The rest of the characters get a 'Chapter' which is made up of a text-prologue, a single fight and a lazy ending. Characters tend to be paired, like Steve VS Nina, so Steve's Chapter is you beating Nina and Nina's chapter is you beating Steve. What a letdown, and wasted potential too, since characters are sporting all these new duds and goals, yet we get pretty much nothing but window-dressing. The endings are particularly bland, Nina beats Steve and then enemies arrive and she escapes. That's it. Bryan wins the fight and then sees a helicopter, so he throws debris at it, destroying it, and then laughs. And that's it. These 'chapters' feel like an afterthought, they did the bare minimum and called it a day.

 As for the rest of the modes... it's a very barebones offering. You get Online VS and local VS Player, but there's no local VS CPU mode. Why they continue to omit that mode is beyond me. There's a practice mode, but there's no tutorial or anything, so newcomers are screwed, and veteran players are on their own as far as understanding the new mechanics go. There's Treasure battle too, an endless string of battles against CPU enemies, and each fight rewards you with at least one new customization item as well as Fight Money. This is the offline mode you'll play the most. Finally there's Arcade Mode, which is pretty much made unnecessary by Treasure Mode. There are no endings, no exclusive unlockables, nothing that would make you play Arcade Mode over Treasure Mode. Customization is back, and it feels much more limited than before, but at least you can dress up a few characters with some of their vintage costumes, including Tekken 2 and Tekken 4 King, heck, you can even have Kazuya in his badass Tekken 4 suit!

 The new characters are a mixed bag. Tekken has been slowly trying to get a piece out of Dead or Alive's pie, and it's never been more apparent than before. We have Lucky Chloe, a ridiculous idol character that panders to the Otaku fanbase, at least they tried to play with the trope a bit: She's a nasty person playing the part of a sweet, innocent girl. Katarina, is yet another seductress character archetype, because it seems Anna didn't have that part covered already. Josie Rizal is... is a mess. She's a big breasted crybaby that cries even when she wins a fight. She's supposed to be a tribute to a Filipino hero, but she makes a mockery out of him. Speaking of breasts, this is the bounciest the Tekken girls have ever been, and it looks a bit silly. Male characters aren't safe though, Gigas is one of the blandest and most uninspired designs the series has seen, bring back Marduk, dammit!(They actually did!... via DLC). Shaheen and Kazumi, however, are fantastic new additions and both Master Raven and Claudio are... they are alright. I enjoyed the new redesigns too, Feng, Asuka, Jin, Kazuya, Miguel... everyone looks great, and it's about time they got new clothes. I think the only redesign I disliked was Nina, the bride dress is dumb.

 Alright, aesthetics are but superficial, what matters is the game, and boy, oh boy, it's GOOD. The core gameplay remains the same: each of the four face buttons is tied to a different limb. Each character has widely different attack strings, so button mashing will get you nowhere, a combination that could be a three hit combo with one character will result in an easily punishable single blow with another. Bounds are a thing of the past, say hello to 'Screws', attacks that make an airborne opponent plummet spiraling down into the ground, head first. During this time, as they are 'screwing' on the air, you can follow up with a combo. Screws, just like Bounds, can only be done once in a combo. 

 With this game they've also put their focus on Super Armored moves, attacks that go off even as you're getting hit, you'll receive the damage, but your move will go off anyways. There are two new special moves that showcase this: Rage Arts and Rage Drives. As their name implies, these can only be done once you enter 'Rage', which is done by losing over 70% of your health bar, and is a state during which your attack power is increased. Rage Arts are pretty much Ultras, moves that can only be used once per match but deal a TON of damage, it's not even funny how many matches I undeservedly won thanks to these. These can be comboed into, and you should, they can be blocked and you really don't want to fumble them, because landing or fumbling a Rage Arts costs you your Rage bonus. Rage Drives, on the other hand, are much weaker, but much more useful than Rage Arts. These are powered-up moves that also have Super Armor, but instead of landing a super powerful move, can be used to extend your combos, plus, if they are blocked it won't leave you at a disadvantage. Just as with Rage Arts, these can only be done once, and either landing or fumbling them costs you the Rage buff. Veteran players will probably stick to Rage Drives, while newbies will stick to Rage Arts.

 There's an in-game gallery which people have called it 'great fanservice' since you can unlock every intro and ending from EVERY previous Tekken game. I call it fluff, do you know what was great fanservice? When Tekken 5 included the Arcade versions of Tekken 1, 2 and 3. THAT was great fanservice. Or when Tekken Tag Tournament 2 brought back Tekken Bowl, bigger and better than ever. Mind you, it's not like I hate the gallery, I just wish we had more playable fluff, y'know?  Maybe I'm being a bit tough with Tekken, but only because I love it so much. The graphics are a bit rougher than what I had expected, but it is the best looking Tekken game to date. The lightning and hit effects are extraordinary, and they added this satisfying, dramatic close-ups, where the music goes out, as two attacks are about to collide. It looks SO good and adds so much tension to the match!

 I like this bold new Tekken. The new character designs leave a lot to be desired, but returning characters look great and feel fresh, something desperately needed since Tekken was starting to hold on a little too tight to Tekken 3's legacy. The gameplay is as good, nay, better than ever, which is why the game is so enjoyable, but... I just can't pretend that the game is very lacking when it comes to content. Great gameplay, decent character roster, but where are the modes? Survival? Team Battle? A proper arcade mode with proper endings? A complete Story arc? It's a tasty cake, but where's the cherry on top?

 8.0 out of 10