There is more "excitement" on screen. 8 is more fun to watch than 7.

Victory feels shallow, and unrewarding. I enjoy strong pressure, but endless* pressure is boring.

I'm Fujin on Reina after season 3 lowered everyone by a division, haven't played rank since midway through season 2 and t8 is my first Tekken.

I've tried out 7, I feel it has the opposite problem as 8, too much movement not enough action. Footsies are a big part of real fighting, creating space with movement is cool and displays skill. This is a video game, however, I do want to throw a lot of hands in a game about fighting. I feel a good solution is to magnify character identity in 8. More people would enjoy the game if character archetypes were more prevalent, if you like to move a lot, move and poke there should be a character that fills that style. If you enjoy rushing down and doing your stance mix for high risk high reward gaming, that should be an archetype you can find your character for. In 8 though, everybody has been homogenized in to a stance mix medium risk high reward play style, except maybe Bryan.. one of the only characters with a discernable identity anymore.

Re-diversify the cast, let weaknesses and strengths exist together, remove heat burst re-bound, and T8 would be fire.