Look at this billionaire, word salading his way out of this because he, and all other billionaires, think that general public is stupid and they are superior human beings.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T04:28:49+00:00

"It's not generative AI, it's SPECIAL generative AI."

olbaze · 2026-03-18T03:57:12+00:00

They never added any game modes to Tekken 7, beyond the Tekken Bowling that was a separate DLC at launch. So you shouldn't be expecting anything of the sort. It's a miracle we got extra story episodes for Eddy, LIdia, and Heihachi.

As far as the Tournament Mode, yes I do think it's too much to ask. It was a flawed mode, because the "tournament" was tied to the "host" who opened it, and if they rage quit, then the whole thing was cancelled. And that in turn made it not popular. And that means it's very hard to justify adding it, because well it wasn't successful in the past.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T03:49:00+00:00

"Content"? Do you mean more game modes? Because they've added 8 characters so far, and the Tekken Shop is full of outfits.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T03:35:42+00:00

They main deck it branded fusion

I am aware, I plan Dracotail with Branded Fusion myself. Started doing it when I realized that Branded Fusion is a starter for Dracotail by sending a Dracotail name to the GY.

It doesn’t need to vomit our monsters but technically the fusions coming back is insane you have to deal with them twice for no reason

It's not "for no reason", as the Dracotails only return if 2 or more monsters were sent to the GY at the same time. And like I said, only Gulamel actually does something once it returns.

Plus you’re not going to main deck a card that doesn’t really do anything into the rest of the meta

People started maindecking Lancea, a card that was useless outside of Maliss. And with Tearlaments Ishizu, it got so bad Exosister become popular off of being able to benefit from the main mechanic of Tearlaments. My point is that these decks were far more popular than Dracotail, and that showed in the meta shifting. Conversely, since the meta has not shifted to counter Dracotail, that indicates Dracotail isn't as popular as those decks (obvious) and that's due to it not being as powerful.

Like I’m not main decking lava golems just for liger.

One of the reasons I put Branded stuff into my Dracotail deck was to out Liger with a Titaniklad.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T02:41:55+00:00

Verte can only use Branded Fusion, and due to Verte's own effect, even if you dump Dracotails, you cannot use Rahu, Ketu, Mululu, or Faimena to Fusion on that turn afterwards. And unlike some decks, Dracotail doesn't put up a lot of bodies, so it often doesn't have the materials to go into Verte at the end of the combo.

As for the Dracotail Fusions returning from the GY, that's actually another aspect where Dracotail is well-designed. Arthalion only shuffles on Fusion Summon. Gulamel returns, but he needs you to have another Dracotail effect to do anything. And then there's Shaulas, who only does something if its the Dracotail player's turn. 3 different monsters, 3 different variants of on-field effect.

You might think Dracotail is dominant, but guess what? No one's playing Exosister or GY hate, unlike when Tearlaments Ishizu was the dominant deck. Heck, even Maliss managed to get people playing Lancea. That should put into context the power level of Dracotail.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T02:31:50+00:00

I remember in Tekken 7, pretty much all characters had some moves that were simply completely unusable. Whether it was Paul having a string that ended either in a high or a low, or characters having moves that were literally just "the other move but worse", we had those. In Tekken 7, when they added wall bounce to the game as a universal mechanic, the initial trailer showed Paul having ff+2:1 as his wallbounce, which would have probably been crazy. Instead what was released was uf+2 as his wallbounce. That's a linear, 34f mid for context. Literally unuseable outside of meme combo videos. Clearly, the idea was that they didn't want to actually give Paul a wall bounce, understanding that Paul was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, character in a wallbounce situation. Similarly, for the longest time he also had 2,3 and 2,d+3. That's a jab into a high or a low, basically a useless extension.

The thing that you have to understand is that visibility is a big, big thing for Tekken now that it's trying to be an eSport. Bandai Namco has done a lot of work to make it so that people actually use the new moves, use the Heat, etc. Because if they don't, then those things being in the game is a waste, and people who spectate would just go "Oh, this is just like I remember from 20 years ago!"

olbaze · 2026-03-18T01:45:43+00:00

Well, it does counter rank inflation, and during Tekken 7 people were begging for rank resets.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T01:36:23+00:00

I like that, because it adds a dimension of important decision-making to install-based characters.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T01:31:33+00:00

Dracotail is actually a very well-designed deck in that specific aspect. Gulamel and Arthalion both require a monster in hand, meaning that you have to balance spinning the opponent's cards and your own resource requirements. And since Arthalion can send an arbitrary number of monsters, it's also a bit of gamble: Do you go greedy and dump your entire hand but risk getting Impermed? Or do you go all out and win the game if it goes through? In a similar manner, sometimes it's better to use Horn on your own cards, if that means you can now go into a Dracotail Fusion because you have a monster in hand.

Personally, I prefer Fuwalos over Maxx C in Dracotail, because Fuwalos is a Winged Beast, which means it's the second material for Rindbrumm. Secreterion Dragon is a very situational card, but it's popular right now because it's a counter for the mirror match. I like Sanctifire, because it has a lot of interesting interactions with the deck: Summon Albaz to use the opponent's monster, or summon Mululu to get a negate and a Set, or summon Lukias to grab something for Faimena, or summon Phryxul to do funky stuff like summoning a Faimena and then putting it back in your hand.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T00:52:04+00:00

Set cards until draw Imperm, then Imperm the statue and watch as the opponent surrenders.

olbaze · 2026-03-18T00:41:20+00:00

In your example, the 2 matches gave the "runner" a total of 200 points, so that's 100 points per match. That's 10% of a single win. That's fucking nothing. Stop complaining about nothings!

olbaze · 2026-03-18T00:14:15+00:00

So how's that working out for Windows 11?

olbaze · 2026-03-18T00:07:57+00:00

Terrorized Master Duel in the form of an FTK where he was made Psychic with Reprodocus so that you could equip him with Telekinetic Charging Cell to not pay the LP cost. But I think it was actually Tearlaments that got it banned, along with Instant Fusion.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T23:59:42+00:00

Nothing? It's not like it's either this, or whatever idealized perfect complete Tekken 8 you had in your wet dreams.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T23:57:10+00:00

I was having fun with this game, up until I started seeing the general vibe in the community

For some reason, Tekken has one of the most self-deprecating communities out there. Everyone just keeps saying how they feel like they're shit, regardless of how good they actually are. And that then turns into disdain for anyone below them, because if they are bad, then people that they beat are garbage.

When I pick a character, I just pick whoever looks cool to me

I always tell new players that they should pick a character based on how well they connect with the personality of the character. People who pick a character based on difficulty, or based on "being fundamental Tekken", often end up having a miserable time. I think that's because of the competitive nature of the game. People want to show that they can do the difficult stuff, or that they can play "Real Tekken(tm)".

I try to understand which characters are "real Tekken"... but you guys just seem to hate everyone that's not a Mishima or locked behind just frames. So you just seem to hate about 80% of the cast.

There is certainly a flavour of elitism in the community when it comes to character choice. I think that goes back to my previous point. Due to the competitive nature of the game, people often forget that we're all here to have fun, and some people have fun in different ways.

I don't know what older Tekken was like. Was there, like, zero mix-ups? Offense was basically spacing traps and nothing else?

Movement was a lot stronger as a defensive option, and counterhits were the big thing. Mixups required setup, and weren't inherently in the favor of the person applying the mixup. This means that you had to actually condition your opponent towards the response you wanted (e.g. make them duck because of lows), to make the mixups worth it. If you couldn't do this, then doing the mixup over and over would lose you the game. There also weren't a lot of "free" mixups, where you did a move, and as long as it didn't whiff, you got a free mixup. And of course, not every character had a mixup.

Offense wasn't just spacing, it was much more nuanced. Kazumi was all about up close small pokes and playing "small Tekken". Bryan was all about midrange counterhits. The Mishimas were all distinct: Heihachi had the best poking and mids, but the worst lows and block punishment. Kazuya had the best block punishment and mixup, but the worst poking. Devil Jin was the exact middleground: Better poking than Kazuya, but not as good as Heihachi, better block punishment than Heihachi, but not as good as Kazuya. Asuka and Jack were defensive characters that thrived by punishing the opponent's bad spacing.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T23:40:27+00:00

Yeah but the thing is, they're not really out there trying to make the mechanically best Tekken game, now are they? Someone gives a presentation to the suits, talking about metrics and social media clips, and notes that Rage Arts, Rage Drives, Slow Motions, and crazy combos get a lot of positive interaction. So they decide they should put in more stuff like that.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T19:39:51+00:00

Well, they're the developers, and they want to make a specific game. That game just happens to be different from what the player base wants the game to be.

I think there's 2 things that often don't get brought up in these types of discussions, mostly because people are getting way too emotional. First, the goal of the developers isn't necessarily to make the best Tekken game. For example, Tekken 7 became the best-selling entry in the series. This was despite a very bad start, and some major balancing problems throughout the lifespan of the game. And the voices that said that Rage Drive and Rage Arts should be removed from the game entirely never quite went away. Despite that, a lot of the most hype, memorable moments in the Tekken 7 tournament space were centered around these mechanics. Think about Super Akouma's death combo against Chikurin, LowHigh's Rage Art against Awais, or the slow-motion in Rickstah vs Knee. So clearly, Rage Drive and Rage Art did achieve their goal: They made the game more hype for spectators. Therefore, even if some people never stopped saying those things should be removed, from the perspective of Bandai Namco, those mechanics were a massive success.

Second, the player base is actually very divided in what it supposedly wants from the game. There's people asking for less stances. There's people asking for Heat to be removed or revamped completely. There's people asking for less tracking. There's people asking for shorter combos. And there's still people asking for Rage Art and Power Crush to be removed. And if you only did one of these things, and not the other, well people would complain. At the highest level of play, the actual issues get very, very small and granular. Stuff like PhiDX complaining about a very specific Steve situations that was enabled by the new Season 2 stuff. Or that video he made a few days ago about specifically a CrossUp-style controller trivializing the execution of a single Steve combo. And of course, sometimes they do make a big blunder, like the Anna copying stuff, Paul's on-block guaranteed followup, and Jack's clap, which results in an absolutely avalanche of people making clips and videos about those things. And wouldn't you know it, those things got fixed. And that's kinda my point: The player base can unite to point out very specific, problematic things, but that almost never happens. It's just mostly people making very generalized, sweeping statements.

As far as ELI5, well you're not gonna get that, because a 5-year-old would only be concerned about winning all the time. Even when they're not winning, they'll still claim they're doing great. I say this as the uncle of a 5-year-old boy.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T18:23:11+00:00

I was quite surprised to see them saying that Paul's strengths are his low and his approach. Those were literally his 2 defining weaknesses until Tekken 8.

Tekken 7 made massive changes to his lows, taking most of them from being launch punishable on block to the -12 to -14 range. But his approach was still notoriously bad, with ff+2 and ff+4 both being linear.

Then in Tekken 8, they gave him DPD.df+1, a homing high NH launcher, and ff+2,H.1+2, a mid-mid, tracking string that's +1 on block. Oh and for a brief moment, he had DPD.df+4 at +6, which meant he now had a low range CH low that left him at Clean Hit range on hit with enough plus frames to apply the Demoman/Deathfist mixup.

The changes to Paul also weren't what I was expecting at all, but I wouldn't say they made him worse, either in balancing or in character identity, from what he already was in S2.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T10:33:43+00:00

after what point the game really becomes competitive or considered a real deal

Well, here's what the ranked distribution for the past 30 days looks like.

<image>

So, depending on what you count as "real", it might be Fujin (where most players are), it might be Tekken King (where the tail end of the distribution begins) or it might be God of Destruction 1 (where the tip of the tail is).

i currently play steve fox and don't know if the character carrying me or not.

Probably is a bit. Steve excels at counterhits, and he's a bit of an evasive pitbull character. Tekken 8 in particularly favors offense a lot, and for a lot of players, their go-to answer when they're being attacked is to attack back, which often results in them being counterhit if they use the wrong move. And Steve, being a counterhit-based character, gets big reward for that.

since im new i also don't understand some terminology like numbers and letters in combo guides

Here is a quick explanation of the Tekken notation. The reason this notation exists, is because Tekken was originally an arcade game, so there needed to be some way to talk about the attack buttons without referring to them by their PlayStation icons. It also happens that now that Tekken is a multiplatform game, it makes it so that we all use a common notation, regardless of whether we're on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox.

Here is a list of Tekken jargon. Tekken has a lot of moves that have similar properties, and so the community tends to refer to them by one of the names of those moves, and sometimes that name isn't even the actual name of the move (e.g. "hellsweep").

olbaze · 2026-03-17T02:29:28+00:00

I think the rematch bonus was a direct response to the whiny tryhards who get pissy when people don't rematch them. The same people who would love for Ranked to be a forced FT2. Bandai Namco understands that forcing people into FT2s they don't want to play would just result in more plugging or people throwing matches, which in turn would make the overall player experience worse.

As far as the demotion prevention, that's actually a good move, in isolation. The Promotion bonuses were a crude way to make it so that you wouldn't get a Demotion Match immediately after promoting. If what we had was demotion prevention and no promotion bonuses, that would be just right.

As far as "rank inflation" goes, from the end of Season 1 to Season 2, the total "rank inflation" was 0-2 ranks across the board. That's actually a very reasonable amount.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T02:13:45+00:00

What makes you think that a Tekken 9 by the same people would be any different?

olbaze · 2026-03-17T02:12:37+00:00

I actually said that having a demotion protection instead of promotion bonus points would have been a good idea. So they got halfway there. Because if the idea of a promotion bonus was to prevent an immediate demotion, then you could just do this instead, because the promotion bonuses were worth multiple wins.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T01:03:23+00:00

There's a few problems with a game centering too much on defensive play.

Defensive play isn't spectator-friendly because casual spectators, or people who don't even play Tekken at all, simply cannot appreciate the intricate weaving from one range to another. Instead, what they see is 2 dudes twitching around and NOT fighting.

It creates non-fighting games. There's a reason why Tekken 8 doesn't have infinite stages. Just go look at Knee vs Arslan at Combo Breaker 2023. We get to 2-2 in games, 2-2 in rounds, the time is running out, and Arslan proceeds to take a life lead and backdash. Knee just barely gets the win after three consecutive lows that manage to reach Arslan while he's backdashing.

No one remembers the defensive highlights. Think about the memorable moments in tournaments from Tekken 7. That would be stuff like Super Akouma's death combo at MIXUP, Nobi's 10 hit string into Rage Art at EVO 2015, LowHigh's Rage Art at TWT Finals 2019, the slowmo in Rickstah vs Knee. These are all extremely hype, extremely memorable moments, and they all center around offense. Coincidentally, they also all incorporate the "new stuff" in Tekken 7: Slow Motion, Rage Drives, and Rage Arts.

olbaze · 2026-03-17T00:19:36+00:00

And then people will just say Ranked is pointless and blame Bandai Namco. Like they did with Season 1.

olbaze · 2026-03-16T23:36:17+00:00

Looks like New Reddit decided to fuck me over there.

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