My Impressions of the TEKKEN 8's Demo

I’ve finally been able to get some hands-on with TEKKEN 8 through the newly released PS5 demo, releasing on the 21st of December on Xbox and Steam, and I am utterly in love. The demo has a few different playable modes: Story, Arcade Quest, Versus and finally, the shining jewel of my TEKKEN 8 experience, Super Ghost Battle.

The Story demo only gives the option to play the first chapter, along with the surrounding cutscenes. The story follows Jin and his attempts to take out Kazuya to end the devil bloodline. While I’m incredibly excited to see where this is going, it was a little weird seeing Jin put on such a high podium, considering his actions in previous games. The fights between Jin and Kazuya were flashy and had a very anime-esque style of over-the-top action along with beam struggles and transformations. This is where I got my first grasp of the controls and it feels wonderful. Jin feels similar to his TEKKEN 7 counterpart, but with a lot of new and interesting changes, integrating a lot of aspects from Devil Jin into his base moveset.

Arcade Quest is TEKKEN 8’s other main single-player mode, taking a player-made avatar into a fictional arcade to grow from a beginner to the best of the best. The demo didn’t give much time to really explore this system, and it feels interesting if a little lacking. While I love the arcade setting, and the ties it has to the FGC at large, the gameplay itself felt like a thinly veiled single-player ranked mode with a few bells and whistles. I have a feeling that this mode will have a lot more going on in the full version, but as it stands I'm skeptical if I'll spend much time here.

Arcade Quest directly leads into Super Ghost Battle, where I've already spent a surprising amount of time. In the demo, you can only fight your own ghost, which learns and adapts to your own playstyle. The ghost learns from everything you do, from movement habits to your most used attacks. If you keep blocking lows, your ghost will learn, and do the same. As a whole, it feels incredibly strange to have an AI copy everything you do, especially when it steals your combos and punishes. In the full version, you’ll be able to play against ghosts of other players, which will be insanely useful as a training tool. This did have me pondering some strange questions, and mainly, if I lose to an AI of myself, am I good, or am I bad?

Overall, the TEKKEN 8 demo is a great first step into the game, and if I wasn't already incredibly excited, I definitely am now.