Tekken 8 Season 2 began recently making some very controversial adjustments to Bandai Namco’s 3D fighting game. The recent balance changes are in favor of a rush-down offense that can absolutely obliterate defenders. This includes increased damage across the board, significant chip damage on block, and an increase in 50/50 scenarios when blocking. The feedback for the latest update has been so negative, it has impacted its Steam reviews, which currently sit at “overwhelmingly negative.” As such, an emergency patch will be implemented within the next few days to combat these issues.
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Bandai Namco will deploy the emergency Tekken 8 Season 2 pass at 10:30 A.M. JST on Thursday, April 17th. This means it should be implemented around 9:30 P.M. ET on Wednesday, April 16th. Full patch notes will be released shortly before the patch goes live. Additionally, this is just the beginning of the developer’s efforts to bring the game back into a satisfying state. Another update is planned for mid-May and includes a reduction in air combo damage and adjustments to Heat Burst moves.
Here are some of the specific adjustments that will be made with the upcoming update as noted by the developers:
Tekken 8 Season 2 Balance Adjustment
(1) Increased the maximum health value to help mitigate situations where matches are decided through overly one-sided momentum.
In light of the current damage environment trending toward inflation—driven by offense-heavy game balance and increased aerial combo damage—the maximum health value will be increased. This adjustment is intended to ease situations where matches are too easily decided by one-sided momentum.
(2) Gradual Adjustments to Overly High-Reward Moves
This update addresses the overall inflation of attack strength and combo damage by implementing adjustments that can be done quickly to moves that provide excessive reward.
We recognize this as a game-wide issue rather than a problem limited to specific characters, and we plan to continue reviewing and tuning these aspects progressively.
Examples of adjustments included in this update:
- Balance adjustments to high-performance moves that can repeatedly create advantageous situations and lead to one-sided gameplay.
- Adjustments to moves with disproportionately high reward compared to their risk, ensuring fairer risk-reward balance.
(3) Rebalancing the Offensive and Defensive Aspects of the Heat System
Currently, the benefits gained by the attacking player through the Heat System are considered too great.
The following adjustments have been made:
- Revised damage scaling when using Heat Dash to suppress combo damage inflation.
- Adjusted frame advantage on hit for Heat Engagers, maintaining benefits for the attacker while allowing the defender more opportunities to respond.
Additionally, adjustments have been made to chip damage as follows:
- Reduced additional chip damage during Heat.
- Changed the system so that moves which already deal chip damage do not receive extra chip damage while in Heat state.
*Future updates will also include adjustments to the amount of chip damage dealt by individual moves.
Future Balance Adjustments
In the next update planned for mid-May, adjustments will include reducing air combo damage and reevaluating the performance of Heat Burst.
Additionally, we will continue to review issues that could not be addressed in this update, such as:
- moves that consistently create advantageous situations leading to one-sided matches
- attacks with disproportionately high rewards relative to their risk.
Moving forward, we remain committed to incorporating player feedback and will focus on resolving cases of overly dominant character performance and interactions that result in one-sided gameplay.
