January 2024 will be literally loaded with games that gamers will have to pick and choose from to see what they play first or how many they’ll be able to afford. For the fighting game crowd, Bandai Namco is releasing Tekken 8 on January 26th, and they promise a visually stunning entry fueled by Unreal Engine 5 while also diving even deeper into the game’s story mode. At the Tokyo Game Show, producers Katsuhiro Harada and Michael Murray did a special stream of the title so they could drop details for fans. Many of these were about the story mode, but we also got some key gameplay details.
The story mode has officially been titled “The Dark Awakens. According to the producers, the story picks up six months after the end of the previous entry. If you recall, Heihachi Mishima battled against his son Kazuya on top of a volcano. The two had a fierce war, but in the end, Kazuya wielded the Devil Gene and was able to finally put his father down.
Faster forward to the new story, and now it’s all about Jin and Kazuya. The father and son have never been allies, and they even showed a clip of Jin throwing a motorcycle at a helicopter that Kazuya was on just so the son could let the father know “he was around.” It’ll be interesting to see how the title “The Dark Awakens” pertains to what will happen. It could reference the Devil Gene, which both Jin and Kazuya have. Another way to interpret it is that with Heihachi out of the way, the darkness within these two will emerge stronger than ever before.
Longtime fans will also point out that Tekken 8 will bring back Jin’s mother, Jun, who is very much a “being of light” now, and it’s possible she could help her son defeat his father while also quelling the darkness within. We’ll have to wait and find out.
Also within the stream was another look at Arcade Quest. In it, you’ll learn the game’s basics while “creating your own story” with the help of a guide named Max. The producers also confirmed that a second beta will be held from October 20th to 23rd. So, if you want to get in on the action, you need to go to the game’s official website and sign up for it.
If you want to watch the full two-hour stream, check out the video below:
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