Tekken 8
In the game's first few weeks, Tekken 8 had become a title that has been my choice for "2024's GOTY" despite the year being in its infancy. There hasn't been a review for Tekken 8 quite yet as there are many words I have to say about the game for another time. The graphics and atmosphere are a fantastic starting point, however, and it will also become the purpose of this post. The attention to detail in Tekken 8's has reached extraordinary levels since Tekken 7 thanks to Unreal Engine 5. Aside from textures and character models, the stages have seen a vast improvement from the generally still environments of the previous game.
Tekken 7 had beautiful backdrops, with Infinite Azure and Jungle Outpost being classics. Tekken 8 continues with the aesthetically pleasing stages, including Sanctum and Yakushima. Bandai Namco was also able to return to creative stages, including a mansion with an underground lab. Many stages are large or filled with gimmicks that alter them as the fight progresses. I was curious to see how these stages were in detail not meant for the player's eyes. As the game runs on Unreal Engine 5, there are tools easily available to unlock the engine's in-game camera mode. This allowed me to answer that question along with others I never knew I had questions for.
I knew Urban Square was the first video I needed to cover as we are based in New York, of course. I also knew that there was more to the stage than what was visible to players. I was able to look at the billboards, the textures of the buildings, and various other interesting perspectives that were used for the level. The passing cars aren't actual models but passing sprites that run on a cycle. Several stages will utilize a mix of polygon models and sprites to save space. I was more impressed by how accurate many of the models for the objects were in New York. A newsstand, a bus stop, and a New York City Metro bus all look like how they would in real life.
Even the stage itself is surprisingly accurate even from an out-of-bounds perspective. Naturally, the stage is based on the real-life New York City tourist trap, Times Square, so a lot of objects and buildings are made to reflect as close to the real-life location as possible. The developers did a great job at incorporating Tekken's universe with the real world here. This isn't where the stages stop, however, as there was another stage I wanted to check out as well. That would be "Descent Into Subconscious," a multi-leveled stage that takes place inside of Jin Kazama's 'Subconscious."
Each level is activated via a floor break, showing a different layout and stage environment. The upper level where players begin fighting is based on the Tekken 5 stage "Hell's Gate," the second level based on Tekken 6's "Gargoyle's Perch," and the final level being an expansive space where Jin can be seen out of bounds. What I discovered from each level is that as the players make their descent, the level objects are loaded accordingly. It's only once the player reaches the ground floor does the full scope of the level reveal itself.
There are other multi-tiered stages in the game that I will feature here as they all have their own interesting topics to note. From the smaller stages like the "Coliseum of Fate" to the surprisingly vast "Into The Stratosphere." Stay tuned for a future post where I share more of my discoveries of the stages and camera tricks used outside of the game itself. One of them includes the menus themselves, which are 3D rendered models of the characters themselves as already revealed in the Eddy showcase.