UPDATE 3/29/24 10:05 AM: Had to include the official reveal trailer for Mr. Eduardo Gordo himself. Also updated with higher quality screen captures from the trailer.
It has been almost a month since Tekken 8 was released and readers may have noticed a lack of written content. For the first time in months, I wanted to give the YouTube channel some love so I've been uploading content over there. There's a lot to discuss about Tekken 8 and with the latest "live letter" that came to pass this morning, a lot of information was revealed for the future roadmap of the game. The biggest news was the announcement of Eddy Gordo as the first DLC character released post-launch. Today was the first time the developers showed off a test build that featured the long-time series veteran.
I'm about as big of a Capoeira fan as I am a fan of fighting games. So much, I've written about key fighters that had made an impact in video games. Since Tekken 3, Eddy has always held the stigma of being a "beginner-friendly" character, and with how "beginner-friendly" Tekken 8 is, his inclusion was a given. The challenge here was to revamp his character to make him a competitive threat among high-level play while also keeping his kit simple. It worked for all newcomers, Victor, Reina, and Azucena, so this formula would surely work for Eddy.
As such, I will write this to compare what I've noticed from the brief showcase to his previous Tekken 7 incarnation. These are all purely from an observer's perspective. Every single new move he has I do not know the notations for. It's impossible to know without the notations in front of me, however, I did make educated guesses based on his movements and what the developers announced themselves. Please do not take my words for granted as well. The developers have stated this is a very early dev build and they didn't even show us the Rage Art. I'm thankful they showed enough for me to write this, and it was quite a bit to take notes of.
For those unfamiliar with the notation that Western Tekken players tend to use, I'll quickly share what each means in correlation to a command in Tekken 8. Anything specific will be mentioned as they come up.
f - forward
b - backward
u - up
d - down
db - down-backward
ub - up-backward
uf - up-forward
bf - back-forward
ff - dash
WS - While Standing (The state in which the player is returning to a neutral position from crouching)
WR - While Running (Or Running, to be short)
1 - Left Punch
2 - Right Punch
3 - Left Kick
4 - Right Kick
1+2 - Left Punch + Right Punch
Etc...
To start, Eddy's ff+3 is now a Heat Engager. Heat Engagers in Tekken 8 are a player's panic button that gives them greater benefits than using a Heat Burst. As Heat is the character's once-per-round chance to bring out their best potential, the bonuses of recovering health on top of having a full bar of Heat and frame advantage are too good to pass up. There are several moves Eddy has that are revealed to be his Heat Engager and this frontward kick is one of them.
Eddy's Handstand (HSP) faces his opponent in a traditional Bananeira style, this time facing his opponent in a defensive position rather than back turned in a weird split. Every move Eddy has was recaptured to be as close to authentic to Capoeira as is possible within Tekken. This included increasing the evasiveness of getting into HSP. There are two different ways to enter HSP with evasive properties to the left and right. He can also move forward while HSP, for the first time since Tekken Tag Tournament.
Most of Eddy's moves had either been replaced or repurposed into other directional moves, which will be explained why later. His old HSP 1 is a new command altogether outside of Handstand. Currently, this HSP 1 has a new animation yet still maintains its Power Crush capabilities. Power Crushes are moves that absorb attacks, often overpowering them and breaking through. In the past, it was a simple knockdown. This new attack has enough knockback to cause a wall splat, which leads to more combos. Which is always good. His new HSP 4 hits once, as opposed to hitting twice in the past. It looks more realistic, so that's good.
Eddy also has a new HSP combo string (HSP 3, 3, 3) which is a mid, high, and high respectively. Again, if the notation seems weird, bear with me. For now, this looks to be his transitional string to use mid-combo as it causes a Tornado effect. "Tornado" is the state in which your opponent flips comically in the air, which can be done once per combo. It's also an important linker for almost every combo in Tekken 8, so needless to say it will be important.
Continuing, Eddy throws out a giant haymaker punch from Handstand which is a new move. It's one of those heavy-hitting mids that looks like it's both safe on block and a counter-hit launcher. What's more is that it leads into his second stance, Negativa, being one of the first moves to directly transition from Handstand to Negativa while maintaining momentum. Eddy's Negativa (RLX) has always been a complex stance for Tekken to get correct. In Tekken, Eddy lays flat on his back, which always confused me. An actual negativa is more like a crouching squat, with the capoeirista ready to move and attack at any moment.
His new negativa reminds me again of his Tekken Tag Tournament, and by extension Tekken 3, version, in which negativa is a transitional stance rather than a fixed one. Instead of laying on his back, he returns to neutral, acting more like Leo's Bokuho (BOK) stance this time around. Again, this is all speculation from a live stream so it may just be a fixed stance. Regardless, Eddy can move forward and backward while keeping his stance. He can also move in and out of Handstand without compromising his position it seems. Eddy has a new attack string in RLX 3, 3, much like his Handstand string. Why are they all Left Kicks? I'm sure there's no reason. It has a similar animation and purpose to his old RLX 3, 4 except it now gives Clean Hit properties. If the low connects at a deep range, the entire string will connect.
Then Eddy pointed to the sky and suddenly gained a gust of wind. Don't tell me Eddy also has a power-up in this game.
The developers mentioned the name of this ability but I couldn't make it out so I will call it his "install," in a manner of speaking. Certain moves give him more install stocks, which changes how his neutral ginga looks. At zero stacks, it's rather stiff. With two stacks, Eddy starts to put more feeling in his step and in his moves. He gains a new string in what appears to be HSP d+4, 3+4, or a variation of a low right kick mixed with a double-kicking mid. At level one, it's a natural combo, but at level two, it causes knockdown. I hope this move is the Floor Break/Blast attack. Eddy always needs more lows.
Another move that gives him a buff in that capacity is db+4, 4, which is a new string addition to Eddy's old db+4. Since its debut, it had the gimmick of being an abusable move that goes on forever. Literally. Now it has a follow-up that not only knocks back, but the follow-up also crushes lows. Eddy loses his power-up stacks in between rounds, but he doesn't lose them during the round once he's earned them.
This reminds me of characters like Manon, Lily, and Jamie from Street Fighter 6 who all benefited from a similar level system with different payoffs. His stance transitions, like the classic f4~f cancel into Handstand, look like all new moves despite the purpose of each button remaining largely the same.
Eddy's old Sidestep 4~3 has been repurposed to a "Slash Kick," a high-impact mid that also appears to be a safe way to enter into handstand. Historically, this move was, for lack of a better term, a "meme." It had a lot of pushback and Eddy just dramatically flew to the other side on block. It was useless and it was unsafe. I'm happy this move looks useful.
This was a new move that Michael Murray was happy to show off. It's a lunging mid-kick that's a Heat Engager, and appears to crush lows and wall splats. While it looks cool and Murray described it as similar to "Paul's Phoenix Smasher," it looks to be a fast enough "punish" for unsafe moves. Again, no idea how fast it is but I would hope it's faster than ff+3 if it's just doing the same thing that move is. Unsure if it’s safe but if it’s a “Phoenix Smasher” as Murray describes, probably not.
Eddy once again has a new string, Standing 3,3 (mid, mid) that seems to act like his f+2,3 in T7. I have a feeling that it may be a frame trap under certain situations because of the animation the training dummy makes when it's hit by the second hit. It's the same animation used when hit by a counter-hit launcher. Standing 4 has a new follow-up in 4.
Wait a minute, HE’S LITERALLY MASHING 3!
So the biggest change to Eddy's kit is that almost all of his major tools for his kit has been simplified to a single button press. Remember how I said earlier that Eddy's stigma is "Mash '3 and 4' until you win?" I think the developers have a great sense of humor because simply pressing one or the other is enough to get the player to do something.
Standing 3,3 naturally transitions into Handstand 3,3,3, which transitions into Negativa 3,3. If that lands, remember, he gains a buff, but Eddy can do any of these moves at any time alone. Simply pressing "3" enough times will cause Eddy to get through all of his important transitions. The same goes for the “4” button, hence why “Standing 4, 4” is a thing.
Standing 4,4 leaves Eddy in a crouch, leading into his rising 4, or "while standing" 4. I'll call it ws4 for short as I mentioned before. In the past, this move was his eleven-frame attack that was perfect for keep-out. It seems it has a string extension in ws4, 4, 4, 3+4, which was Eddy's old b4, 4, 4, 3+4.
What is interesting about the old string is that b4 was his counter-hit launcher. Since it's baked into this new string, I wonder if the second right kick in the string has the same properties. It would be insane if they casually gave Eddy an eleven-frame counter hit frame trap from rising, but I would not be complaining.
Because if it works like how it did in previous games, he can go into RLX stance with his 3+4~d ender, I can imagine. So he gets a stance mix potentially from an eleven-frame WS punishment if WS 4 is still 11f. The mix will NEVER DIE. The sample combo Eddy does is df3, 3,3, HSP 3,3,3. He just presses 3 and gets a free buff. Katarina could NEVER.
In the past, like almost every single move here, his new df3 is now his old df3+4. It was his main launcher, now tied to a single button, effectively making it his df2. This left me with two questions. His old move that shared df3 is now bound to another command since he does it here. Legacy players have it rough because every character has had their moves changed around.
The one move I was curious about was his ws3, which was his go-to "hopkick," or a launcher that takes priority over low attacks. It was nothing ever to write home about, but it was good at picking people from a distance. In this game, it's now a Tornado launcher, which has pros and cons. On the negative side, combos will be shorter with this launcher as a "post-tornado" combo route must follow for the most damage. On the plus side, the move was notorious for float juggles so having a float become a tornado that leads to a guaranteed combo is a great reassurance.
Eddy already has a lot of great stuff outside of Heat, so much that I forgot he was never in Heat until this part of the showcase. His Heat Smash looks cool. Wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t wall splat. Would be surprised if it didn’t give him a stance mix on block, since every single stance character has one. The question is which stance will Eddy be in? Players may even have a choice between handstand and negativa. While in Heat, Eddy games two new moves. His first resembles his old ff4, a low-crushing mid launcher that went into Handstand
Eddy gains two new moves in Heat, with one that looks like his old ff4 which was his low-crushing mid-launcher that went into Handstand. It now Tornado launches, I guess because hitting the combo in Tekken 7 was too inconsistent. They made it easier like most things with this character.
His second Heat exclusive move has Eddy swing his leg downward like an ax kick into negativa stance. This is a high, but it’s a mix-up as your opponent will have to guess between this and the mid. If the second Heat move also launches, then that means Eddy's already dangerous mix turns into a coin flip the opponent has to hold. I'd love to see what chaos a full-charged Eddy in Heat mode could do.
He has a legit df1. Enough said. Most character's df1's are their primary move to check their opponent. Eddy's sucked because it had no range and it looked flimsy. He didn't get much from it as the follow-up (df1, 1) gave him plus frames, but it could easily be ducked. It's the small things that mean a lot, including his ability to sidewalk. If nothing else, I'm excited to play a character that feels like a part of the roster.
You can Rodeo Throw from Negativa now, which is something uncanny to think of. Rodeo Throw is Eddy's iconic command throw that is incredibly cool to pull off. Undoubtedly, they had simplified the original motion, which was a half-circle forward, as they are making Eddy beginning friendly. Every throw in Tekken 8 has been simplified so I’m sure it’s a simple 1+2 now. This adds a scary mix to an already threatening stance.
One thing I hadn’t considered with the new Negativa stance is that in his previous versions, he was always at risk of getting “floated,” or getting into a combo state by transitioning into stances. Since his stance achieved a complete overhaul, I wonder if Eddy can still be punished with a float juggle. Does Tekken 8 consider him grounded this time around? Eddy has an updated RLX 4, 3+4 string that appears to be a heat engager and crushes lows. An engager from RLX sounds scary enough.
At this point in the showcase, the developers had to return to the main point of the Live Letter, but within those few minutes, I got quite a bit of information out of it. A hundred percent of the new things Eddy has is speculation based on what was told on stream and what was shown, but after playing Tekken for hundreds of hours, you tend to notice familiar patterns. I can't wait for an official trailer and a breakdown of his moves officially to see how close and how far I was from the mark.
Tekken 8 is now available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5