It took me 1 year to save up for Tekken 8 and in that 1 year period I could only buy the original version without dlc. In the first 7 hours when playing Tekken 8 the shock culture is very very much felt as if I was playing a different game, everything feels new starting from the appearance of the UI, the system, and new features such as the lobby where we can customize the chibby character as an identity, and of course customize character skins which in my opinion are freer than Tekken 7 even though I had heard that custom character skins were better in Tekken Tag 2 tournament but because I just played the Tekken game series from Tekken 7 so I think so far the best character skin customization is in Tekken 8.

Now, let's discuss the mechanics of this game. Since whenever Tekken implemented the heat system similar to Max Mode in King of Fighters or Drive Impact in Street Fighter, and according to me, the heat mode seems slightly unfair? Maybe, but the heat system benefits and harms equally. When we almost complete a combo, we can use the heat burst to keep our enemy airborne, allowing us to continue the combo beforehand. However, if the regular combo isn't extended, we can use a move with heat engagement to add damage to the previous combo or even continue it until hitting the rear wall, which is very advantageous. On the other hand, as victims, this is extremely disadvantageous since once we allow our enemies to use heat combos on us, the incoming damage often seems illogical or difficult to anticipate—examples include Kuma's heat engager, Lars' low attack heat engager, and many others.

Additionally, in my opinion, the walls in Tekken 8 are slippery. For whatever reason, every time I corner my opponents with several moves, they end up slipping to either side rather than staying stuck to the wall, thus ruining my combo attempts and getting attacked back by the opponent. This happens multiple times with different characters, indicating that the walls in Tekken 8 are indeed quite slippery. This contrasts sharply with Tekken 7, where opponents sticking to the wall tightly rarely moved left or right.

Furthermore, some characters' moves became easier to perform in Tekken 8 compared to Tekken 7. These adjustments certainly helped new players entering the world of fighting games, but certain characters possess new moves that are hard to anticipate or even buffs on existing ones. An example is Alisa Bosconovitch's circular saw move; in Tekken 7, it could be canceled by pressing button 1/JAB, whereas in Tekken 8, Alisa's start frame is incredibly fast, making it nearly impossible to execute even with the fastest Jab input. Another case is Eddy Gordo; honestly, I'm puzzled by Harada's thought behind adding one button that triggers numerous moves, akin to releasing ten-hit combos in Tekken 7 but simplified to just pressing button 3 it should probably be adjusted further.

Lastly regarding buff stacking, as widely discussed lately, Heihachi receives a permanent buff during Round 3 marked by an 'engine logo' visible below HP bars. This additional damage is highly unjustified, and I strongly dislike this buff stacking system. Only DLC characters appear to have these buffs, implying that we must pay to climb the ranking ladder easily. Initially seeing this buff stacking mechanism reminded me of Heihachi from Tekken or Aldous from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Clearly, I am deeply unsatisfied with this buff stacking system.

All of this is purely my opinion based on my experience playing Tekken 8 for the first 18 hours. Despite all its shortcomings, Tekken 8 is still very enjoyable to play. If you encounter toxic players who like to ki-charge at the end of a match or even comment on your Steam account, just block those players in both Tekken 8 and on Steam. This way, you should encounter them less frequently during online matchmaking.

Oh, and one more thing: the visual effects are indeed stunning and impressive, but for me, some attack effects are overly extravagant. They are so flashy that they make my eyes blink and end up getting me hit by my opponent.

It took me 1 year to save up for Tekken 8 and in that 1 year period I could only buy the original version without dlc. In the first 7 hours when playing Tekken 8 the shock culture is very very much felt as if I was playing a different game, everything feels new starting from the appearance of the UI, the system, and new features such as the lobby where we can customize the chibby character as an identity, and of course customize character skins which in my opinion are freer than Tekken 7 even though I had heard that custom character skins were better in Tekken Tag 2 tournament but because I just played the Tekken game series from Tekken 7 so I think so far the best character skin customization is in Tekken 8. Now, let's discuss the mechanics of this game. Since whenever Tekken implemented the heat system similar to Max Mode in King of Fighters or Drive Impact in Street Fighter, and according to me, the heat mode seems slightly unfair? Maybe, but the heat system benefits and harms equally. When we almost complete a combo, we can use the heat burst to keep our enemy airborne, allowing us to continue the combo beforehand. However, if the regular combo isn't extended, we can use a move with heat engagement to add damage to the previous combo or even continue it until hitting the rear wall, which is very advantageous. On the other hand, as victims, this is extremely disadvantageous since once we allow our enemies to use heat combos on us, the incoming damage often seems illogical or difficult to anticipate—examples include Kuma's heat engager, Lars' low attack heat engager, and many others. Additionally, in my opinion, the walls in Tekken 8 are slippery. For whatever reason, every time I corner my opponents with several moves, they end up slipping to either side rather than staying stuck to the wall, thus ruining my combo attempts and getting attacked back by the opponent. This happens multiple times with different characters, indicating that the walls in Tekken 8 are indeed quite slippery. This contrasts sharply with Tekken 7, where opponents sticking to the wall tightly rarely moved left or right. Furthermore, some characters' moves became easier to perform in Tekken 8 compared to Tekken 7. These adjustments certainly helped new players entering the world of fighting games, but certain characters possess new moves that are hard to anticipate or even buffs on existing ones. An example is Alisa Bosconovitch's circular saw move; in Tekken 7, it could be canceled by pressing button 1/JAB, whereas in Tekken 8, Alisa's start frame is incredibly fast, making it nearly impossible to execute even with the fastest Jab input. Another case is Eddy Gordo; honestly, I'm puzzled by Harada's thought behind adding one button that triggers numerous moves, akin to releasing ten-hit combos in Tekken 7 but simplified to just pressing button 3 it should probably be adjusted further. Lastly regarding buff stacking, as widely discussed lately, Heihachi receives a permanent buff during Round 3 marked by an 'engine logo' visible below HP bars. This additional damage is highly unjustified, and I strongly dislike this buff stacking system. Only DLC characters appear to have these buffs, implying that we must pay to climb the ranking ladder easily. Initially seeing this buff stacking mechanism reminded me of Heihachi from Tekken or Aldous from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Clearly, I am deeply unsatisfied with this buff stacking system. All of this is purely my opinion based on my experience playing Tekken 8 for the first 18 hours. Despite all its shortcomings, Tekken 8 is still very enjoyable to play. If you encounter toxic players who like to ki-charge at the end of a match or even comment on your Steam account, just block those players in both Tekken 8 and on Steam. This way, you should encounter them less frequently during online matchmaking. Oh, and one more thing: the visual effects are indeed stunning and impressive, but for me, some attack effects are overly extravagant. They are so flashy that they make my eyes blink and end up getting me hit by my opponent.