Review
Tekken 8 has reportedly reverted to using its original balance team ing a disastrous season 2 launch, according to game director Katsuhiro Harada. That indicates that the new team behind balancing season 2 has been switched back out, and Harada seems confident that the team members who had originally handled those duties at the game’s launch can get things back on track for Tekken 8.
Released in February, Tekken 8 was a major success for Bandai Namco right out of the gate, exceeding sales expectations with more than 2 million copies sold in its first three weeks. The first new game in the franchise in nearly nine years, fans were delighted by the return of fan-favorite classic fighters like Nina Williams and Jin Kazama alongside new additions like the energetic Reina.
But the massive Tekken 8 season 2 update in early April proved incredibly problematic, with a series of new moves and buffs that completely threw off the balance of power between members of the playable roster, particularly in its throw system. In response to fan backlash, Harada has noted in a post on Twitter that Kohei Ikeda, also known as Nakatsu, is being given a much greater level of control over all future balancing changes, now holding the final say on all potential changes related to battles and tuning. Nakatsu also provided balancing management duties for 2015’s Tekken 7 and 2011’s Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and was a longtime fan of the fighting game series before that, leading Harada to conclude that «I don’t think there is anything to worry about in the future.»
Tekken 8 Puts Nakatsu Back in Control of Balancing
The switch back to the original balancing team structure isn’t the only damage control that Bandai Namco has taken. About two weeks after the launch of the newest season, Tekken 8 began rolling out emergency updates. The first in a set of three updates was released in the middle of April, focusing in large part on counteracting big damage boosts in season 2. These changes included extending fighters’ life bars to enable them to take more damage and starting to readjust the damage dealt by overpowered combos and individual moves.
Harada is very active on social media and frequently reaches out to the community for feedback. He was quick to respond to Tekken 8‘s season 2 backlash in early April and publicly acknowledged fans’ concerns with balancing just a few days after the season’s launch. With the original team back in place and Nakatsu restored to full control over balancing, he seems confident that the game is once again heading in the right direction.
