Tekken 7
Tekken 7 | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
Publisher(s) | Bandai Namco Entertainment |
Director(s) | Yuichi Yonemori |
Producer(s) | Katsuhiro Harada |
Composer(s) | Akitaka Tohyama |
Series | Tekken |
Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
Platform(s) | Arcade |
Release | Arcade |
Genre(s) | Fighting game |
Tekken 7 (鉄拳7) is a 3D fighting game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the ninth installment in the Tekken fighting game series. The game is the first in the series to make use of the Unreal 4 game engine. Tekken 7 had a limited arcade release in Japan on February 18, 2015, followed by a nationwide release on March 18, 2015.[1][2][3]
Gameplay
Tekken 7 focuses on 1-on-1 battles.[4] Two new mechanisms are introduced in the game. The first, Rage Art, allows the player to execute several unblockable moves that deal roughly 30% damage depending on the character (the location test had several characters dealing up to 80% damage, but were changed in the release version after feedback) once their health bar is critical, in exchange for inactivating the normal attack power increase. The second, Power Crush, lets the player continue their attacks even while being hit by the enemy, although they would still receive the damage dealt by the enemy's attacks. The mechanic also works only for absorbing high or mid attacks.[5] The bound system, which staggers a character to increase opportunity for additional hits, is replaced by Screw Attack, which makes the enemy spin sideways when they are hit airborne, allowing the player to inflict additional hits after they reach the ground. Unlike bound, however, Screw Attack cannot be used to do wall combos. Thanks to a new display system, the game's multiplayer allows players to choose which side of the screen to play on.[citation needed][6] Movement has undergone some changes and now is similar to the movement mechanics found in Tekken Revolution, most notably when characters walk backwards.
The arcade version features the traditional stage-based playthrough, in which the player progresses by beating five different opponents one by one, ending with a fixed penultimate and final stage. Matches may be interrupted if another player joins the game. Online mode is available for both local and international play. Character customization is featured, allowing the player to modify characters' appearances.[7] For the first time in the arcade series, the game features a practice mode, which allows players to train moves against an opponent for a limited amount of time, as well as an option to collect in-game rewards, mainly customization items, through "Treasure Box" by winning enough matches.
Plot
The game's producer Katsuhiro Harada said that the game's story will be much darker than ever before,[8][9] closer in tone to Tekken 4 and will serve as the conclusion of the Mishima clan saga.[10] It will provide answers regarding the feud between Heihachi Mishima, his son, Kazuya Mishima and his grandson, Jin Kazama, including the origins of Devil Gene among other Tekken mysteries.[4] A trailer released in July 2014 introduced the backstory regarding Heihachi's wife, Kazumi Mishima, who was killed by him years prior to the events of the earlier games.[11]
Characters
The game has 27 playable characters, 20 of whom make up the default cast on launch; other characters will be added over time. Eight make their debut in this game.[12] The new characters are as follows:
- Katarina Alves: A sassy Brazilian woman who practices the art of Savate. She was designed to be a beginner-friendly character.[13]
- Claudio Serafino: A white-clad man from Italy who's a member of an Anti-Devil organization combating the Devil Gene's threat. Empowered with a Sirius magic.[5]
- Lucky Chloe: An otaku who wears a kitten-themed costume and has a "Freestyle Dance" fighting style. Though speaking Japanese, her blonde hair and blue eyes instead suggests a European ancestry.
- Shaheen: A shemagh-wearing Saudi Arabian man who handles a "Military Self-defense" fighting style. He was also designed to be a beginner-friendly character.[14]
- Josie Rizal a: A young Filipino woman who wears a yellow top, a blue miniskirt, and a red bow. She practices Eskrima and Kickboxing.[15] She was first discovered in a leaked arcade data[16] before being officially revealed during a Tekken 7 broadcast in Niconico on March 29, 2015.
- Gigas a: A hulking, red-skinned humanoid who appears to have cybernetics attached to his otherwise nude body. He practices "Destructive Impulse". Like Josie, he was first discovered in a leaked arcade data before his official reveal in a CAPCOM TV Chokaigi stream in Niconico.[17]
- Jack-7 a: A new model of the Jack series, he has a slightly modified design with red hair and green color scheme for his arms.
- Kazumi Mishima a: Heihachi's wife and Kazuya's mother, who possesses the Devil Gene. Kazumi's fighting style is Hachijo Style Karate, which is similar to the Mishima Style Fighting Karate as used by her husband and son with additional abilities including summoning tiger and levitating. She was originally served as the game's unplayable final boss prior to becoming the seventh time release character added after launch. Kazumi also has a devil form, which is currently unplayable outside of the final stage in which she is fought.[18]
Returning characters
^a Post-release addition (arcade)
Continuing the trend from Tekken Tag Tournament 2, in addition to Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean, several characters now speak with their native languages, including the new characters mentioned above; thus Leo and Lili now speak German and French, respectively, for the first time in a canonical sequel, while newcomers Claudio, Katarina, and Shaheen speak with their native Italian, Portuguese, and Arabic respectively. This still does not include certain characters with differing nationalities, such as Xiaoyu, Alisa and Lars, who continue to speak Japanese due to their character backgrounds.
For time release characters, each were released on separate dates. The flow of time release characters is currently put on hold after Kazumi's release.
- March 31, 2015: Jin Kazama
- April 7, 2015: Devil Jin
- April 21, 2015: Josie Rizal
- April 28, 2015: Gigas
- May 12, 2015: Yoshimitsu
- May 19, 2015: Jack-7
- June 2, 2015: Kazumi Mishima
Development and promotion
In January 2014, Tekken series director and producer Katsuhiro Harada expressed interest in continuing the series on PlayStation 4,[19] and later said that PlayStation was the primary platform of development for the new installment.[20] Tekken 7 was officially announced by Harada on July 13, 2014 during EVO 2014.[21] The game was not planned to be announced during that event, but due to the leak of a video presentation of the game, Harada had no choice but to announce it.[22] It would make use of the Unreal Engine 4 game engine which would allow the game to be developed for multiple platforms.[23][24] While Tekken games historically have been PlayStation-based in arcades (PlayStation 4 is built with familiar PC hardware), Harada stated that Tekken 7 runs on hardware based on PC architecture.[25]
The first location tests of the game were held in Tokyo and Osaka from October 3 to 5, 2014.[26] The game runs in 1080p and 60 frames per second, and is expected to receive at least one graphical upgrade.[27]
On January 27, 2015, a tournament was held in the Nexon Arena in Seoul, South Korea known as Tekken 7 Crash. The tournament featured mostly teams of three, with separate rounds. The tournament featured the same game build from the first location tests, which excluded the new characters Lucky Chloe and Shaheen revealed after the tests, despite earlier claims of the characters being played in the tournament. Additionally, Alisa Bosconovitch was made unavailable due to South Korea's restriction of the depiction of chainsaws. Harada was present.[28][29][30] During the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2015, a newer build of the game was showcased, offering Lucky Chloe and Shaheen as part of the character roster for the first time as well as the traditional stage-based gameplay progression.[31] It was announced by Mad Catz that Tekken 7 would have DualShock 4 support at the upcoming EVO 2015.[32]
A Bandai Namco-sponsored tournament, The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2015, is scheduled to take place in November-December 2015. The tournament will see players from around the world compete, with ¥10,000,000 (~$81,000) set to be awarded to the finalists. Three qualifiers will be held in Japan in Fall. Two top placers from EVO 2015 will also be reserved seats, as will select players from South Korea, North America, and other places.[33]
A collaboration with the also Bandai Namco-owned The Idolmaster series was announced during the "THE IDOLM@STER M@STERS OF IDOL WORLD!!2015" event celebrating the series' 10th anniversary on July 19, 2015, which showed a video featuring the game's female characters fitted with costumes based on different The Idolmaster characters, including Asuka Kazama as Haruka Amami, Lucky Chloe as Miki Hoshii, and Kazumi Mishima as Chihaya Kisaragi, as well as a joke that has Paul Phoenix donning an idol costume. Minus Paul, all of the idol costumes can be obtained during the campaign from July 22 to August 19, 2015.[34][35] As part of the summer campaign of 2015 running from July 29, 2015 to August 31, 2015, swimsuits are available for purchase exclusively for the female characters, except Leo. The male characters, meanwhile, are all given the option to fight barechested.[36]
Tekken 7 has already been released in arcades nationwide in Japan, with the release date for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to be announced.
Controversies
The announcement of several of the new characters has led to some controversy online. Negative reactions to the character Lucky Chloe from several message boards has led to Harada tweeting that he may consider removing her from the North American version of the game, making her exclusive to the East Asian and European versions, and instead replace her with a new well-muscled skinhead for the North American market where "They want just Muscle & Skinhead (with Gun or MMA style) character." It was later revealed that Harada did not intend for the tweets to be taken seriously.[37] Although reaction to the revelation of new character Shaheen was largely positive,[citation needed][38] the reveal eventually led to Harada making a statement on his Twitter in response to those criticizing the inclusion of an Arab character in the game.[39]
While the announcement and reveal of the Filipina Josie Rizal character was also met with mostly positive feedback,[40][41] her revelation was also met with a mix of excitement[42] and derision among Filipino netizens.[43] Among the criticisms around the net were the lack of respect towards the martyred Philippine national hero José Rizal, who practiced wrestling and Eskrima from Calamba, Laguna, Jujutsu from Japan, fencing and marksmanship from Europe and weightlifting[44] as well as misrepresentation of Filipino Martial Arts.[45] According to Tekken chief producer Katsuhiro Harada, Mad Catz community manager Mark Julio,[46] and Josie's character designer Mari Shimazaki,[47] Josie Rizal practiced kickboxing and Eskrima, but the move set in her reveal video consisted of mostly generic and recycled moves from earlier existing characters in the Tekken series.
Her outfit and character design also drew a lot of mockery,[48] in its lack of actual Filipino flavor.[49] and her ending "win" animation which had her crying was widely mocked by netizens.[43][49] Someone claiming to be an official of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts was not quite happy with the way the character of Josie was depicted and stated that they would try to look at steps to remedy how she might affect the image of José Rizal and the Philippines[50] by possibly submitting additional materials for the Tekken Team to use.[51] However NCCA legal counsel Trixie Cruz-Angeles clarified that the agency had yet to issue any position on the matter in a post she made in her personal Facebook page Friday: "The NCCA has not asked for the deletion of Tekken character Josie Rizal. In fact, the NCCA has not taken cognizance of the issue nor issued an opinion. If you've been reading that website, understand this please, it's SATIRE.The name of our chairman is Prof. Felipe de Leon, Jr. Also, matters pertaining to national heroes are within the jurisdiction of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Chill."[52]
References
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- ^ a b "First Tekken 7 details revealed at Comic-Con". Polygon. 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ^ a b "Tekken 7 Details Emerging from Location Tests; New Character Claudio, Power Crush Moves, and More". Ian Walker. 2014-10-03. Retrieved 2014-10-03.
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op4tKwd7ero
- ^ Push Square. "Yes, You Can Extend Paul Phoenix's Hair in Tekken 7 on PS4". Push Square. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
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- ^ "Tekken 7 Will Have A Very Dark Story". Attack of the Fanboy. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ Brett Phipps. "Tekken 7 will conclude the Mishima Saga, new trailer revealed". VideoGamer.Com. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "Tekken 7 Will Answer Questions Like Why Heihachi Had To Kill His Wife". Siliconera. 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
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- ^ "New Tekken 7 Characters Leaked". tekkenzaibatsu.com. Tekken Zaibatsu. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
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- ^ Anderson, Kell (2014-01-06). "The Producer of Tekken Wants to Continue the Series on PS4". Push Square. Retrieved 2014-10-22.
- ^ Harada, Katsuhiro. "Don't rush me. Tekken is not development by PC base. It's Develop by Playstation Native. also we don't have Tekken community on PC now". Twitter. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
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- ^ "[Tekken Crash Returns] 테켄 크래쉬 리턴즈 2부 이벤트전, 결승전 -EsportsTV 철권7". YouTube. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
- ^ "[Tekken Crash Returns] 테켄 크래쉬 리턴즈 1부 4강전 -EsportsTV 철권7". YouTube. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2015-02-05.
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- ^ "Meet Josie Rizal, the new Filipino character in 'Tekken 7'". Rappler.com. Mar 30, 2015.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Mopz (March 29, 2015). "Comments section - Jin, Devil Jin, Josie Rizal officially unveiled for Tekken 7". EventHub. Cite error: The named reference "eventHubTekken7outfit" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "NCCA official unhappy with Tekken character 'Josie Rizal'". GMA News Online. March 31, 2015.
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