Bandai Namco Explains The Direction of Season 3 Patch for Tekken 8

Tekken 8 drummed up quite a bit of much needed excitement following the Season 3 announcement. Part of it is thanks to the character reveals for the upcomming Season Pass, but what got Tekken players really hyped up is the tagline of "Back to Basics" that was used to describe the balancing direction.

The game as a whole diverts quite a lot from previous entries, especially with the inclusion of Heat mechanics, but it was Season 2 that truly messed everything up. The boosted offense garnered such an overwhelming negative reaction, that we saw perhaps the first large scale emergency path in fighting game history. Not just a few hot fixes, but a more thorough pass over the many issues that were introduced by the balance changes.

After something like that, and the overall frustration surrounding the game's direction, "Back to Basics" looked extremely promising.

In fact, it might have been too promising, as Bandai Namco felt the need to step in and clarify what they actually meant with that tagline. Their latest newspost is all about elaborating what they actually meant with "Back to Basics" and "Refined Balance," so let's take a look at that.

Frankly, the opening of their post feels like a confirmation that those words were nothing more than fancy marketing slogans rather than a mission statement.

"These terms do not denote a return to earlier TEKKEN battle systems, nor do they imply drastic, comprehensive changes introduced in a single update."

According to the post, going "Back to Basics" mean the following – whether exchanges of offense and defense function appropriately, whether defensive and evasive decisions are reflected accurately in outcomes, and whether individual errors produce disproportionately large consequences.

Maybe someone might correct me, but that simply sounds like... balancing? The words used in the post could describe the balancing goals of any multiplayer game. Making sure things aren't too strong or aren't too weak, making sure that consequences are proportional, all while staying within the game's core vision.

Moving past the misleading presentation of the patch, the changes they preview in the post are aimed at slighting nerfing the offense in the game, with two major adjustments to how Heat works. For example, Heat Smash will no longer trigger a wall splat, which negates quite a bit of damage.

Characters who got charges with their Heat activation will also lose them once the Heat runs out.

Both of these seem like changes that Tekken community will welcome with open arms, but the expectations are so big, that it's unlikely that any single patch could possibly match them. The newspost is aware of this as well, so they promise that the upcoming update is just one among many that will come out over time, partially to avoid disturbing the balance with big, sweeping changes.

Aside from that, you can also expect changes to the way ranked works. The big balance shake-up will reset the ranks, though you will start off higher once it happens depending on your highest ranked characters. The ranked points calculation should also become more clear, since they will be outlining what contributes or detracts from your point gain/loss.

Additionally, we should expect a better matchmaking algorithm that will try to prevent players from being matched with someone drastically outside of their skill range.