With Bandai Namco Out, Fans Are Making Their Own Tekken 7 Patches

It's not much of a hot take to say that a lot of the Tekken veterans weren't too pleased with Tekken 8 and the changed it made to the tried-and-true formula that catapulted this franchise into the mainstream.

As such, it's also no surprise that instead of moving on to the latest entry, some people continue to not only play Tekken 7, but make some attempts to make it even better.

One such person is 6weetbix, who has just published a custom Tekken 7 patch that makes some sweeping changes to how the game functions.

The minute changes are too numerous to list, but the patch notes also provide an interesting look into the general direction behind the changes:

• CH launchers. In general, with some exceptions to maintain character identity, they are being removed, changed to minicombos, made unsafe, or made slower. This also applies to safe df+2, which are effectively CH launchers. Will leave most stance and WS buttons for now as they’re less accessible.
• Safe homing mids. These moves will be reworked to be more situational, rather than being strong and reliable high-coverage mixup buttons.
• Fast buttons. Jab strings (e.g. 1,2) and m4 often remove any reason to use other moves for their purposes. Jab strings will be brought in line with T8’s standard -3 on block due to 2 extra frames of recovery. m4 will be changed to CH minicombo or require a punishable string for full combo.
• Looping offense. Anything that leads to easily looped 50/50’s will have their situations adjusted to provide more counterplay to the defender or substantially less reward.
• Wall crush on block. Almost all removed. This mechanic should be used to nerf wall splats. As a block effect, it makes little sense outside of niche situations.
• Safe mid wall bounce. Almost all removed. Not interesting at all that it becomes the only mid worth using if opponent has back to the wall.
• Crouching lows. Crouching lows are often of a similar reward to standing lows but with lower risk. In many cases, this encourages avoiding standing lows entirely to avoid needing to enforce them, which simplifies all pressure for both players. Generic d+4 is the most egregious case of this, but others like Jin d+4 and Noctis d+3 also need addressing to encourage a broader game plan.
• Matching T8 numbers. Wherever there were reasonable changes in T8, we match those numbers to make switching beteween that and c7 easier. In particular this is for block and hit frames.

It's interesting that this patch actually takes some cues from Tekken 8, but only when it actually contributes to what Tekken fans generally have been asking all this time – improving the defensive side of the game, lowering the damage, making the game less volatile, and tying matching risk to moves that can reap great rewards.

In spite of that, the patch is receiving some mixed responses (and it's worth noting that 6weetbix has a feedback guideline on their website), but that's also quite expected. Despite all the bellyaching about the state of the game or even the whole series, if there's one thing that people tend to dislike, it's seeing any sort of changes that they perceive as a substantial nerf to their character, and a patch that tries to reign in some of the offensive elements is bound to do that.

Regardless of the responses, this is a genuinely commendable effort, and one of the best things about the modern fighting games and the passionate people who play them. If you want to rearrange the game to fit your own vision, there is a way for you to do so, though it obviously requires a good degree of technical skill and design acumen. Hopefully this patch/mod manages to find its audience, there's a lot to appreciate about thoughtful overhauls like this, and people can even use this to play offline if they wish.