Tekken Negativity Can Seem Bigger Than It Is Dev Says

Tekken is a mainstay of the Evo tournament series--and of the entire fighting game genre. But things haven't been entirely rosy at the King of Iron Fist tournament lately. Despite very strong sales for Tekken 8, many competitive players have expressed a dislike for the changes to characters and overall gameplay introduced in Season 2, and they've been very vocal about it on social media. Knowing that things are a bit stormy around Tekken 8's competitive scene lately, I went into an interview with members of the Tekken team at Evo to ask questions about their upcoming content plans, how to deal with criticism, revisiting past games, and the impending return of their number one 3D fighting game rival.

As the session began, I was shown the trailer for Armor King by director Kohei Ikeda, often referred to by players and staff as Nakatsu. Armor King is a classic returning character, with appearances going back to the very first Tekken. He leans heavily into the "heel" wrestling persona, with a black, spikey outfit and an offense-oriented skillset with a new stance called Bad Jaguar. He can even make the stage floor crumble when performing his rage art.

I noticed that when Armor King's attacks hit the opponent, there's a brief flash of the Japanese kanji "aku" (悪), meaning evil. "You're the first person to notice that," Tekken designer and interpreter Michael Murray said. "It's there because Armor King's classic costume used to feature that kanji prominently."