The developers see this as a potentially favorite way for people to play long-term or as a way to learn a new character before switching to Arcade Style. Using this, you can chain together masterful combos without needing to learn inputs of characters with whom you're unfamiliar. This control scheme, which can be toggled on or off during any point in the match using the left bumper, streamlines the Easy Combo and assist features of Tekken 7. Meanwhile, the new Special Style is intended for more casual play. Arcade Style allows for classic Tekken gameplay, letting longtime players feel at home. Tekken 8 is the latest fighting game to join the trend of offering different control schemes to suit different skill levels. 'We don't want people to just be running around and turtling,' producer Michael Murray says. Instead, you now regain health through mounting offense. The highlighted parts of the health bar are recoverable, but because Bandai Namco wants this to be a more offensive-facing experience, the game doesn't reward health for avoiding your opponent. Tekken 8 also signals the return of the recoverable gauge in health bars from the Tekken Tag series, meaning that if you take damage, a small portion of the health bar remains white. Typically, Heat status lasts about 10 seconds, but the effect can be extended through attacking your opponent, delivering on that theme of aggression. They also have access to Heat Smash attacks and Heat Dash movements, which consume the Heat bar. Once a character is in a Heat status, they glow blue, and all their attacks are more effective. On top of that, players can also engage with the all-new Heat system with a press of a button or by pulling off one of a few different attacks. The Rage system returns from Tekken 7, giving players a cinematic 'break-glass-in-case-of-emergency' move once they have low health for Tekken 8, these Rage Art moves are triggered by the same button input for each character.

To push players to be aggressive, Bandai Namco has evolved some mechanics from past Tekken games while introducing a new one.

This is not only to create a more frenetic, offensive experience for players but a more visually appealing spectator sport for people watching streamers or tournaments like Evo. While players can still block and sidestep incoming attacks, Tekken 8 does its best to encourage players to go on the offensive. Harada and his team settled on a theme based on aggression to differentiate this version. So, there aren't really any learnings you have to take your knowledge of the game and use that as a guide of, 'What might they like?'' we can't really use any of the learnings of Tekken 7 because you have to make it something different that people don't expect. 'You know that if you're going to add a different number to the end of it, you have to make some big changes, but it's very hard because you don't know if it's going to be in the direction that people will want you to go. ', it becomes very hard to make changes to the game for the next installment,' executive producer Katsuhiro Harada says. Tekken 8 brings forward many of its predecessor's successful conventions and mechanics but does so in a way that forges its own identity.

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