While Tekken 8 will come with all of the bells and whistles the series is known for — that being an Arcade Mode that moves the individual stories of certain characters forward and a Story Mode largely focused on the Mishima Clan — the developers of the decades-long 3D fighting game have added a new scenario into the mix. Arcade Quest is a story mode made to celebrate the history of Tekken and its player base. Similar to its competitor Street Fighter 6, Bandai Namco created a mode that places you in the center of an entirely original story focused on your journey as a part of the fighting game community. Based on my experience, Tekken 8‘s Arcade Quest Mode encapsulates the feeling of being at, well, the arcade and engaging with the community proper.
I had the opportunity to get a taste of this mode, which featured full character customization. I was able to create a unique avatar for myself that stylistically resembled the personalized avatars you could create on the Xbox 360. A decent range of clothing, hairstyles, and accessories were immediately available to me, with additional items available through using earned in-game currency to unlock them or progressing through the main scenario of Arcade Quest Mode in Tekken 8. Unlike the main scenario in Tekken games, this has nothing to do with the Mishima Clan and the blood feud waged between generations of men extremely well versed in the martial arts. Instead, your role is that of a local, someone interested in the burgeoning community around Tekken 8‘s release and entirely new to the scene. It feels a bit self-congratulatory, but makes for an interesting premise.
As a newcomer, you meet characters that are unversed in the fighting game community, those who want to play for fun, and veterans looking to knock inexperienced players down for the sake of their own egos. Overall, the tone of Tekken 8‘s Arcade Mode is one versed in positivity and uplifting each other as you challenge other players in fights to raise your rank. This is done through challenging NPCs at in-game arcades. It encapsulates the feeling of being at an arcade, casually challenging other players at arcade machines to rounds of Tekken, just without losing dollars worth of quarters. While playing this mode, I actually recalled how I first got into Tekken with a fellow journalist, sharing how I used to sit myself in front of Tekken 3 cabinets at a local amusement park when my class would go on our end of the year field trip. It was nostalgic enough to make me reminisce and trace back my roots as a Tekken player, though I’ve only ever played the game casually.
But outside of harkening back to the early days of playing Tekken, the Arcade Quest Mode allows you to test out characters and even try out it’s Super Ghost Battles. Players can effectively challenge themselves or the “Ghosts” of other players that more or less mimic the behaviors and patterns they’d take in an online match. Battling your Ghost also helps it learn and become more effective at essentially being you. I picked newcomer Victor to go through the Arcade Quest Mode with and challenged my own Ghost once I had the opportunity, and it learned very quickly that I loved to air juggle. In fact, it started attempting to air juggle me as well, having learned what my go-to combo was when I was testing out this mode. It’s definitely an interesting way for players to sort of learn their own behaviors and patterns, and even switch it up as a result. When I saw I was overly reliant on one specific combo I was forced to switch it up to overcome my own Ghost and walk away victorious.
Overall, this singular facet of Tekken 8 is an interesting one. While what I experienced of the story feels pretty basic, it seems to be a fun narrative about community and having fun — which is something that fighting game community is about. So it was nice to see that crystalized in what I played of the Arcade Quest Mode in Tekken 8. It’ll definitely be a nice way for players to engage with the game outside of the Story, Arcade, and online versus mode (or even Tekken Ball).
Tekken 8 will be released on January 26, 2024, for the PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
