New Video! The Success (and Failure) of Tekken 8's Story (ad-free!) (Patreon)

Hello everyone,

Realising I forgot to post this here but here's the Tekken 8 video, ad-free for all patrons! I am on the record as being weirdly obsessed with the Tekken lore—centring on the Mishima blood feud between Heihachi, Kazuya and Jin (among others), but incorporating all kinds of different stories intermingling and allowing you to fill in the contextual blanks in your own head. It's why 7, with its comparatively paltry single player offering and lacklustre narrative, became pretty disappointing to me over the years.

All of which is why, with this video, I wanted to focus not on the new Heat system or online play, but on the story (entitled The Dark Awakens) specifically—what works, what doesn't, and how the game got me rethinking what I thought was always the problem with Tekken story modes. In this review/analysis, let's discuss The Dark Awakens, as well as Tekken 8's story more generally.

Hopefully you enjoy the video. As much as the comments seem oddly baffled by the idea that anyone would dare engage with something so daft, I love talking about the Tekken lore, haha. Despite its problems, it's still so fun and goofy—with 8 bringing a lot of that back after 7 took its focus away from the narrative in favour of competitive play. Hopefully you get a kick out of it too.

There's a new Patreon-exclusive video coming tomorrow (early access patrons can already watch it) and it's a bit of a curveball for me—talking literature and films as well as games. I dunno, if you enjoyed my Edge of Tomorrow or Cheese Drum Kit vids (which a number of you seemed to), you'll hopefully enjoy this upcoming video. I certainly had a blast putting it together. 

I wouldn't be able to do this—make videos on fighting games then diving into more philosophical talk of adaptation and the like—without your continued support. You allow me to do the work that keeps this interesting for myself and hopefully for you too. I cannot thank you enough for that.

Got a lot of fun stuff coming next month too, so keep an eye out!

Thanks again,

Hamish

Writing on Games