I got to play it for about two days, for a total of about fifteen or sixteen matches. My performance was good enough for the situation-sadly, the place only had pads in the testing area and were more like just those general stations you might see in a store or something. I'm pretty terrible on a pad these days(not to mention they make my hand hurt, something a stick doesn't do even after a long time on one), but I managed to at least function well enough to win more than lose.
I only played Dragunov(wait, I played Claudio for a single game, but it was vs. a brand new player, and I didn't want to go on a roflstomp mode. Yeah, Claudio's pretty awesome but at least I have no idea how to use him besides db+3, b+1, hopkick, d+2,2 and WR2. I don't know his combos), but that was enough for me; I wanted to get a good feel for what Dragunov would be like in the game. And even in ver. B(yeah, THAT version), he felt freaking fantastic.
The game overall felt smooth and fun; I had no issues with the controls beyond me sucking at playing pad, but the actual game felt very nice. Movement felt nicer, the game looked crisp(it was the PS4 version as well and I was looking at it right close), sure, the Super PC version may/will probably end up looking better but I can assure people that this is going to look just fine.
I got one picture but it's terrible and blurry but I'll post it anyway:
Proof!
Now, again, ver. B was the Crazy Buff Akuma version, and yes, I fought many of him. He is very jarring to fight the first few times, as my brain wanted to default to Street Fighter with him...and IMHO, the times I did the best vs. him(I had just over a 50% win rate vs. these Akumas, no, none were Poongko level of course but a couple were actually pretty damn good), were the times that I sort of managed, for lack of a better term, to force him to play Tekken. I DO feel that the jump-in game feels a bit off in Tekken; I would prefer he worked a little more on Tekken's rules(though keeping the fireballs and meter, so long as the meter is more throttled like it is in later versions.) The fireballs and meter I think are kinda okay, but the jumping I'm not sure feels great. Maybe we'll get used to it. (Hell, I'd take a guaranteed anti-air move given to each character.) Games in the high teens may not be enough to tell. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt...
...Especially since the rest of the game really is SO fun! I really do think that this game is going to bring back that old feel when Tekken was in it's bigger days. I was watching brand new players come up to play several games and just having fun with it, having no idea about the game yet they were enjoying all of the effects, the colorful characters, and so on. This bodes well for a time not unlike the time of Tekken 3.
Again going back to my main; Dragunov just felt so natural in my hands. 7.0 Dragunov felt awesome, but this version felt even better. New properties added to some moves(and we don't even have the best ones added yet, those come in a later version), his new outfit looks amazing in person, his Rage Art is the coolest and most satisfying one to hit, IMO, and his Rage Drive is great fun to play with. As was with 7.0, some combos are easier to land(as is with many characters), but optimization still takes chops, which IMO is a good balance.
I really like how Rage Drives work-while I was more experimenting with it since I couldn't theorycraft too much in the way of combos, but it's going to be a lot of fun to utilize I think in a live game. Rage Arts I feel are either best for those YOLO comeback moments(though I feel RD's will be able to be better optimized for damage on stages with walls and floors.) I kinda think that RAs don't scale enough in combos at the moment(in fact, I'd argue that on an open stage one can squeeze more out from an open-ground combo ending with an RA than using an RD since the RA still does a good 15% or so in a combo), but on stages with breaks I think the RD is going to shine. For an example, Dragunov can do one of his fat combos on the temple stage, end with the spike, break the floor, more combo, more wall, and probably damn near kill them since the spike enders tend to be nasty.
I do think that the damage should be kept a little in check; in ver. D in the videos it may still be a little high overall(I mean, in general), and while Tekken's always been a game of 'Risk losing 50-60% if you mess up', I sort of think 'Risk losing 75-90% in a 1v1 game with no red life or tag outs' is a little too much, and mostly it's the RDs that are the culprits. Still, I think they are taking this feedback in mind and will work with things. The game still has a couple of months to balance, I reckon! I also admit that still, the new cast leaves me a little uninspired compared to past offerings, but I do like Shaheen's design and Claudio's playstyle a lot(I actually like some of Claudio's alt outfits better than his primary.) I do like his SNK boss shout-out, though. (And as a side note, Shaheen seems more rounded than he did in 7.0, with gameplay adjustments that make him less one-note, so good job listening to feedback there.)
Really all in all I see this as being 'The New Tekken 3', in a sense. It's more balanced, it's bigger, it's more in depth, but it also has those great new things to attract the new and more casual audience, or it has the potential to. If they keep going with that cool story mode idea(making sure lots of characters get their share of time), have extra stuff to appeal to that audience, and also making sure there are things like a great training mode, I'm totally seeing it.
C'mon, early 2017. You're almost here!
(PS: This was less in-depth mechanically and more an overall 'how it felt' post, which I know is a little different from my usual posts chucking out frame data left and right, but I felt it more proper for this one.)
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