What's New in Tekken 7 - InfoMazza.com

The arcade version of Tekken 7 is currently being location tested in Japan, offering a slew of details about what’s coming in the next fighting game from Bandai Namco’s Tekken Team. While the game is still unfinished, location tests are providing plenty of new information about how Tekken 7 will play.

The current roster in Tekken 7’s location test features the following returning fighters: Alisa, Asuka, Bryan, Dragunov, Feng, Heihachi, Hwoarang, Kazuya, King, Lars, Law, Leo, Lili, Paul, Steve and Xiaoyu. Two new characters, Katarina — not Catalina, as previously reported — and Claudio are also playable.

The location test also reveals two new additions to Tekken 7’s fighting mechanics: Rage Arts and Power Crush.

Tekken 7 Trailer

Rage Arts are powerful attacks that become available when a player’s health is low — the fighter and their health bar will glow red when the move is ready. Designed to give a fighter a last ditch attempt at a comeback, Rage Arts are powerful super moves that, should they connect, deliver heavy damage with some cinematic flair. King’s Rage Art, for example, starts with a punch and finishes with a body slam. Kazuya’s strings together a punch and an uppercut, launching his opponent into the air, and ends with his eye laser attack.

Power Crush moves are special attacks that won’t have their animation interrupted if the player is hit mid-move. The player executing a Power Crush move can still take damage during the move’s animation, but their animation will apparently finish.

In an example shown in a flier for the Tekken 7 location test, King is shown doing a shoulder charge at Dragunov, who connects with a punch but doesn’t interfere with the Power Move’s completed execution.

Visually, Tekken 7 is showing a number of enhancements over Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Some stages have impressive lighting effects and particle effects abound; counter hits are now illustrated by a shower of bright sparks. Some players are reporting framerate drops in the location test, but Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada points out on Twitter that the game’s graphics power performance is only at 60 percent of what the Tekken Team is shooting for. Improvements still to come, Harada said, include character lighting, refined textures and skin shaders.

There’s some small amount of character customization in Tekken 7 currently. Players can outfit fighters like Asuka with a giant hammer and Dragunov with claw hands. Paul can wear an ridiculously high stack of hair and Lili can ramp up her goth style with dark makeup and batwings.

Bandai Namco is livestreaming some Tekken 7 location test gameplay from arcades in Osaka and Tokyo via Niconico this weekend, but if you’d like a look at some early video captured offscreen, we’ve embedded a playlist below of some footage.

Tekken 7 is slated to hit arcades in Japan sometime next year.

Source: Polygon.com