Getting into Tekken seriously can feel like one of the most challenging endeavors in fighting games with their intimidatingly long character moves list and mechanics that set it apart from 2D fighters, but it can help to know where to (and where not to) potentially start.
That’s why Diaphone and pro Tekken player END|Landon D recently joined forces to craft a Tekken 8 tier list for character difficulty and overviews for what makes individual fighters easy or hard to master.
At the start, Diaphone explains their criteria for the rankings with subjects like how many moves does a character have that need to be learned to be effective, execution requirements, and how well can a fighter interact and bypass the fundamentals of the game.
They go through in alphabetical order, so Alisa is up first to bat being ranked on the easier side of things despite adding in her chainsaw stance because she has strong pokes, simply tools to get in and apply safe pressure — along with doing a ton of chip damage with those saws.
Landon feels that Azucena is probably the easiest character in the game with her jab string setting up multiple strong options, her flying elbow for simple pressure and dodge stance to help mitigate incoming pressure or counters.
As for the other new female fighter in the game, Reina ends up in the average category with an easy jab string into mixups and wild pressure even if she comes with some of the harder things associated with the Mishima style.
Not everyone can be simple, however, since you’ve got Yoshimitsu of course, but those wanting to play characters like Devil Jin, Raven, Bryan, Nina and some others may need to put in some more time to get them fully rolling.
You can check out their full tier list below though we also highly recommend checking out Diaphone and Landon’s video for the breakdown as to why. It is pretty long, but you can also skip around to the characters you’re most interested in or curious about too.
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