Leroy Smith is Tekken 8’s resident Wing Chun master. As a result, the cane-wielding, goodest pupper-having combatant likes to fight at close quarters and use swift movements and strikes to not only impose his offense on his foe, but use defensive techniques to quickly maneuver around oncoming attacks.
With all of that having been said, part of Leroy’s standard tool set in Tekken 8 includes the ability to parry attacks. We’ve already seen the power of Perfect Parry in Street Fighter 6, and this new showcase from Desk makes us scared to think about anyone actually getting THIS good with Leroy’s parries in real matches.
Desk’s latest trek into the world of Tekken 8 is a bit of a 2-fer. Up front, it focuses mainly on being an exhibition to demonstrate how strong Leroy’s parry can be in the right hands, but it also doubles as a bit of a combo video as well.
To get the party started, Desk deflects a full combo string from Bryan by perfectly timing and parrying each potential hit. After doing so, then slipping a jab, Leroy answers back with a short, but sweet combo before transitioning into the next scene.
What Leroy parries progressively gets tougher and more interesting, and along the way we see him parry some of Devil Jin’s Devil Gene abilities within his combo strings. Leroy, again, fires back, only this time Desk hits a Desk-level combo that involves a strange juggle and a cross under for a little bit of swag.
To close things out, Desk’s Leroy takes on the challenge of parrying Kazuya’s attacks. No matter what Kazuya can throw at him — even some of the crazier, extended Mishima-style combo sequences — Leroy shrugs it off without even breaking a sweat, and theoretically, if a player can get the timings down for these attacks and get the proper read, this stuff could actually be done in a real match.