The world of gaming has grown a lot more sensitive to those with disabilities in recent years as evidenced by the increasing number of options to maximize accessibility, but no one in the fighting game space seems to be going in as hard as Bandai Namco for their upcoming Tekken 8.
Even if you played the Tekken 8 demo there’s a good chance you didn’t explore these options, but they’re worth taking a look at. Not only do these visual alterations heartwarmingly imply the fact that more users than ever can take part in and enjoy the next King of Iron Fist Tournament, they’re kind of trippy as we view the action in whole new ways.
We’ve seen special options for certain kinds of color blindness in games for a while now, but never have we seen this level of customization. Players can choose to apply various visual filters to character models, background, and heads up displays, hopefully finding combinations that help them fully perceive all necessary details.
Characters can be masked with solid colors, horizontal or vertical lines, or shades of color. X user SJS|Gatterall shared a quick video of the Tekken 8 demo with the backgrounds set to be all white with just black outlines and the characters patterned with lines, and it actually looks intriguingly cool in addition to its utility:
Why is no one talking about the color blind accessibility of Tekken 8. Literally no game has done this. pic.twitter.com/i8qdUYwpPP
— SJS | Gatterall (@itwhiffed) December 27, 2023
Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada actually responded to Gatterall’s post, stating that this all actually started back in the days of Tekken 7. Such options were in the works in the development offices, but were never quite ready to be brought to fruition.
“I have developed and tested ‘an accessibility version of TEKKEN 7’ (albeit not for sale), several years ago,” says Harada. “Those studies have been introduced into this version of TEKKEN 8.”
Below are a few images with some of the various options toggled on and off. Check them out and let us know if you think this kind of approach will quickly become the standard for fighting games moving forward.
Click images for larger versions
You can try out the Tekken 8 demo right now for free on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game is set for official launch on January 26, 2024.