Tekken 8's director and producer share what their overarching philosophy is for balancing its new systems and mechanics

Bandai Namco made a big splash yesterday by dropping a massive wave of information about their upcoming blockbuster fighting game, Tekken 8. From a brand new character reveal to tons of real gameplay footage to see, there is no shortage of details to sink your teeth into about the new Tekken title right now.

As part of their big reveal day, Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada and producer Michael Murray sat down with Game Informer to discuss various aspects of the new game. Fighting game balance is one of the most important aspects of fighters in the competitive space, and the two developers shared what their philosophy for balancing Tekken 8’s newest mechanics and systems has been.

The Tekken series of games has often been regarded as one that is on the more difficult side to learn, with things like characters having more than 100 moves on their move list being overwhelming for some. Tekken 8 is adding all new mechanics and options for fans to use, which can undoubtedly make things tougher to balance in the long run.

Game Informer asked Harada and Murray how they go about balancing everything, especially with new systems like Heat, recoverable health, and Rage in the mix. Harada kicked things off by explaining what the development team’s overarching philosophy is for this balance in Tekken 8.

“Our overarching thought behind the process is, just in general, that we try to avoid mechanics or systems that people have to study or look through a manual to learn them,” Harada said through Murray’s translation. “We try in everything we implement to have players just be able to pick it up and gradually it sinks in.”

“They don’t have to actively go look up anything, they start to gradually pick up the different elements of the game and it formulates into one cohesive experience,” Harada said.

Harada goes on to use Tekken 8’s newly revealed “Special Style” controls as an example of this philosophy. This new control option lets players switch into it on the fly during a battle, and when active, it allows them to hit a single button to pull off specific maneuvers with ease.

“This allows people to pick up the game pretty seamlessly, or if you already know the games, pick up a new character,” Harada explained through translation. “If it’s someone you want to try out or maybe it’s a character you’re trying to learn how to beat, all of these different instances you might want to use this.”

There’s quite a bit more to this interview, including Harada and Michael Murray revealing which 3D fighting game franchise they’d most like to see make a return. Be sure to check out Game Informer’s full interview below. .