TEKKEN 8’s Special Style Is More Than An Assist Mode

During my 2 hour hands-on session with TEKKEN 8 at Bandai Namco’s office in Singapore, there was one feature eyeing me off in the bottom left of my screen – the style switch button. I consider myself relatively adept at fighting games, I’ve spent my fair share of time in training modes for numerous titles, and often don’t bother with assist modes or auto combos because they don’t often offer much in the way of optimization. It was only when I swallowed my pride and decided to hit L1, that I realized TEKKEN 8’s Special Style is much more than meets the eye.

Special Style is described by Michael Murray and Harada-San as a combination of the Easy Combo and Assist features in TEKKEN 7 – only evolved further. It’s designed to ease newer players into the game, while also infusing TEKKEN 8 with the action, thrill, and excitement it’s going for, even if you can’t pull off the craziest of combos. Perhaps most interestingly, is the way Harada-San references Special Style as a pseudo training tool and crutch for high level players in certain situations.

“It’s mainly thought of to be more accessible to new players but it’s easier to use when picking up a new character for more experienced players also. When pro players don’t want to make a mistake, they might want to execute a Rage Art by pressing R1 as opposed to inputting the exact command, decreasing the potential for error. You can switch in a certain instance when you don’t want to mess up a certain command or technique in specific situations.” Harada explains.

Harada also doubled down on the training potential of Special Style, “Often you’ll pick up a character to learn their weaknesses by using them yourself. Special Style grants access to a character’s main moves, and encourages you to play how that character’s game plan is envisioned. It cuts down on the time spent learning new characters. Once the game is released and players get their hands on it, maybe they’ll find interesting ways of using it that we haven’t thought of.”

The ability to use Special Style to avoid messing up inputs is a tantalizing one – especially under pressure. I often found myself swapping to it when I was unaware of specific Power Crush inputs, opting instead to hit the X button for a sure-fire way to gain access to one in a pinch. Likewise, messing around with new characters was made fun and intuitive. Instead of fumbling about and hitting buttons in the hopes something would string together, you can instead make use of auto-combos that while far from optimal, are damned cool to watch unfold.

As Harada mentioned, I’m sure the full applications of Special Style won’t come to fruition until players pick its bones clean when the game comes out in full. For now though, Special Style has some sweet implications that feel great in practice, and it’s cool to see a typically beginner-friendly tool having a place in high-level play also.

You can read more about our two hours of hands-on in more extensive detail right here.