"This Backlash Is Not At All Unjustified:" Tekken 8 Developers Respond to Negative Season 2 Criticism

Season 2 of Tekken 8 has gotten a lot of negative backlash from players, and the response is not "unjustified," according to a lead developer, who made a series of social media posts addressing the harsh criticism. Season 2 of Tekken 8 was originally promised as a more defense-oriented patch to help balance the game's highly aggressive gameplay. But with some defensive mechanic expansions also came seemingly over-tuned buffs to characters that led to the game becoming even more aggressive.

Over on X, Katsuhiro Harada, general manager of Bandai Namco Entertainment and Tekken 8 executive producer, made a series of posts addressing the negative feedback of Season 2, saying: "I personally do not think this backlash is at all unjustified," and that the team has no choice but to continue to update the game and make things right with players. Harada made more posts detailing planned changes to the game, as well as an "emergency patch" that will release on April 17.

All The Changes Coming Soon To Tekken 8

Health Increases, Less Chip Damage, And More

The "emergency patch" is going to backpedal on a lot of the Season 2 updates to the game, with the development team fully acknowledging the game is too offense-heavy. Characters will receive a health buff, there will be gradual changes to high-reward moves, chip damage will be lowered even more, and there will be a rebalance to the offense mechanics with the game's Heat System. In future updates, the developers plan on reducing air combo damage and making changes to Heat Burst.

Tekken 8 Season 2 Details Tease Returning Characters Alongside Very Surprising New Stage

New details emerge for Tekken 8's second season, including some returning characters, a mysterious new fighter, and a surprising new stage addition.

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Harada has also stated that the developers are working hard on changes, saying: "The battle team is already developing day and night for the next update. There will be more updates in the future, including parameter adjustments for each character and arts." The developers promised an "emergency patch" quickly after the extremely negative reception to the game's changes by the game's community, and while that one is coming this week, it may take a long time to rebalance the game that fans are happy with.

Our Take: The Criticism Is Fair

Thankfully, The Developers Plan On Making Things Right

Criticism regarding the Season 2 patch and any gameplay-related issues with Tekken 8 is indeed fair, as Harada said. However, there have been a lot of personal attacks and hateful messages toward the developers on Reddit and other social media platforms. Now that the developers are fully taking responsibility for the negative reception to the patch and are committed to fixing the game, no matter how long it takes, that toxic rhetoric will hopefully simmer.

Tekken 8 has always been a complex and rewarding fighter, but the most recent patch may be the most negative the Tekken community has ever been regarding the game or even the entire series. Thankfully, changes are coming, and hopefully, fans will enjoy the gameplay of Tekken 8once again as more patches are dropped, even if it may take a while to see larger character changes.