Speaking during an interview with GameReactor, Tekken 7 Game Director Katsuhiro Harada spoke at length about the game’s use of seamless, cinematic storytelling and how it differs to previous entries in the 20-year-old fighting series.
Harada-san explained how earlier games "had like a brief kind of introduction and then you would have battles and then depending on your character when they had some kind of rival come in and you would fight them, there’d be a short exchange of words before the match and then you’d go back to the normal battle".
Tekken 7, however, changes this up quite significantly, he went on to explain:
"You have the CG and opening movie, it just transitions smoothly straight into the in-game cinematics and right into the battle", he said, before adding "not only that, but in the past once you had the cinematics where the spoken lines finished, you would still start in the same positions across your opponent and normal battle etc.
"This time though the conditions are as they are in the cinematics, so if you start with lower health that’s how it is when the battle starts, you start from the positions you were last seen in the movie etc., and even when you’re fighting you have different game events that kind of occur, and you’ll have exchanges between the characters while you’re fighting, so it’s more seamless this time around".
Elsewhere, Harada-san said that Tekken 7 offers "one, at least, conclusion to the Mishima saga with the father and the son fighting each other.” Apparently, the fighting sequel is meant to revisit “why they’re fighting.”
Tekken 7 is due out on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One in early 2017. The game will also be compatible with PlayStation VR, although we’ve yet to see any examples of how the game will function with the headset.
In terms of gameplay mechanics, this latest addition to the series attempts to eschew the long-winded air combos of Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, although a variation of the ‘bound’ move still exists in the shape of the all-new Tailspin attack.
In addition, Tekken 7 introduces the deadly new Rage Arts function, as well as implementing a series of new characters, such as the franchise’s first ever Saudi Arabian combatant, Shaheen. Old favorites such as Kazuya, Paul, Nina, King, and Law are also appearing in the sequel.
Recently, Harada-san addressed the controversial topic of input lag within the Tekken universe.