Tekken 8 Season 2 launched in the early hours of April 1, 2025, and brought with it more than 1,500 changes across its character balancing and heat system changes. The problem is, a lot of people were hoping it was some sort of cruel April Fool’s joke, as folk are not happy with how the game has changed.
The Tekken community has always been quite vocal when it comes to sound off their approval or disappointment over balancing changes, but this is perhaps the biggest backlash we’ve seen to date. It’s so egregious that even pro players are concerned. JoKa, a professional Tekken player who stands among the world’s best, had this to say on X:
Related Content – Upcoming PS5 Games 2025: The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon
Characters getting buffed even in the slightest is not the way along with more stance-based transitions where 50/50 situations are enhanced. Some of the new moves added are insane with little to no counterplay. Characters getting their weaknesses patched and identities being removed by homogenisation is lazy balancing. Oki being gutted and heat just getting buffed makes no sense. Combo damage is too much across the whole roster.
I definitely think the sidesteps are better but does that really matter when moves exist with crazy tracking/hitboxes? Chip damage is still excessive with most heat smashes remaining the same. Removing strategy in favour of more 50/50 situations isn’t interesting gameplay and is moving away from the foundation of Tekken. Where are the defensive options that were mentioned?
JoKa actually sums up things pretty concisely when it comes to the issues people have with Tekken 8. We were promised better defense options, and instead it feels like the team have instead buffed everyone to the point where you can win by applying crazy mixups without much counterplay, while Heat remains overwhelming. I’ve played a few hours of Ranked Match as Kazuya, and while some things have been toned down, the top tiers still feel overpowered; King now has a homing throw mixup while in Heat, for example, while Lee has been inexplicably gutted.
On the plus side, I think that matchmaking is a lot better now, as you can more closely match with people on your skill level, and the points system has been revised for the better. Still, with the overwhelmingly negative reception to Season 2, I wouldn’t be surprised if many hotfixs are inbound.