A Longtime Fan's Thoughts On Tekken 7

"Tekken's" story revolves around the turmoil of the Mishima family, a clan of powerful martial artists whose interaction with supernatural forces leads into a battle against demons and supernatural monsters that soon envelop the world in chaos. The gimmick of this game is that the Mishima family hosts a reoccurring "King of Iron Fist Tournament" that beckons fighters from all across the globe, each with different backgrounds, fighting styles, and personal motivations, to compete for the prize which includes money and fame as well as control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, a multi-national corporation with access to state-of-the-art medical, technological, and military assets.

"Tekken 7" which released last year concludes the Mishima Saga with the epic conclusion of Heihachi Mishima vs his son Kazuya Mishima.

To make a long story short (YES THIS IS A SPOILER):
Heihachi Mishima was a martial artist who was the heir to the Mishima Zaibatsu, which at one time was a humble martial arts dojo, fell in love with a girl named Kazumi Hachijo, who entered his dojo to learn the Mishima-Ryu Fighting Style.

Turns out that Kazumi was really an assassin from the infamous Hachijo Clan, a family believed to be of a demonic bloodline. Years after the two married, she came under possession of a demonic spirit and attempted to kill Heihachi, for it was prophesized that he would eventually envelop the world in destruction. In self-defense, Heihachi killed Kazumi. With a broken-heart and a soul filled with rage, Heihachi proceeded to throw his young son, Kazuya off of a cliff in an attempt to extinguish the Devil Gene, saying that "If he survives, then he cannot be my son.

-AT ONE POINT THIS WAS RETCONNED BY THE TEKKEN ANIMATED FILM AS WELL AS THE TEKKEN TAG GAMES WHERE INSTEAD OF INHERITING THE DEVIL GENE, KAZUYA SOLD HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL-

Fueled by hatred and powered by the Devil Gene, Kazuya emerges and vows to kill his father. Along his quest for vengeance, Kazuya has a son with a woman named Jun Kazama, named Jin, who has inherited the Devil Gene. After Jun disappears, Jin searches for his grandfather, but soon he is betrayed by Heihachi and afterwards vows to exterminate the Mishima clan and the Devil Gene that he has inherited.

After several games and unceremoniously throwing your father/son off of cliffs and/or into volcanoes, Tekken 7 concludes the Mishima Saga in which Kazuya and Heihachi have their final showdown, ending with Kazuya (as far as we know now) victorious, defeating Heihachi and throwing him into a river of lava.

HOWEVER there is a twist now!
Apparently with the introduction of "Tekken 7" the story is crossing over with "Street Fighter!" In this instance, Kazumi enlisted the assistance of the infamous demon Akuma stating that in the event that she dies, Akuma must kill Heihachi and Kazuya. Given the dialogue it appears that Akuma is indebted to Kazumi, and throughout "Tekken 7" he appears to intercept the two fighters, only to initiate a deathmatch with Devil Kazuya at the conclusion of his battle with Heihachi.

As a longtime fan, I was skeptical of the various changes to both the story and the gameplay of "Tekken 7."

The new inclusion of Rage Arts and Rage Drives initially made me fear for the gameplay of "Tekken" and those fears were soon assuaged because the game plays better than I could have ever expected, and in my opinion, balances quite well.

I was concerned when I realized that there were numerous new characters added to the roster who have never been in any iteration of "Tekken" prior. Aside from Kazumi being a playable character, I thought that there were going to be an unnecessary amount of new characters...Which was true, but with the new DLCs coming there may be a remedy to that.

Unfortunately the drastic drop in music quality and the absurd cast of new characters frustrated me (I HATE YOU LUCKY CHLOE) and made me fear that the appeal of "Tekken 7" which was supposed to be the conclusion of the major story would limit itself in order to appeal to new players.

Tekken Jukebox for the PS4 makes the musical problem nonexistent by allowing players to customize all of the music using their favorite OST from ALL of the previous Tekken games. And although there are a lot more new characters than I expected, they are quite appealing and with Season 2 coming in and having those great reveals of old-school (LEGACY) "Tekken" characters, it can only get better.

And Season 2's reveal was epic to say the least!
I'll drop the trailer that made me drop my jaw on the next page.