Tekken 8 releases next month and it will be the first fighting game powered by Unreal Engine 5. However, as an UE5 title, it will be a huge disappointment. Tekken 8 will not support Lumen, Nanite or Virtual Shadows Maps. Not only that but the game’s lighting has been severely downgraded since its announcement trailer.
Before continuing, let’s get one thing straight. We are not judging here Tekken 8’s gameplay. For those unaware, I’m a huge Tekken fan. Tekken 7 was my most-played game on Steam in 2023, and I’m certain that Tekken 8 will be my most-played game in 2024. I’ve also participated in both the Closed Network Testing and the Closed Beta builds. However, I can’t turn a blind eye to how technologically disappointing Tekken 8 will be.
For starters, Tekken 8 will not be using any of the key techs of Unreal Engine 5. Yes, T8 looks significantly better than T7. However, Bandai Namco could have easily used UE4 instead of UE5. Right now, Tekken 8 feels like an Unreal Engine 4 game inside UE5. So, Bandai Namco used UE5 as a marketing tool and nothing more. This isn’t a true UE5 fighting game.
I mean, take a look at Mortal Kombat 1. Mortal Kombat 1 uses Unreal Engine 4 and has amazing physics, as well as some of the most detailed characters in a fighting game. Tekken 8 with UE5 should, in theory, look significantly better. However, that’s not the case.
The biggest offender here though is the game’s lighting system. Tekken 8’s debut trailer impressed everyone when it came out. This was mainly due to the amazing character models and its advanced lighting system. However, Bandai Namco has severely downgraded the game’s lighting system. I’ve been complaining about this constantly. And now, a month before release, we finally got proper comparisons between the final version and the debut trailer.
Shared by Resetera’s member jett, these screenshots show a massive downgrade to Tekken 8’s lighting system. Thankfully, the game’s character models remain amazing. But man, this is a huge downgrade to the overall image. And I’m not even mentioning the fewer and less-advanced particle effects. Or the raindrops that have been severely reduced. I’m not exaggerating here. The announcement version of Tekken 8 feels like a next-gen remaster of the final version.
All in all, Tekken 8 is a huge Unreal Engine 5 letdown. In no way does this fighting game take advantage of UE5. Bandai Namco has used UE5 for marketing purposes and nothing more. And that’s a huge disappointment. As a game, I’m certain that T8 will be fun. However, it misses that “wow” factor that its debut trailer had. And that’s a shame.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Visually I think MK1 looks better than Tekken 8. Stutterengine 5 needs another gen before it can be used to its full extent imo.
MK1 uses Stutterengine 4.
Well yh but UE4 has been out since like 2014 right? far more matured than UE5.
bait and switch, this time is worse, because UE5 can actually do that Trailer Graphics
i don’t see the point of making UE5 game without using neither nanite nor lumen
Consoles can’t hold 60 fps with all these features.
Now I kind of want to make a UE5 game that doesn’t use nanite, lumen, deferred rendering, or TAA just to give John something else to complain about.
“Tekken 8 releases next month and it will be the first game powered by Unreal Engine 5.”
Go get some sleep John 😆
the first fighting game
It looks SO last gen, and the graphics from the initial trailers were an absolute scam compared to the ‘final’ look.
My condolences John. I hope the next unreal engine game makes you feel better.
https://media2.giphy.com/media/dC9DTdqPmRnlS/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
Game is in closed beta. Let it release and have patched up. I’m sure lighting issue will be addressed. And come on….. Game actually looks wonderful.
It won’t. Lighting plays a big role in the gameplay of fighting games (for balance and visibility reasons).
Well here’s hoping nonetheless
John is a Tekken player ? Big W. Also the main reason why they changed the lightning is for the visibility of the fights.
lol these news make me laugh. I guess I’m really old now.
“Oh no, it does not use lumen, what a letdown!”
Back in my days, we were happy to have 32 colors on the screen.🤣
And in fact, that’s STILL good enough to me!
*goes back to 16-bit fighting games*
The issue is not only the downgraded graphics is the deceptive marketing and hype.
Nanite would be pointless in a fighting game unless the backgrounds are constantly zooming in and out distance-wise.
they made it look like cartoon lighting graphics like street fighter v, injustice 2 has better graphics & lighting system lmao….rip poor consoles can’t handle those reveal trailer lighting system thats why downgraded ….now it looks & gives fully cartoon graphics look & feeling
it has amazing graphics maxed 1440p 60 fps even without those.
Its been clear since the “reveal gameplay” that the visuals are nowhere near that.
Lumen, Nanite or Virtual Shadows Maps? Johnny you speak English so could you translate those terms to us idiots ? And those three things, what makes you think they couldnt insert them at a later stage ?
Two things that are somewhat disingenuous about this read are the fact that they left out 2 key reasons why those things aren’t included. One being the inability to hold a consistent 60fps and the other being the effect that would have on competitive play (the bulk of what Tekken is made up of).
All in all I think there are features that are possible only because of the UE5 engine in comparison to the UE4 engine that are being overlooked because of the lack of a certain desired usage of the UE5 engine. IMO
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I know that this is an old article but I'm hoping they add it to the PlayStation 5 PRO as an update. It doesn't look like it would be anything complex other than lighting system. The main reason was the frame rate, so the PRO apparently is hyper boosting unpatched games, this could use an official patch for it.
People want to rag on complaining about t8 in every version always had a massive upgrade. Hopefully it's not anything complex.
7/8 Yeah the eight looks better but at the same time it looks very samy, not like the other one for each version there was a big jump.