Since its initial location tests in Japan in the year 2014, Tekken 7 has been through a lot. The addition of Rage Arts and Armour Moves has been received negatively from the Tekken community as it “copies” the fighters main competitor, Street Fighter. Street Fighter is known for have the flashy Super/Ultra moves and slowly over the years the rival fighting games have given into this mechanic.

Mortal Kombat was the first one to incorporate this element with the addition of its “Xrays”. Although, this was probably one of the coolest features that has graced the MK series since the fatalities, it propelled the sales of this game with that feature alone, and NetherRealm Studio’s latest MK instalment, MKX, is no different.

Now that Tekken 7 has Rage Arts, the top players tend not to use them along with the Armour Moves. Unless of course it’s going to end the match and you want to look all badass like so….

When the world first saw Tekken 7, there was essentially outrage as enthusiasts and even casual Tekken players complained, and rightly so, that Bandai Namco had been lazy and not changed the characters costumes and design styles. Even worse than this, the Rage Arts that were meant to really show off this game have come under heavy negativity. Comparing the Rage Arts to the equivalent in the Soul Calibur series, it is quite clear that Bandai Namco have literally “reused” the same animations for moves and Rage Arts and incorporated into Tekken 7 as seen in this video:

So far it seems as if Tekken 7 has been getting the worse press for a fighting game of all time, and to make matters worse, the game hasn’t even set foot on European soil at all. Japan, Korea, certain states in the USA and a few other neighbouring countries of Japan are the only places to have gotten their hands on this game. No BETA tests have been conducted like for Street Fighter V and no announcement on an actual release for finished game.

However, on the 12th December, Bandai Namco announced the arcade expansion to the vanilla version of the game, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. In this expansion comes new default character costumes and intros, updated graphics, and new camera angles on the Rage Arts. This pleased the majority of the community as Bandai Namco were at least listening to their requests. But the biggest game changer was yet to come. In the announcement trailer for Fated Retribution, it was revealed that Akuma from the Street Fighter is going to be a playable character and is officially apart of Tekken lore. This move by Bandai Namco was received positively overall but the hardcore fans thought it was an insult to the series due to the fact that a Street Fighter character had to be put in to make the game look appealing.

None the less, it was enough to get the fans of the fighting game community hyped up enough for a Tekken game since Tekken 3.

Adding to the growing popularity of Tekken 7, Nina Williams has very recently been revealed to be returning to the franchise. Fans of the series will be happy to see this veteran character return but this time with a slight twist. In the reveal trailer Nina is seen wearing a wedding dress and looks very much like “Beatrix Kiddo” from Kill Bill. this now raises suspicion on who Nina could have said ‘yes’ to, or if it even got that far and the worst happened. In addition to seeing this character, we got a glimpse at the updated graphics which look spectacular.

As for the next character reveal, no one knows when Bandai Namco could release the next trailer for T7: FR but there may be a chance that a trailer drops near to the release of Street Fighter V, which is on the 16th February.  Rumour has it that Namco has new characters in the pipeline for T7: FR but revealing another veteran character such as Lei Wulong may be a smarter move to get people riled up for the release of T7: FR.

Another reason this may happen is because Bandai Namco are holding Location tests for T7: FR for the first time between February 12th and 14th. Smart timing by Bandai Namco as it keeps the game in the back of the players mind as Street Fighter V is released literally days after this location test ends.

Below are some screenshots showing off Akuma’s stage, previous stages and the new default character costumes in Tekken 7 with the updated graphics: