“Tekken 7,” one of the most highly-anticipated fighting video games soon to be released exclusively on the PlayStation 4, has kept gamers in suspense and anxiety with all the waiting as developer Bandai Namco Games has yet to announce its exact release date on Sony’s next gen gaming console.
But in order to appease the fans and game enthusiasts amid their anxious waiting moments, the developer has actually made a limited arcade release in Japan on February 18 followed by a wide arcade version release a month later.
Prior to the arcade release of “Tekken 7,” Bandai Namco Games also conducted a location test in early October last year followed by a second one in November 22 and 23 in select locations in Japan.
Up until this time, Bandai Namco Games has yet to make an announcement as to the specific release date of “Tekken 7” on the PlayStation 4 but everyone is counting on its earlier pronouncement that it will be rolled out in 2015.
“Tekken 7” is actually the ninth installment in the “Tekken” fighting game series but it is the first in the franchise that will make use of the Unreal Engine 4 game engine.
Making up for it and adding more excitement
In order again to compensate for the waiting time and also add on to the excitement over the fighting game, Bandai Namco has added three new fighting characters in its arcade version and even came up with distinct gameplay trailers to highlight the fighting styles of the three fighters.
“Tekken” executive producer and director Katsuhiro Harada announced the three new characters for “Tekken 7” on March 29 during the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the series in Japan.
Harada identified the new characters as Jin Kazama, Devil Jin and Josie Rizal. However, the three fighting characters will not be introduced simultaneously to the arcade version. Instead, they will be rolled out one at a time, notes Anime News Network.
Bandai Namco will make Jin Kazama available starting on March 31; Devil Jin will become part of “Tekken 7” starting on April 7; while it has yet to come up with a specific launching date for Josie Rizal.
Old and new
Jin Kazama and Devil Jin are returning fighting characters and they shall be joining Lucky Chloe, Shaheen, Claudio, and Katarina.
Josie Rizal, on the other hand is a fresh face in the fighting game. She is a model and martial artist from the Philippines. She is the first Filipina character the franchise has seen and she makes use of kickboxing fighting style. Mari Shimazaki designed her character for “Tekken 7.”
Apart from utilizing the Unreal Engine 4, “Tekken 7” shall also make use of the new “Power Crash” and “Rage Arts” game systems. “Power Crash” enables a player to do counter attack in the middle of an opponent’s attack while “Rage Arts” is a special power crash that can be used while in rage mode.