Bandai Namco has responded to the widespread negative feedback from the Tekken 8 community following the release of Patch 2.0 and the launch of Season 2. The update, which introduced character balance adjustments and a new fighter, Anna Williams, has been met with criticism, leading to review bombing on Steam and backlash on social media.
The developers took to Twitter/X to acknowledge the issues and outline their plans for an emergency patch (v2.00.02), scheduled for mid to late April. They confirmed two high-priority problems affecting character behavior:
- Paul’s “Hammer of the Gods” move unintentionally allows a guaranteed follow-up attack on block.
- Jack-8’s “Jab Elbow > Make Some Noise” sequence is uninterruptible when blocked.
In addition to these urgent fixes, Bandai Namco is investigating other character behavior issues and a malfunction in the game’s OPTIONS settings. The upcoming patch will also implement some of the balance adjustments previously mentioned in the “Future Adjustments” section of the patch notes, including a change to throw break chip damage.
Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada also addressed the situation, acknowledging the disconnect between player expectations and the actual balance changes. He assured the community that the development team is working tirelessly to analyze feedback and improve the game accordingly.
“I understand that whatever words I may be accused by the community about it, that is not the essential issue and it is not the time to worry about it. We have our Battle & Tuning team working around the clock to read through all the feedback logs from the community and work on future policies and changes for the better. Thanks.”
Despite the backlash, Bandai Namco reassured players that they will continue to monitor feedback even after the emergency patch is released. The developers promised more details, including a confirmed release date, as soon as they are finalized.
Tekken 8 is currently available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
