Tekken 8 Season 3 Gameplay Balance Goes 'Back to Basics' as Kunimitsu, Bob, and Roger Return

Same day Alex launches for Street Fighter 6... I'll be playing that instead.

Four days early access means you pay extra so others have to wait four days.

No Julia, I’m disappointed

Sounds good to me and those 3 returning characters are very welcome. Still my main fighter despite S2 shortcomings.

I hate how long the wait is between characters while fighting games hemorrhage players as too much time passes

If the combos do get shortened I'll be happy. It makes no sense for them to be that long in short matches such as this

Never cared much for Bob but nice to see Kunimitsu and Roger back.

@MrPeanutbutterz Would have been nice to get Alex, instead of Roger Jr, in Tekken also.

And I question, do male Kangaroos even have a pouch?

Bob coming back to save Tekken

@FxTANK Characters take time to make.

@J2theEzzo Roger Jr is the kid in the pouch. The big kangaroo is Roger's wife. We haven't actually had the real Roger in a long time, although he tends to pop up in ending scenes so he isn't dead.

OMG YES YES YES YES

I asked for Roger Jr in the the last Tekken 8 news story, and now he’s back.

Do your dinosaur step dad proud Roger Jr.

I might actually re-install this game on my PS5 if the gameplay changes are good enough. At the very least, Season 3 has a strong character roster. Each of the new fighters announced is a great addition. Haven't cared for any of the previous DLC characters.

Who's on earth asking for Bob? 🤣

And it's just so weird to see "mystery DLC character" again. I guess i got used to SF 6 that show all DLC characters up front on every new season.

@FxTANK Character takes time to finish. From model, animation, voice act, balancing, their story mode, etc. Example like SF 6. One character took 6 months to finished while the projectile needs 4 months to finished.
https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2024/mar/07/behind-scenes-sf6-development/

@Nepp67 Tekken has long combos since Tekken 5 / 6 and it add more to players expression + character mastery. So i don't think they gonna shorten the combos like at all.

@PuppetMaster I doubt that they were as long as this and getting a long combo is easy asf here due to the heat system in this game.

@LifeGirl Yeah, I know Roger Jr is the joey - just thought the "mama" roo looked awful buff, with pecs and all, so didn't think it was the case - but obviously, a male would have no pouch... I think!

@PuppetMaster I didn't ask, but I do like Bob. One of my friends also likes to pull him out as a secret card

@PuppetMaster The mystery character is either a guest or brand new character.

@Nepp67 No not as long as Tekken 8 since in Tekken 5 and 6 you have more chance to get "touch of dead" combo even with just 7-8 hit combo. Tekken 8 have more strict damage scalling to prevent ToD combo.

@DennisReynolds Feels like it'll be guest.

@J2theEzzo Well i guess congrats to the ones who loves Bob.

@PuppetMaster Then just add in the combo length of 5 and 6 with damage scaling, would that not solve the problem?

@PuppetMaster Wouldn't complain at a new character though as i love Miary Zo and think they done a great job with her, been maining her since she dropped.

Yeeeeeeeah I think I will continue to stay away from any game who changes so massively on flights of fancy. They deserve to fail.

Would like to get back into the game. I haven’t been playing it much as I should, so I’ll give season 3 a fresh start.

@LikelySatan I guess you never liked fighting games then?

@LikelySatan - These changes are not due to a “flight of fancy”, they’re a course correction after the S2 changes were so unanimously criticised.

@LifeGirl @J2theEzzo - I think J2’s right here; if you take a look at this picture https://manualdosgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/roger-jr-tekken-8-1024x540.jpg
You can see that the “pouch” is actually part of the clothing the big kanga is wearing. That, combined with the much more masculine looking physique makes me think they’ve, for whatever reason, kept the joey, but swapped out the mum for the dad.
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I’m curious as to what they mean with their “back to basics” statement, will be looking out for how that unfolds. As for the characters, Kunimitsu is an expected and welcome return, Bob I honestly could have done without, but I guess he is at least a unique character, and as for Roger, as mentioned above, it seems they’ve ditched the mama kangaroo in favour of Roger Sr., which is…..an odd change, but other than that, nice to see the character come back.

@DennisReynolds I'm not yet try Miary Zo but i also prefer to see a new character over guest.

@FullMetalWesker Good shout! I hadn't realised the 'pouch' was only in the shorts. Seems it's a double Roger combo!

@PuppetMaster Everyone needs a little Bob in their life 🥹

@J2theEzzo Male kangaroos don't have a pouch! Which has always bothered me as the "parent" Roger in Tekken is clearly meant to be male due to it's build.

Then again... this is Tekken, so suspending reality is probably for the best!

Still no Lei Wulong…

I thought Tekken was always about long combos or did the S2 update make em too long or something that it just didn't feel like Tekken?

@MrPeanutbutterz Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a smidgen of outrage about their inaccurate marsupial depiction!

But agreed - life-like accuracy was never quite a Tekken strong point.

@DennisReynolds it used to be my favorite genre. But my favorite fighters are Sam Sho 2, SF Alpha, Tobal 2, MK 2, Bushido Blade, etc. Before the FGC ruined them, in other words.