Things missing from Tekken 7

Bandai Namco recently released a trailer for Tekken 7 showing the included game modes. With that in mind I thought it would be worth mentioning some good things that earlier games have done, but that don't seem to be making it into T7.

Region Lobbies

Games like Persona and Blazblue have regional lobbies, where up to 32 people can enter a room and walk around with their avatar and chat, or line up for one of the battle stations and play other people.

It's a lovely mode that gathers up people from a region, making it convenient and quick to find decent matches even if there aren't many people online at a given time. It's a feature that has been around for years, and Bandai Namco themselves even had a (clunky and inconvenient and thus underused) version of it in Tekken Tag 2 (World Arena) and Soul Calibur 5 (Global Colosseo). But a mode like this seems to be absent from T7.

A dedicated Tutorial Mode

Don't think I need to explain this much, most modern fighting games have finally realized a nice tutorial is integral to easing new players into the game. Games like Skullgirls, Killer Instinct or Guilty Gear have great tutorials, and Blazblue CF even includes a glossary of fighting game terms. Tekken is often considered quite difficult to get into, so where is T7's tutorial? Some bits are probably integrated into the story mode, but is that really enough?

Combo challenges/Mission mode

Many people love these things, and they can give beginners a place to start learning combos and/or give experts (or trophy hunters) an interesting challenge.  Most modern games include these in some form, but T7 doesn't seem to have them.

An RPG-like mode

For making time fly by, nothing beats a mode with stats and skills and grinding and all kinds of weird restrictions and modifiers on fights. Persona has Golden Arena, Blazblue has Abyss mode, Soul Calibur has Weapon Master. I love modes like these and spend an inordinate amount of time on them, especially if there are interesting toolsets to discover and play around with like Boss mode/Unlimited characters. T7 doesn't seem to have anything like this, though Treasure Battle might offer some of the same features and fun.

Another thing we haven't seen anything of is match replays. Now I presume T7 will have some way to make replays, if not through the game itself then through things like the PS4 share button. But ideally it ought to have some detailed features included for replays.

All this may sound like I'm griping, but I'm actually really hyped for T7. It seems to have quite a lot of content, so that's good. But some of the above features will be dearly missed if they're not included, and that would be disappointing for a game we've had to wait so long for.

Gundam Versus PS4 coming to EU and US!

After it's been a long-running joke that the Gundam Versus series would never be localized, the newest PS4 one is finally coming to the west! It looks so good, i'll have to get it to show my support.

Tekken 7 game modes trailer

Bandai Namco put out a game mode trailer for Tekken 7 today (only in Japanese so far). It looks great, the game seems packed with content.

- Story mode: A main Mishima Saga, and then Character Episodes for all the side characters. It includes special fights, like Heihachi against a whole bunch of Jacks like in the Tekken 5 intro. For beginners, you can turn on an assist that gives you easy inputs for moves and lets you do decent combos by mashing one button.
- Online mode: Ranked match and Player match as expected, also a new Tournament mode that runs a double elimination bracket and has rewards like in-game currency.
- Offline mode: Arcade, Versus and Practice. Also the new Treasure Battle mode where you fight the CPU for customization items and in-game currency. It has special battles, like against a Devil Kazumi and Turbo battle.
- Customize mode: Looks much like TTT2's customization, but with more items available. If it's like the arcade version (likely), you can also use more colours per equipped item and there's new metallic colours and such. You can also customize your player card and even your lifebar.
- Gallery mode: Movies and illustrations from all previous Tekkens, including the pachislot ones and such.
- Exclusive to the PS4 version is Jukebox mode, it lets you replace the music on a stage with music form any earlier Tekken game. You can even have a different song start once someone is on winning point.
- Also exclusive to PS4 is VR mode. It's not mentioned here, but earlier statements have described it as doing the character customization up close in VR with an extra option to look at all their animations in slo-mo. Sounds like a neat extra.


Tekken 7 will also have three DLC packs, the first of which will include an extra game mode and a costume set. At this point it's unknown what that game mode will be, but personally i would guess something like Tekken Force or Tekken Ball or a similar well-defined side mode.

Tekken tidbits: Dealing with Lili's flip

Lili's df3+4 flip is very powerful. It has good range, lowcrushes and launches on hit. On block she ends up in back-turned at distance 0-1 and, depending on spacing, at anything from minor advantage to minor disadvantage.

Here are her common options after it, followed by my suggestions for what to do after you block a flip:
- d1: The most common option. Fast, highcrushes, can catch people trying to step. Also picks up the combo on hit. If i recall correctly, d4 also picks up the combo in T7 so it will serve the same function.
- ~db: The safe option. Depending on spacing there may not be much you can do. ~db ~WS2 is dangerous and can launch you for trying to push buttons after blocking a flip.
- 1 or 1,2: Fast highs with good range. Can also pick up the combo on hit.
- d3+4: long range unsafe low. Is homing in T7.
- 1+2 or 2: fast safe mid launcher/CH launcher. Try not to get hit by this.
So in general, in back-turned she has dangerous safe mids, weak lows and not the best tracking.

So good options do do after blocking a flip are, in my opinion:
-backdash: It avoids many options including the single most common one and you can do a strong punish. d3+4 will chase you down but you won't die from it.
-block: Her BT mixup is weak because her lows are not threatening. Block the BT move, you'll have advantage and then you can swing at her.
-hopkick (or orbital): It destroys the most common option and will force them to rethink what they're doing because of the damage. If you have a strong hopkick it will even chase down the ~db option and make them really sad. This will lose to 1 or 1,2 though.

You can also sidestep, it beats quite a few options. Down jab will interrupt quite a few options as well. Don't do jabs after blocking a flip, they lose to almost everything. If you must swing at it, do a fast mid or hopkick or down jab.

Hope it helps.

On tierlists, an argument made in jest

Following an earlier discussion, I felt I should properly elucidate my earlier position on tier lists. By playing Devil's Advocate lol.

I don't think it's entirely water-tight to be honest. Made some logic jumps so I actually changed my mind on it (see post script) but I think I have a pretty decent argument here. Refute me, dear readers, find the faults. All in good fun, of course.

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A tier list, in fighting games, is a ordered list of most or all the characters in a certain game, ordered by character strength. By character strength, we mean the ability for a certain character to win. So a tier list is a certain person's opinion on which characters in a fighting game have overall the best chances to win.

Now:

1. People choose their own character in a fighting game for a variety of reasons, all of which are equally valid.
1a. Some people primarily choose their character because of their ability to win.
1b. Other considerations may still factor into the decision, one can choose a character that has the ability to win AND looks appealing to you for example.
1c. Conversely, some people primarily choose their character for reasons other than them being able to win. Aesthetic considerations, such as the fighter's looks or personality may be most important to these people. Or perhaps they don't care much about winning, or have a poor understanding of what makes a character powerful.

2. People as in (1c) evaluate characters primarily on attributes irrelevant to winning.
2a. As such, their tier lists will less objectively list characters ordered by the ability to win.
2b. As such, their tier lists are of lesser value to a discussion about character strength.

3. (Non-matchup) Tier lists normally include the author's own character.

If the author's own character is not in the top group of their tier list, it stands to reason to then ask "Why did you pick a character you think is weak? Why don't you play these characters that you say are stronger?"

In my opinion, the reasons for a situation such as this are:
- When evaluating characters, the author does not primarily care about their ability to win. In this case, their tier list is of low value.
- The author cares primarily about a character's ability to win, but he picked a weaker character anyway. That's dumb. Tier lists from dumb people are of low value.
- The author is duplicitous. While they care primarily about a character's ability to win and they secretly believe their character to give them the best chance of winning, their tier list does not bear this out.* A dishonest tier list is also of low value.

*This is commonly known as 'down-playing'. The reasons for this may include a need to make themselves out to be a better player for supposedly doing so well with a weaker character, or a fear of their character getting nerfed in a patch if they admit their strength.


Conclusion
The position of the author's own character in a tier list can give the reader information about the validity of the tier list as a whole. If their own character is low on the list, in my opinion that list is rarely worth paying attention to.

Recommendation
Downplaying is a plague that makes tier lists virtually useless. Be honest about your character instead.



Post Script
Honestly, my current position could more fairly be stated as 
1. Tournament players care about winning
2. As such, their character choice is strongly influenced by that character's chance to win
3. If by their own admission in their own tier list someone is playing a weak character, they may be downplaying or just an idiot
4. Downplaying reduces the value of a tier list, because it is then an ordered list in the incorrect order. How can you know any of it is right?
5. Being an idiot also reduces the value of your tier list. Idiots might be right sometimes but you can't depend on it, you know =P
Conclusion: If someone's character is low on their tier list, approach said list with caution and a pinch of salt.

This I actually stand by, no problem.