Tekken 8 disappointed players at EVO Japan 2025. „Collective despair and disappointment” with new DLC
The EVO Japan 2025 tournament brought a lot of excitement and some news about fighting games, not necessarily positive. Tekken 8 once again irked fans, despite promising changes.
The fighting festival is already behind us. Together with it, players not only got amazing battles (despite the PlayStation 5 issues), but also news about new games and a big leak with the source code of a popular game.
Street Fighter 6. Nonetheless, clashes of the FGC (Fighting Game Community) giants aren't everything. The event was also highlighted by devs' announcements and - in one case - a big leak.
Virtua Fighter returns to consoles, including the Switch 2
So far, we knew little about the the Yakuza series are responsible. This didn't change yesterday despite Sega's special stream. Among other things, new material from Virtua Fighter Project was shown, with another old but heavily changed fighter: wrestler Wolf Hawkfield.
Unfortunately, the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio team didn't reveal too much about the title. The developer focused more on the artistic layer (with behind-the-scenes materials) and new gadgets related to VF. The studio also confirmed the launch of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O on XSX/S, PS5, and Switch 2. The game will include both network rollback code and cross-platform games.
Guilty Gear: source code leak and overheating PS5
Fans of the Guilty Gear series also received a lot of news, although they actually had less reason to be satisfied. The overheating PlayStation 5 disrupted the final clash between Daru_I-NO and RedDitto. And this was reportedly not the only such malfunction during this tournament (which was also due to insufficient cooling of the facility).
The source code for Guilty Gear Strive has leaked online, along with the rest of the content from Season 4 and confirmation of characters for the next season. This included the new character's track (Unika from the Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers series), Lucy's first recordings from the Cyberpunk Edgerunners series (the first "guest" in GG history), and the list of fighters for the fifth season, which, as usual, made some fans happy with the return of their favorites and annoyed others with the absence of certain characters. Not to mention that the leak spoiled the surprise, which undoubtedly would have caused quite a stir.
Nevertheless, it is the source code leak that causes the most emotions. Some players fear its exploitation by cheaters or even hackers, although other fans believe these fears are exaggerated. There are also internet s who see this leak as a blessing for the modders.
Arc System Works studio hasn't yet addressed this issue. Meanwhile, a teaser for Unika, who will debut in Guilty Gear: Strive on May 27, was officially presented.
Tekken 8 still to be fixed. "New" warrior disappointed fans
Tekken 7 - Fahkumram is unlikely to be a player favorite, in part because at launch in the seventh installment, it resembled all too much what Tekken 8 looks like now.
It's all because of the second season of the game, which showed that the "only buffs, no nerfs" philosophy doesn't work in practice. Maybe that's why less than a thousand people played at the T8 tournament - although it's still the second most popular game at Japan EVO 2025.
Bandai Namco has already released some improvements, but players are still not satisfied with the current, extremely offensive metagame. Hence, the changes in the next patch include limiting damage from aerial combos and gradually modifying moves, where the risk-reward ratio is currently too favorable for the attacker (e.g., even after blocking, they still provide a big advantage).
Of course, balance changes (and ranked mode fixes) aren't everything. Each of these three patches will also introduce new cosmetic items to T8, including crossovers with PAC-MAN and the movie Karate Kid: Legends.
In other news, we can mention the reveal of another fighter in Overwatch 2 crossover with Street Fighter 6.
- Sega Announced Return of Fighting Series That Brought Genre Into 3D. Japanese Also Delivered Bad News for Fans of Retro Games
- Project Century and Virtua Fighter are new games from Ryu Ga Gotoku, creators of Yakuza
- Virtua Fighter's concept demonstration intrigued fans. Yakuza devs prepare more realistic fighting game than Tekken
