14 DAY TRIAL // Bandai Namco is holding location tests for the upcoming brawler Tekken 7, enabling select Japanese gamers to try out the game for the first time since its reveal earlier this year.
There is not much information regarding the next installment in the legendary fighting video game series, apart from a couple of confirmed returning characters, such as Heihachi and Kazuya. Katarina, a brand new female character, has been revealed to be playable in the test, alongside Claudio, a similarly new character.
Fortunately for us, the people involved in the location tests are filming the footage, so we got a bunch of off-screen gameplay videos showing off what is coming out way sometime in the future.
The videos seem to be recorded on phones, showing gameplay on arcade machines, and highlighting the moves of many familiar characters such as Paul, King, Law, Kazuya or Bryan.
The arcade version is apparently supporting online matchmaking, allowing patrons to fight other players of similar skill levels over the Internet, in addition to battling nearby opponents through the usual means, networked cabinets.
In addition to this, players who registered for the event can also check out some of the customization options for characters, including a bunch of crazy over-the-top items such as huge mallets, very tall hair for Paul, or a huge wok for Law.
New things coming our way
For the time being, we can see that Bandai Namco is testing a couple of significant gameplay changes to the classic Tekken formula, with two new additions, in the form of Rage Arts and Power Crush.
Rage Arts enable players to enter a Rage State when they drop below a certain threshold of health points, which increases general attack damage and allows the use of some special moves, a unique feature of each character.
Power Crush moves are specials that can't be interrupted by attacks, but that also leave you open to taking damage, enabling you to pull off moves but risking to deplete your health bar faster.
Tekken 7 is built on Unreal Engine 4, and for the time being, the visuals featured in the accompanying videos are not final, and thus not indicative of the overall quality of the finished product.
Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has even gone as far as to say that what we can see now in terms of graphics is about 60 percent of what the team aims to accomplish, as the visuals don't include character lighting, skin shaders and other such features yet.
Tekken 7 is currently set to be launched sometime next year, to hit Japanese arcades first and then consoles, but for the time being there is no prospective release date.
