Update [Sat 29th Mar 2025, 12:30pm]: The Tekken 8 development team has confirmed that one of Season 2’s most contested changes will not be permanent.
There was outrage earlier this week when it was revealed that breaking throws in Season 2 — an age-old Tekken mechanic — would result in a small amount of chip damage being dealt to the defensive player. Basically, the game was set to punish those who actually had the timing and skill to negate an incoming attack.
Players couldn’t even begin to wrap their heads around why the devs would implement such a system-level change, but thankfully, the decision is being walked back.
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As part of an early look at Season 2’s patch notes on the official Tekken site, there’s a section that reads ‘Revised Adjustment After Community Feedback’, which goes on to say that chip damage on throw breaks would be “excessive”.
However, it seems as though this readjustment may not be implemented alongside the big Season 2 update itself, which will have already been finalised ahead of its release on the 1st April.
“While these changes will be applied as soon as possible, there might be a slight delay following the release of v2.00,” the patch notes clarify.
Still, it’s good to know that the devs are listening, even though the anxiety surrounding Season 2 as a whole remains.
Original Story: Tekken 8 is on course to introduce a mechanical change that no one saw coming as part of its massive Season 2 refresh.
During the latest Tekken Talk, in which the game’s lead developers gather in order to showcase upcoming changes, it was revealed that throws will now deal chip damage if they’re broken. The instant reaction from players has been… loud, to say the least.
So across the entire history of Tekken, throw breaks have been a core mechanic. Basically, if you get grabbed, there’s short window where you can hit the relevant button(s) and get yourself out of trouble. Keen-eyed players are essentially rewarded for reading their opponent.
But in Tekken 8’s Season 2, players will now be punished for correctly negating an incoming throw — and as longtime Tekken players ourselves, we’re really struggling to see the benefits of such an adjustment.
Now, to be clear, the chip damage that the defending player takes is minimal — but that’s obviously still more than nothing. To make matters worse, the development team had previously gone on record saying that Season 2 would generally introduce more defensive options in an attempt to counterbalance the title’s overly aggressive gameplay flow… but now you’re taking damage for breaking throws.
Core system changes like this have always been very few and far between throughout the franchise, which just makes the decision even more confusing. It’s possible that the developer will walk this one back ahead of Season 2’s launch on the 31st March, but as of right now, this is a fundamental change that players will need to deal with.
Season 2 is promising a gigantic list of changes, both systematic and character-specific. As such, there might be other adjustments that offset this new throw break dynamic — but given that the team didn’t go into any additional detail during the Tekken Talk, that seems somewhat unlikely.
What do you make of this Tekken 8 adjustment? Should you really be punished for breaking a throw? Eat that chip damage in the comments section below.
