I grew up in arcades, dumping quarter after quarter into machines like Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and especially Tekken Tag Tournament – the first fighting game my arcade crew and I ever truly fell in love with. Arcades were special; you could make friends, fight rivals, learn new tricks, and build a community. Unsurprisingly, much of the Tekken 8 team, including producers Katsuhiro Harada and Michael Murray, feel the same way. Arcade Quest, the newest single-player mode in Tekken 8, is separate from the main story, but looks to teach new players the ins and outs of Tekken 8 and introduce players new and old to arcade culture.
For people like me, it’ll be like going home; for people who didn’t get a chance to be a part of the arcade scene, it will hopefully let them see what it’s all about while learning skills that will help them throughout their Tekken journey. Murray described Arcade Quest like this when I sat down with him: “It's like a different story mode, almost. And you use the avatars, the same ones that you use in the Tekken Fight Lounge. You start off knowing nothing and you have a mentor in the local arcade. There's different arcades you visit along the way. In your home arcade you start off in, Max, your mentor, is like ‘Okay, you don't know how to play fighting games. Here's how to block. Why don't you try it out? Good job.’ Or ‘Hey, this is how to do a basic combo,’ and it teaches the basics of the game, then the basics of the new mechanics like Heat, and then combos, how to throw escape, all these different things that you’ll want to know.”
Arcade Quest is utterly charming. You start off in Gong, your local arcade, which has just gotten some Tekken 8 machines. Max offers to sit down and teach you the basics, starting with things like Heat and some of the core moves for your character. This part of Arcade Quest seems to function like a traditional fighting game tutorial. You can watch demos to get an idea of how the thing you’re learning looks, and then practice it yourself as much as you like. Normally, after you complete a lesson, you’re thrown straight into the next one. That style can make it a little overwhelming for players new to fighting games. Even if you’re an experienced player, it can be hard to remember everything you’ve learned when it’s all thrown at you at once. But that’s not how Arcade Quest works, something Murray is quick to point out.
“It's not just thrown at you in one piece. Max will teach you a little bit, then you face some kind of rival on that local arcade. And you use that knowledge. And as you're playing that match, like a typical Tekken match, Max pops up on-screen occasionally and will be like, ‘Hey, you did exactly what you were supposed to!’ or, ‘Hey, you know, better luck next time,’ etc.”
It’s like having your own personal coach walking you through the process of learning Tekken, and then you get to put those methods into practice a little bit at a time. This is how most players learn fighting games in real life, so it’s nice to see that Arcade Quest adopts that style. Plus, you get real-time feedback mid-match from Max.
But it’s not just you and Max. There’s also several other characters you’ll meet along the way. Beat, like your created character, is also new to Tekken, but excited to learn. Prim loves how Tekken 8’s customization lets you show off your style. And Nick is a competitive player who thinks he might be able to farm rank points off of newbies like you. That’s just a few examples. Winning matches against other players will allow you to rank up, and completing challenges in specific matches will unlock new customization options and cash you can spend to buy more customization options. In another thoughtful touch, you’ll also level up your characters separately, so if you start out as, say, King, but decide you’d also like to use Arcade Quest to learn Jin, you can do that. Just keep in mind that story matches, designated by an ‘!,’ will always follow your highest-ranked character.
Players will also be rewarded for exploring the arcade and spending time speaking to and fighting with other characters, according to Murray. “There's different stories as you talk to the NPCs in the arcade, and maybe little tidbits of arcade culture, like, ‘Hey, you shouldn't hit the machine, because this other guy got kicked out for doing that.’ You know, it's little stuff like that, that you'll come to appreciate if you've been to an arcade before.”
As you climb the ranks, you’ll earn more customization options, money to spend, and lessons from Max. But, as Murray notes, there’s much more to it. “As you progress, [Max] teaches you more things, and you get better as a player. But you also visit these different arcades, which are unique and have a different look to them. Different NPCs, depending on the person you defeat, might give you customization items that you unlock for your avatar, as well. And it mirrors the Tekken World Tour as well. You’ll start off in a local arcade competition, but then it kind of steps up to a tournament. Maybe you even saw that scene of Harada and myself commentating. So it's a cool little side story that also teaches you the game at your own pace, because it's one-player content.”
We don’t know exactly how long Arcade Quest will be just yet, but Murray told me the mode would take “at least a few hours” to complete. It also makes use of Tekken 8’s impressive Ghosts, so the opponents you’ll be playing will fight like real people. In a fun twist, you’ll also be able to fight the Ghosts of Murray, long-time Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada, and Kohei “Nakatsu” Ikeda, a former Tekken pro and Tekken 8’s game director, in Arcade Quest, and Murray teased that you might get something cool if you beat them.
In addition to being a fun single-player mode, Arcade Quest is an acknowledgment of how successful Tekken 7 was and how many people will be first-time players or returning after a long hiatus in 8. One of the core goals of Arcade Quest is to teach those people how to play Tekken without boring them with tutorials. That starts by giving them information on their character’s most important moves and then teaching them the process for implementing what they’ve learned. The goal is to get players to what Murray referred to as the “chess match,” the most fun part of fighting games where you’re trying to outplay and outthink your opponent, faster.
Arcade Quest looks like a combination of everything you could want from a new single-player mode in Tekken: an atmosphere that harkens back to the glory days of arcades, a well-structured setup that will help you learn the game, plenty of character and avatar customization to unlock, a fun story to follow, exciting fights to seek out, and plenty of replayability. Arcade Quest seems to have a little something for everyone, from old-head Tekken fans to first-timers, and I can’t wait to finally get my hands on it.
