Tekken 7 will be integrated with Virtual Reality when it arrives on the PlayStation 4,announced Bandai Namco at the Paris Games Week back in October 2015. The fans were immediately hooked on to the game and online fan portals and forums started overflowing with group discussions and speculations as to what the new gameplay might offer.
However, whatever you might have in mind about a VR-enabled Tekken 7 is the wrong conception, explained Game Designer Michael Murray while talking to the representatives of a reputed tech magazine.
Murray revealed that the VR aspect of Tekken 7 was more about appreciating the gamers’ roster and not beating it up, as opposed to the general notion among the fans. Murray explained that the moment the team decided that they were going to work on a VR Tekken 7, people were like, “Okay, so now we are just going to hit each other in real, just so the characters can do the same.”
Murray said that there was a hidden command in Tekken 7, which allowed users to play in first person mode. Even though it was cool, you wouldn’t want to play the entire game in that format, since that would just spoil the entire mood of the game. The Tekken franchise is very successfully, like we all know, and a part of that credit goes to the gameplay.
Hence, working on a new gameplay makes no sense, as it would destroy the overall appeal of the franchise. Game developers have experimented on successful strategies in the past too and have failed miserably. It has been proven that when a winning formula is discovered, it’s better to stick to that, instead of trying to mess around with it, since, the result is disastrous in most occasions.
“People automatically tend to think that we will implement VR into the core gameplay, but we see no reason to do that. We are working on improving the gameplay on a single level, which we would like to think as the Crown Jewel of the game” Murray added.
At the end of the day, Tekken is all about the characters. Hence, it would be really fun if all the characters could be given a cooler update or a few major additions could be made. Customization is the thing of the hour and it would be real nice to customize the characters according to the players’ wishes.
VR is a growing field, with the technology quite nascent. As a result, most gamers cannot get their hands on a VR headset, which can be quite expensive. Hence, it would make no sense working on a product, which would never make it to the mass gamers, or better yet, could never be tested to its full potential.
The major aspect behind a VR Tekken 7 is the background of the game. The characters are real and enhancing that reality is what the VR aspect of the game is all about. “It’s not like Tekken is a head to head game, so once we include VR, you can just go punch your opponent in the face for real. That’s not how it works. That’s not how it’s supposed to work!” Murray added.
What players actually want to know is whether the crossover with Capcom’s Street Fighter series will be brought to the PS4 version of Tekken 7. Murray has good news for the fans, as he claims that is definitely going to happen.
Tekken 7 will bring a horde of extra modes apart from the central game line, which is expected to revive Tekken’s original game module. However, the game is still very much under development.