Eddy Gordo fans will be able to reunite with their favorite dancer very soon, and a balance patch will also start to set the record straight – although there is still a lot of work to be done on this front.
The release date of the first DLC of Tekken 8 has just been made official by Bandai Namco. During the last Tekken Talk, Katsuhiro Harada, Kohei Ikeda, and Michael Murray announced that the first expansion will be officially available from April 4th.
We already knew for a few weeks which fighter was going to join the roster on this occasion: it is Eddy Gordo, the capoeira specialist who is one of the most iconic characters of the franchise. But even though its core identity should remain intact, the gameplay should change a little bit from previous games.
Eddy is known to be a particularly frustrating character to face, with his dynamic moveset and riddled with hard-to-read moves. A point that already gave players chills, because Tekken’s DLC characters have a reputation for being quite unbalanced and often very powerful at launch. Fortunately, the developers explained that the character has been overall simplified to make him more understandable.
This is very good news, knowing that as tradition dictates, you will have to buy this DLC to learn how to face it… A pay-to-win dimension that the studio fully assumes, to the great displeasure of the community who have no choice but to resign themselves. In any case, it will be interesting to discover this new version, which will also have new attacks and a buff mechanic like Asuka, Claudio or Leo, for example.
If you’d like to get a head start, it will also be possible to explore the new version of Eddy from April 1st — but on one condition. You’ll need to purchase the first annual pass, which will also give access to the other three DLC characters from the first season. These have not yet been announced, and for now, this Seasons Pass does not seem to be available for purchase yet; it will be made available in the Tekken Shop, and probably on Steam, PS Store, and Microsoft’s store very soon.
A necessary balance patch, but too timid
At the same time, Harada and his troops also took the opportunity to unveil the contents of a balance patch that will be applied on April 1st. It contains a host of minor changes, but also some more important changes. There are a few well-deserved buffs to Zafina, a dominant character in the latest installment, but quite helpless in Tekken 8.
On the other hand, it’s the opposite for Dragunov, a rather weak character at the end of Tekken 7’s life cycle, but who has outrageously dominated the competition since the release of Tekken 8. The Russian representative of the roster has suffered some notable nerf, with several moves that will now be more vulnerable to sidesteps… but it’s probably still not enough since Bandai Namco hasn’t touched the ridiculously oppressive frame data of its attacks or the tracking of the mugs.
Finally, we note with relief that Azucena’s signature move, namely her famous wr3.2 that could completely lock a match on its own, has also suffered a rather substantial nerf. It remains to be seen whether this change will have the desired effect in practice.
It remains to be seen what will happen to Eddy; Will he be rather weak like in the last installment, or absolutely monstrous like most DLC characters? All bets are off!