Harada responds as Tekken 8’s disastrous Season 2 launch leads to protests

Tekken 8 Season 2 has resulted in the community almost universally pushing back on the changes, to the point where pros are threatening to quit and the game has been getting review bombed for days.

People had their reservations about the patch after watching initial previews of some new moves, worried that the game would be too focused on forming a good offense and leave defensive options off the table.

The Season 2 patch has released and, though there are some players who enjoy the changes, the response has been overwhelmingly negative from pros and casual players alike.

As a result, Harada has spoken. Along with a tweet from the Tekken 8 team promising fixes to some of the bigger issues in the patch, he’s revealed a bit of what’s happening behind the scenes to get Tekken back on track.

Harada responds as Tekken 8 Season 2 gets unprecedented backlash

The Tekken series has had its fair share of ups and downs, with controversial entries like Tekken 4 and Tag 2 having their own adverse effects in the long-term.

However, the Tekken series remains one of the biggest in fighting games, with Tekken 8’s launch selling faster than any other entry and already reaching 3 million copies sold. Season 2 was meant to bring renewed interest in the game and spice up the formula, but its had the polar opposite effect.

The Season 2 patch included over 1500 changes, many of which drastically altered the game’s balance and some of which broke it completely, creating unlockable combos and moves that some characters have no way of interrupting. Backlash has been swift and severe.

They confirmed fixes for Paul’s unblockable string setup and the frame trap on Jack’s Make Some Noise string that made it impossible to counter without a Power Crush or other armored moves, along with some other changes.

Harada has also spoken on the topic, saying the following in response to fan backlash:

“In any case, it is clear to me that the result is a disconnect between what the community wants and the tuning results. I understand that whatever words I may be accused by the community about it, that is not the essential issue and it is not the time to worry about it.

“We have our Battle & Tuning team working around the clock to read through all the feedback logs from the community and work on future policies and changes for the better,” he explained.

However, the fact of the matter is that this patch won’t arrive for a while still, with the April emergency patch only addressing some of the issues.

Tekken legend Knee went as far as calling Tekken 8 Season 2 “braindead” while showing some of what he’s been able to do on the patch.

TrizzyTheRapper, someone who normally plays Yoshimitsu, wreaked havoc in the weekly Tampa Never Sleeps tournament when this update went live, abusing Jack’s new moves to get top 8 in the tournament despite knowing almost nothing about the character’s other moves.

This isn’t the only way Tekken players have protested these changes, though. In extreme cases, they’ve done

Tekken 8 content creator Sodam went as far as protesting in the streets of Korea, running around a farmer’s market and spamming this Jack string in-person.

Reviews on Steam have only fallen further, with literal thousands of negative reviews rushing in from disgruntled fans of the Tekken series protesting the patch.

It remains to be seen if the emergency patch and subsequent updates can win fans over and keep Tekken alive.