NEWS

2024.07.26

CONSOLE

[TEKKEN 8] Director Delves into Lidia’s Gameplay Highlights

Lidia Sobieska

Lidia Sobieska is not only a world-class karate champion, but also one of the political world’s most passionate foodies. This has garnered her popularity from the people of Poland, leading her to be known as the “Warrior Prime Minister.”

As one of the next-generation leaders of the world, she is gathering forces capable of countering the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation. While upholding the motto “never yield to unjust power,” she also believes that mere ideals cannot protect people. She seeks ways to bring even those tainted by unjust power back to the right path. At times, she even reforms those who were once adversaries, hastening the planning of strategies and the strengthening of forces in preparation for the impending decisive battle.

 

Renewed with a focus on ease of use while embodying the beauty of Karate forms

In TEKKEN 8, Lidia aims to deliver the experience of “penetrating an opponent’s defense with powerful attacks,” a hallmark of karate. Her signature move, the ‘Seikenzuki,’ is imbued with unparalleled penetrating power. The overall action has been renewed with a focus on “more realistically recreating traditional karate” and “making various forms effective in real combat.” Combined with the movements of Karate expert Tatsuya Naka, who served as the motion actor, the game achieves a more authentic representation of karate techniques. As for the controls, since the previous was seen as ‘having too many stances and complex moves that were hard to memorize,’ we have restructured the stances to make them easier to learn and to execute.

 

The stance transition techniques have become more flexible, and the powerful Seikenzuki penetrates defenses.

In the TEKKEN 7, Lidia’s stance transition techniques had to hit the opponent to maintain the stance and continue the attack, often resulting in single, standalone actions. Therefore, in TEKKEN 8, stance transitions can occur even if the attack is blocked, allowing for a more continuous offensive. This change enables her to execute more complex mind games against blocking opponents, particularly from the “Horse Stance,” which has been reworked from the previous “Cat Stance,” against the opponent’s standing guard to feature more aggressive techniques. Additionally, during Heat she can utilize the extremely powerful “Heaven and Earth” stance, and some Seikenzuki attacks gain a reversal break effect. Therefore, during Heat, Lidia can aggressively use her Seikenzuki without fear of the opponent’s power crush or parry techniques, showcasing the essence of karate.

 

A unique power-up feature that expands the possibilities of stance transition techniques

Lidia also has a unique element called the ‘Heaven and Earth level.’ This is a special characteristic that allows her to power up as she shifts to ‘Heaven and Earth level,’ a trait that other characters do not possess. This level persists across rounds, so broadly speaking, she becomes stronger as the match progresses into the later rounds. Endurance battles are her specialty, so this expresses her patience and mental strength in the face of adversity in battle.

 

Emphasizing her identity as a karateka, her design features a traditional karate gi style.

To highlight the forms of karate, we decided from the beginning to continue with the karate gi style in this installment. While the gi imposes certain design limitations, we focused on enhancing the “traditional” elements and keeping the attire as neat as possible to distinguish it from the previous installment. The evolution of cloth simulation, which handles the physics of fabric, allowed us to effectively express the gi’s loose impression and the wrinkles that accompany movements. This advancement in technology is also a key reason for adopting this design.

 

One more point related to design: we put great effort into the presentation of Lidia’s Rage Arts. In her Rage Arts, we expressed Lidia’s determination to fight for her country as the Prime Minister of Poland. The pure white space that appears during activation symbolizes Lidia’s sense of justice, while the red eagle represents Poland. This contrast of white and red is inspired by the colors of the Polish flag. The words displayed are “Ludzie,” “Pokój,” and “Uczciwość” in Polish, which mean “People,” “Peace,” and “Integrity” in sequence.

 

●TEKKEN 8 Offcial Site
https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/tekken/tekken-8

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