You absolutely nailed it mate. Incredible stuff.

You should play tekken NOW! *thunder noises*

As someone that plays mostly Tekken, it's nice to finally get an in depth perspective on the game from a 2D player that's actually put in the time to learn. I feel like outside of dedicated Tekken channels, the game doesn't get as much love as it deserves from fighting game players outside of the Tekken bubble. So I say all that to say, thanks for giving our game a chance!

From the prospective of someone who only ever played 3d fighter looking at 2 D game, those games like insanely hard to learn. Motion imputs or each combo, super meter, insanely fast moves compared to tekken, fireballs, teleports, airdashing, the entire air game, it feels like a lot to grasp after so much tekken. It cool to get the reverse prospective. Been meaning to grab a 2d game to just to begin learning them.

It's very nice and refreshing seeing someone giving praise to Tekken (mostly 7) after seeing way too much negativity surrounding it lately. I don't usually watch videos where the creator asks me to play a game I already do but it was very nice.

Tekken has always reminded me of golf. A sport in which there are endless variables, no one can ever be perfect, and the winner is almost always the player who made the least number of mistakes.

This honestly goes for every mechanically deep game (competitive or single player), but you should NEVER expect to learn everything at once or be up-to-date just in a few days. These games have more to offer than a single bloated one-time experience which many modern single player games unfortunately tend to. There is no rush. You don't need to be competitively competent tommorrow. See it as spending time with a game you love, which gives you more in return the more you learn it. Approach games like that and i can guarantee you, you will have more fun than going through 7 mediocre ones with no incentive of replayability whatsoever. Games where you never stop to learn out are a godsent.

The editing on this video was bananas! My favorite bit was when there was the cabinet with kazuya and someone else, and in the blurred background it was the same match from a different angle. Really great transitions and kinetic typography in some places. Amazing.

As someone who’s only gotten into tekken a few months ago, it’s intimidating but DAMN is the learning process fun

I've been scared of tekken for years, but now i want nothing more than to try it... Congrats!!

As a 20 year Tekken veteran, I'll say that Leroy and Fauk are by far the strongest characters in Tekken history. This was the best description of Tekken that I ever seen. Well done and keep playing

“i’ll leave the complaining about tekken to the tekken players, they’ve earned it.” love that. people that complain when they have no idea what they’re talking about is a huge issue nowadays

I think that Tekken does prove that you shouldn't have revolutionary differences in the same series. I dropped off of guilty gear strive because it just didn't have the same feel as Xrd or XX for me. I think that experimental stuff should be made into a new IP or spinoff, so the community doesn't get fractured over several games. BlazBlue did this well, with having the most radically different game not being a mainline game.

It’s always nice hearing people still getting into the game long after it’s release and even as Tekken 8 is in a close future .

That player expression is 100% why I love Tekken. Watching eyemusician fight *anyone* is always a joy. He's just ridiculously fun and extremely unique in his Yoshimitsu playstyle.

Tekken 7 is amazingly fun; however, I'd like to take the time to appreciate the production level on your video. You're great, TheoryFighter! Keep it up and thanks for your hard work!

As someone who started to *_actually learn_* fighting games with T7 and fell in love with its depth, I'm ecstatic you're enjoying it. My only real gripe with the game (outside DLC characters having much stronger mix-up/strings than the starting roster): lacking a built in way to view hitboxes in training mode. Sure, it increases the amount of time you have to spend labbing to reach a degree of competency in matchups, but why deliberately keep players from more learning new things and implementing them in their game? tl;dr Tekken doesn't benefit from deliberately hiding information from players, but to the frustration of mid level players it does anyway

as a tekken veteran i have to say well done

"tekken values your time" i get what you mean but i cant help but think about how it makes you GET READY FOR THE NEXT BATTLE every single rematch lmao

14:35 I remember after he won TWT rangchu said that he felt like he was much worse at using sidestep than other top players so part of the reason he picked panda was because they had a weak sidestep so he wouldn't have to use it much

Video edition here is OUTSTANDING. Love Tekken, and loved this video. I totally agree, I hope the Tekken community grows a lot more with this kind of material! I missed 5 and 6 because of the "fear" of playing online and see how bad I was. But the important aspect of the game, is as you said: to try. Winning can be a consecuence, but trying new things and learning from the mistakes, makes this game special. I know there are plenty of games with this kind of "philosophy", but these are those games that are based on controlling frustration, getting out of the confort zone and accepting our faults after a match that wasn't as we expected. Thanks for this video, great job!

"Are you picking up a guitar and immediatley banging out some Bolt Thrower?" Damn man, your taste in music is impeccable and identifying with it (logo, background music, quotes like these) really makes you stand out from other fighting game channels!

The editing is on another level.

Wow, this was just brilliantly made; from the humble beginning explaining your personal opinion, to really getting into the nit and grit of it without the video being crazy long. Very well done!

Amazing vid tbh, great to see Tekken getting some love outside of the dedicated Tekken channels. Especially nowadays where a lot of us are feeling burnt out on T7 and want something new, or we're missing the older games. Tekken's depth is what makes it such a joy to play, because there's near infinite possibilities. It can be scary, but its fun because of it. It can be scary and daunting, but if you can get over that hurdle you get one of the most fun fighting games ever with just how much control and freedom you're offered. The way you put it at the end was perfect, enjoy the journey, and don't focus on the destination.

Ironically I bought 7 on sale 2 days ago As a lab monster who picks up games just for the lab, this busted open my imagination more than any other game It's immediately satisfying and only gets better I felt like I have mastered my arcade stick and in my time against cpu, in a panic to remember my prep, I came up with combos I thought felt right and was regarded for it In comparison, when I returned to street fighter for the update, I picked up a relatively simple character and felt I mastered them in an hour Highly recommend

This video helped a lot. I stuck in training mode so many evenings and never felt knowlegable enough to go online.

I love how every character in Tekken has at least 80 moves and you don't need to use all of them, you only need to use a few you're good at and like the most. This is the best fighting game series there is for player expression

Subscribed when you mentioned bolt thrower. Cool video, stoked for more tekken content in the future!

Dude your artistry in editing and didactic discussion here is awesome. Thank you

If there's someone here looking to get into Tekken please ffs pick a top tier find and friends to play with. Preferably offline. The learning will come naturally. Online Tekken is one of the most soul killing experiences I have had with a video game in my entire life. If you feel like your honeymoon fun is over take a break and come back to it later if you wish.

Love the vid! Hope to see people branch out to the other 3D fighters as well if new ones come. It’s a magical sub-genre

The work put in to this vid is amazing, thanks for sharing this !

Excellent video. Big ups for the editing and excellent sludge metal

Tekken is a game that'll give you back exactly how much you wanna put into it. Like I play pretty casually for a while and just slowly try to learn concepts through playing. It's fun, and i don't feel the same pressures to optimize I do in some other games because the move lists are huge, and the buttons flow together so well you can just have fun. I wouldn't say Alpha 2 or Guilty Gear XXAC+R got really fun for me until I got a level of competence mechanically and fundamentally to get the meat of their gameplay. I love them, but it did take persistence to get to there. Tekken doesn't in the same way, I can sit down and have fun and not feel like the true game hasn't opened up yet.

12:55 I LIVE by this statement 👌 Best in-game editing and transitions I've seen in a Tekken Perspective vid, insane amount of work in this chief

I wish Tekken had some better balancing though. The complaint about DLC characters feeling blatantly stronger than the original cast is most definitely true. However, some people have accused them of just trying to sell stuff or making them OP because they are greedy. I actually think the problem is more that for many of the DLC characters they just went crazy and wanted to come up with really awesome things (and they did!) but they ended up being too strong. That is not a permanent problem though, as this is a modern fighting game that can receive updates and patches!

Thanks for helping me express why I love this franchise so much :) I remeber playing it as a kid when my mom got me a cheap copy of 4, and I was hooked ever since. I feel like I still learn something new from this game, even though I've played it for years, and the combo system is something my brain has an easier time grasping. I also appreciate the 3d aspect of it in general. Makes fundamentals more interesting. Anyways, great video my guy!

I discovered your channel recently, I've been watching a lot of your videos, great content 👏

was looking forward to this video. good stuff as always

Great video. I got back into the fighting genre with SF4 but didn't bother picking up SFV with its abysmal launch. Made the transition across to Tekken 7 when it showed up on Steam & it's been a grueling but rewarding & fun learning curve. The comparison with learning a musical instrument is right on point as well. While accessibility has been a hot topic lately & there is a case to be made in a lot of games, there's definitely room for games that require time to get better and that offer a greater reward than the more common instant gratification we see in most games.

Excellent video. I personally came from 2d fighters primarily and now consider Tekken 7 to be my main game. Thanks for making such a nicely thought out and edited video

The editing here is fantastic!

Damn good shit with the editing on this one. Video looks real nice

Insane editing, this is my favorite tekken video

This is quality video about Tekken and backround music is amazing! 👍

Tekken veteran here; great video. Not really on topic, but great background music and I totally heard that Bolt Thrower reference.

What an awesome video. Thanks for going the direction of understanding people's comfort zones and addressing Tekken in that way. I'll open the game and just experience it for you, Mr. Fighter.

I've wanted to express how awesome Tekken was to someone that's new, or never heard of Tekken before, but never really knew how to articulate it in a way that's digestible. This is an amazing analysis or explanation, in regards to how great a game Tekken can be

Tekken is like real martial arts You get out what you put in and it's learning timing and execution that gets you to master a move and fighter. Nice video pal

Very well made video bro 👊🏽

Amazing animated scenes and elements. LOVE IT !!!

Right as I want to learn it, you upload this. Absolutely perfect.

Player identity is the most interesting part of fighting games to me and I don’t think I appreciated how Tekken’s density helps that. Love the editing on this one too. Good stuff

I got tekken 4 for my birthday when I was young and fell in love with the 3d style ever since

Firstly, I want to personally thank you for making this video @TheoryFighter, from the heart with sincerity. It' truly feels like this video was made for me, and has opened my eyes to the value of what was right in my face, this whole time. I have been in the FGC for decades, but began playing the very first Street Fighter in the 80's, then World Warriors onwards ever since. As such, I have developed a great aptitude to pick up other fighters easier, however Tekken always got past me with it's deep move list and conditions. Today I admit, I fall directly into the group you spoke of, who spends Fighting time in GG Strive, DBFZ out of protest of what heppened to SFV, and have a special place in my heart for SFIII Third Strike. Thing is, I grew up in the Arcade era, so I've more then PLAYED Tekken, starting from Tekken 2 onwards I dabbled, but didnt get truly invested until Tekken Tag 2 was released. I say all this to say, I have owned Tekken 7 since shortly after it's release, and have played it maybe 5-6 times collectively at home. I've played it more out socially at arcades and tourneys then anything, the people who play Tekken definitely seem the most consistantly "Normal" and diverse people in the FGC, and as such I had NO IDEA how far on the outs us traditional 2D FGC really are, and how pivital and important this game has been to consitency, and knowledge sharing in the FGC. I feel like i've been missing out on a big chunk of misplaced lab time. Don't be like me, lol. As I get older, any game thet respects my time, gets my time investment back. As you read this, I have now re-installed Tekken 7 on my PS4 Pro, and will pick back up where I left off. Total 180 change the way I look at Namco Bandai now, and this franchise. I do enjoy it's quirky inside jokes and style of humor. #Chicken I want to challenge any of us who are only playing 3D fighters now because of the new KOF... to watch this video and tell me this doesn't adjust your whole approach. It now makes sense to me on how to enjoy this franchise and it's intentions, instead of tryna be frame perfect S+ Tier at everything like our 2D fighters tend to promote. Thank you so very much!

This editing is fantastic.

Thanks for giving Tekken an honest try. We hope to still see you around when 8 will (eventually) be announced!

One of the things I love about tekken is the characters feel much more real. You actually FEEL like you are doing a low kick, or a huge uppercut, or some crazy throw-your-whole-body-at-someone move. My favorite character (king) feels like a real wrestler. You aren’t just doing a mixup between grab or hit on oki, you are doing crazy pro wrestler moves. TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER! THE PEOPLES ELBOW! ROLLING DEATH CRADLE!!!!

Great video, I'll say this though since I've been playing Tekken almost every day for 2,5 years: There are aspects of the game you can improve on like execution, setups etc but the sheer mileage you get from knowledge is GIGANTIC compared to everything else. You can get the execution, the neutral, the situational awareness down in 1-2 years but the knowledge and punishment pit is bottomless

One thing that needs to be talked about at some point is the aesthetics of the game. Graphically the character animations of this game are just off the charts. Music. Stages. Character designs. Just beautiful.

Cant wait to see you play melee next :P

The comparison to traditional hobbies at the end is one I make to the whole genre when I talk about it with my non-fighting game friends. Getting to find my "voice" in a given fighting game is such a blast even if I'm still not great at them as a whole.

This was awesome. Thanks for doing this.

Great video ! Will we ever see a "why you should play Virtua Fighter" video? 🥺👉👈

i remember when i first tried Tekken Tag 1 on ps2 and just going through all of Jin's move list and it hooked me right away, seeing all the different things you could do even in that game that's fairly old now felt really good too me and made me want to go try and learn all the different moves in the game and beat the arcade ladder with everybody. the were so many cool varied characters in it and i remember when i first tried mokujin and unknown and then just being random select as an actual character to play as was really cool

Commenting for the algorithm. Another great video 👍

I was in the same boat as you, didn’t really care to play tekken all through my fighting game journey. I picked it up because they added Noctis and the journey to just learning a full move list was fun because applying the knowledge you gain feels well earned.

1 word defines Tekken more for me than any other word. Organic. As a Yoshimitsu and Lei main I never feel restricted in my options to express myself and do literally anything I can think of in the fight. Once you find characters that feel correct for you they become like a second skin. Every move and option feels natural, the way the ground and wall game works feels natural, things just flow into each other constantly. Every character has layers of nuance that interacts with every other characters nuance in a rich gradient. I love 2D fighters from ST to MvC to everything inbetween but few fighters feel as expressive as Tekken can get.

Round of applause for the beauty that is this man's editing.

5:00 I was a huge Tekken 3 player (also played 1 and 2 quite a bit) both on arcade and PS1. Then I stopped playing console videogames for a decade. Then I got Tekken 6 just before Tekken 7 and was released, and I got Tekken 7. I almost made the jump from 3 to 7. Things have changed. I prefer the static and rigid gameplay of Tekken 3 : slower, way more hit/block/throw jan ken based than T7, less endless juggle combos, no "super"... On one side I didn't have to relearn everything since most of my T3 muscle memory game plan still works, on the other side the series added so much stuff that my old tricks are actually crappy now, but I still can't get rid of my old reflexes that worked in T3, because they are still valid in the game. I prefer the "tabula rasa" policy of Capcom between SF episodes : I also played SF0-3 quite a lot back then and re-learning a totally different advanced gameplay from scratch when I got SF5 was actually freshening. Can't wait for SF6 and its new gameplay.

As someone who grew up in the Arcades playing Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, and Tekken. I always adored Tekken the most! You really brought up a great point about Street fighter. The game changes drastically between iterations, 3 to 4 was such a drastic change I dropped Street Fighter completely. And I honestly don't regret it, I gave Street fighter as much chance as I gave Tekken if not way more chances. And Tekken still won my heart. I do like shredding Guile and Ken's themes songs on my electric guitar tho.

adding Ryan Harts pewgf clip was the cherry on top of an already amazing video.

shout out for mentioning bolt thrower they're a killer band

I am a tekken fan for decades, and this is one of the best video about Tekken I've ever watched

Thanks for your views on the topic... But I'll agree with some people here and say that many of these points are also applicable to other deep fighting games. I, for one, have felt this level of excitement mainly for Blazblue, where everything feels incredibly deep and expressive. I've tried playing Tekken a couple of times, but couldn't get as hyped to learn it extensively... Perhaps I've tried it with the wrong mindset. I do have some experience with 3D games, though. Been playing Soul Calibur for a good while. That aside, you got me a bit curious... What was the trigger for your massive interest in Tekken? Also, is there a case of dedicated 3DFG players moving into the 2D ones with the same amount of interest?

As someone who got into Tekken later on I love it! The implementation of 2D characters in Tekken was an awesome way to introduce those players to Tekken. I also main Akuma in literally everything so I can only wish for him to come back, but even if he doesn't I am now a Tekken fan!

Bought Tekken recently at a discount on Steam. The infinite number of moves definitely scared me at first, but it has been thoroughly enjoyable learning how to play. Currently attempting to learn Claudio!

I love your metal logo 🤘

8:51 There are people that like knowledge checks? Wouldn't have thought so

Regarding execution: the easiest execution barrier in tekken is combos. Anyone can do it, unless it's a mishima optimal combo, and even if you can do a mishima optimal combo, that alone is no where near enough to slingshot you to top ranks or high levels of play. The difficulty in execution in Tekken is to have the mental cool to choose the correct/optimal defensive option and timing. To sidestep, to block a low, to low parry, to backdash. And add to that to whiff punish, upon successful attempts of these defensive options. To be able to create punishment opportunities where possible is the core execution of Tekken, and as the levels of play get higher, the harder that becomes, and it slowly turns to a Spacing game first to optimize the positioning in the arena and pressuring with forward dashes without pressing a button to get a better position in the stage. It's a deep mix of strategy and execution. The plan in your head is worth nothing if you can execute it.

Fascinating and excellent video. Been playing Tekken since T2 (1996 on PS1), so it was really interesting to hear your virgin take on the game. I hope you continue to enjoy it ^_^ Now. Uh. As a Tekken player. What SF should I play? Never played a one.

Excellent footage and script. I picked up T7 because people I played games with played a lot of T7 themselves. It has the most logged hours out of any FG I have on steam (MBAACC probably has more but isn't recorded). I almost never touched ranked or played vs randoms. Knowing multiple people invested in the game, who all had a similar mindset for learning definitely helped me improve and enjoy the game far longer than others. At first the game was intimidating to learn due to the density. As time passes, patterns emerge: everyone's i10 punish is their 1,2 jab string, almost everyone has a low crushing launching punishable hopkick, almost everyone has a fast, safe mid check with df1, almost everyone has a low risk low reward low and a high risk high reward low, etc. After gaining an understanding of the basic flow of the game, it becomes easier to find things to improve and optimize. Different characters doing hopkicks could need either an i12 or i14 punish, opponents who have habits of jab checking after your turn could have their turn stolen by you with a high crushing WS launcher, using different attacks to punish a whiff at range. Though I've stopped playing, 600~ hours in the game with 5k~ player matches on the same character, I'd still find small things to improve on, both with using my character and the properties and playstyles of my opponents. The points made about Tekken's character/move/framedata density but the consistency between iterations was spot on. Having an opponent of relatively equal skill makes FGs much more enjoyable, and it is easier to find that opponent if the playerbase isn't split between a game's different iterations. This overview makes me want to reinstall the game and play again.

Great content!

honeslty i used to play this game a lot, but right now im kinda on the fence if really want to keep playing. the depth of knowledge checks is cool to use vs your oppentent but, honestly for me it sucks that i can never feel like i mastered a match up and theres always something do not know and it so boring to study it over and over and over again. Honest the game is really fun you where it just you and your oppentent going hand to head without any cheesy gimmicks and it really hard to get there, but when the gaps in your knowledge it makes playing feel incredibly annoying and rather bloated imo. so now im just this point where im like do really have the willingness to learn all this stuff and for what and if i really even still care. im not saying these things i dont like make the game bad or change it, it just a personal problem is all.

I discovered Tekken 5 coming the street fighter back in 2006 when i first went to uni, and this video sums up everything like how the transition felt. Glad to see someone had a similar experience. Now what was even more exhilarating for me was the move to Melee in 2016, it was like the Tekken feeling x10. Hope you give it a go some day!

Tekken as a game has an unnecessary amount of complexity, but it's so damn fun.

amazing video, i still ain’t giving it time lmaooo 🤣 i just dnt have the patience for the knowledge/time it wants the player to build 🤷🏼‍♀️

well I'm just about sold. you pretty much just described everything that I love about my favorite FGs. guess I'll have to give it a spin!

Fantastic video! Liked and subbed. Btw What’s the soundtrack in the video called?

I love tekken because it's the entire package, I usually say Tekken is to Street Fighter what Dota is to League or what Path of Exile is to Diablo. The depth of all the firstmentioned games in the comparison all reward you for learning, maybe that way of learning is watching hundreds of hours of youtube videos, maybe it's playing 1000s and 1000s of matches, but whatever way you choose you will never ever see the end of the road, the learning path is the endgame, you're always learning and the game is evolving in it's own right. It's beautiful

This feels less like someone discovering Tekken and more like someone rediscovering fighting games

Nice video. Tekken 3 was my first 3D game and I fell inmediately in love with the franchise. However, nowadays I prefer DOA cause of its fast pace combat, movement, and stage interactions.

Excellent video. In the future when someone asks me 'why tekken? ' I will link them this video

I live in Japan, and back when T6 and TTT2 were out, losing was the greatest teacher. I think I lost 80% of my matches, but when I came back to the states to play my friends, I absolutely dominated them. If you temper your ego and try to improve a little bit each match, you'll improve. I guess that's the same as most things in life. (note: I still get bodied in Japan. These players are wild)

I preorder on pc, good vid

great bongripper track at the start

I play primarily FighterZ, with some history of dabbling in USFIV, GG +r, Marvel 3, and some JJBAHFTF and CVS2 on fightcade. My first experiences with Tekken were with T3 when I was a kid, and Tekken Revolution and Tekken 6 back in the PS3 days, and I tried T7 for the first time early this year, and man, I had never noticed how deep and complex these games are. Tekken is a game that really needs one to get well and truly involved in order to get good.

As someone who's bounced off Tekken 7 a few times now this video makes me want to sit down and really give it a proper go again. I love footsies in fighting games so I just need to find the characters that really appeal to my prefered style

Bongripper, nice. Just picked up Tekken last night. I haven’t tried to play any fighting game since the mid 90s. Should be frustrating. Haha