Image: Bandai Namco
Tekken 8’s first demo will finally let you get your hands on its campaign and a few offline fighting modes.
Tekken 8 is almost upon us, and publisher Bandai Namco is making sure we know it. The much-anticipated fighting game has been hosting closed beta tests for a select few online and popping in for various gaming events throughout the year, but soon everyone will be able to try the game out for themselves.
Bandai Namco has announced that a Tekken 8 demo is coming to PlayStation 5 just one day from now - December 14. The demo will also arrive on Xbox Series X|S and PC, albeit slightly later on December 21.
What is in Tekken 8’s first public demo?
Tekken 8’s first demo is pretty meaty, despite only containing four playable characters: Jin, Nina, Kazuya, and Paul. These characters will be playable in a few of the game’s offline-only modes, the biggest of which is the story mode The Dark Awakens. The first chapter of this mode will be playable, along with the Arcade Quests, Super Ghost Battle, and offline versus game modes. Offline versus is the closest you’ll get to trying out online PvP in this demo, though only the aforementioned four characters are included.
As for maps, Urban Square (Evening), Yakushima, and Sanctum will be available in this demo. The big ticket item of this demo is clearly the campaign mode, which is set six months after the events of Tekken 7. Tekken 8 will be once again turning its sights towards the family-centric drama that has churned throughout the franchise’s events - the Mishima family feud between Kazuya and his son Jin.
While it’s disappointing that the demo doesn’t include any of Tekken 8’s online content, we’ll take what we can get at this point. A slimmed-down demo also allows for significantly less storage space allotted for installation: Tekken 8 will take up a hefty 100GB of storage space, but this demo only requires 28GB in total. That’s a blessing for anyone who isn’t rocking a chunky SSD - or happens to have a Call of Duty game installed.
Tekken 8 launches on January 26, 2024.
