Tekken 8’s Accessibility Concerns Have Been Addressed For Its Launch

Tekken 8 is the AAA fighting game fans have been envisioning for a long time now, and now that it’s finally here, Bandai Namco and Tekken franchise frontman Katsuhiro Harada has made sure to pump it full of accessibility features for visually impaired players. However, this ambitious attempt recently backfired when Ian Hamilton, an accessibility specialist pointed out that the functionality in question is doing more harm than good.

Taking this into account, and analyzing the response of players around the globe, Harada addressed the concern during the Tekken World Tour 2023 Global Finals and affirmed that the scope of the game’s accessibility in the demo is just a “work in progress” and that Bandai is making tweaks to the functionality to better accommodate a variety of different players. 

Many people have been talking about the accessibility features in the demo for Tekken 8. Actually that was just, you know, work in progress, so we’ve actually tweaked that quite a bit to try to address some of the issues. and to make sure that it works better for a wider variety of people. So, that’s another thing that we’re updating for the retail game but also we’re going to update the demo to reflect that as well,” translated Michael Murray for Harada.

Those tweaks have finally been put in action, as the official X (formerly Twitter) account of Tekken has posted on the platform in recent times, confirming that a new patch for the Tekken 8 demo is now available. Although the change has been rolled out specifically for the demo, it’s not unwarranted to assume that this fix will be present in the full game as well. 

An update is now available for the #TEKKEN8 demo on all platforms, fighters 🥊

Patch 1.00.03 is now available.

Display specifications for Pattern Display located in "Color Perception Type > Mask Filter > Character" in the Color Support Accessibility options have been updated.

— TEKKEN (@TEKKEN) January 24, 2024

The post adds that although the feature remains under the umbrella of the same “Mask Filter” terminology, its effect output has drastically changed. Previously, the black and white stripes ran throughout the body of the in-game characters as they fought each other, but now, they will no longer retain their previous look. Expect their bodies to stay in full color with a different pattern accommodating each character, with the background either colored in gray or simply using a black-and-white appearance.

Related Content to Check Out: 

• Instead Of Kiryu, Tekken 8 Should Feature Majima Goro As Guest Character
• Tekken 8 Releases New “Story So Far” Video Featuring Brian Cox
• Bandai May Have Accidentally Revealed Tekken 8’s First DLC Character

Tekken 8 is set to release in a couple of hours from now on January 26, 2024, for all the major current-gen platforms, including the Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Coming 8 years after its predecessor, it’s one of the most-hyped releases of this year, right alongside the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Hellblade 2: Senua’s Sacrifice, and others.