Can Season 3 save Tekken 8? Pros give their thoughts

2026 is a big year for the Fighting Game Community with all the titles releasing, and it promises to be a decisive year for Tekken 8. While it launched relatively well, Tekken 8 had problems with being too heavily skewed to aggression and lacking defensive options. 

This only got worse as the game continued to chug on, but Bandai Namco has revealed its plans for Tekken 8 Season 3. Coming with the intention to put Tekken back on track, it has been billed as ‘back to basics’. 

The changes have been listed in detail in a Tekken 8 Season 3 roadmap overview in the news section of the game’s website, and it seems largely positive. Still, many pros and influential players have been vocal about Tekken 8’s shortcomings, so what has been the reaction to Season 3’s planned changes?

Before getting into players’ reactions, it’s important to understand what’s coming to the game. Of course, there will be a Tekken 8 Season 3 pass, which adds Kunimistu, Bob, Roger Jr., and a character for the winter that is yet to be added. 

A feedback portal has been provided to ensure the developers are listening to the community, and it’s clear that Bandai Namco has its ear to the ground when it comes to Tekken after the mess of Season 2. The Tekken 8 Season 3 patch notes should reflect this.

With that aside, what do the pros and influential players, those who know the game most intimately, think of the patch notes, and do they think it’s enough to get Tekken 8 back on track?

Not all pros are particularly vocal about the Tekken, nor do all of them stream. A few have taken to YouTube to give their thoughts on both the trailer and roadmap, and we will be looking at the following:

Lil Majin had perhaps the most subdued reaction to the Season 3 announcement, meeting it all with scepticism. He didn’t seem all that bothered about the new Tekken 8 Season 3 characters, other than Kunimistu, who he said he’d rather not have. Lil Majin also seemed unswayed by the ‘back to basics’ marketing, stating that, while there were new moves in the trailer, a lot of what was shown is already in the game.

He reiterated constantly that he wouldn’t formulate a full opinion until the patch notes and the balance update on March 17. This is likely because Season 2 went against what many thought they would get, so Lil Majin’s scepticism is understandable. 

PhiDX’s reaction was very different to Lil Majin’s. He was very excited about the new characters and stated that the ‘back to basics’ branding was good marketing and that he was hopeful. He also stated that Tekken 8 had lied before, with Season 2 not adding defensive options as promised. Still, he was excited about the intention behind Tekken 8 Season 3 balance and how Bandai is clearly hearing the community.

When analysing the roadmap, he praised the intention to make a character’s strengths and weaknesses more evident. While PhiDX believed that Tekken 8 wouldn’t remove Heat, the core tenets of the balance patch for Season 3 seemed to go over well with him, as did the changes to the ranked system, particularly the bonuses for rematch and revenge victories, which encourage Bo3 matches.

The scepticism came when analysing the moves seen in the trailer. PhiDX mentioned Twitter’s initial reaction being that Tekken 8 is going in the wrong direction based on these moves. Anna and Asuka seemingly have nerfs, and he talked about fear of how Season 3 would deal with ‘stance-slop’, mentioning Lidia and Victor. Still, the overall consensus from PhiDX is that he is cautiously optimistic about the Tekken 8 Season 3 changes.

K-Wiss spoke about the Tekken 8 feedback portal and how it will likely be a better alternative to the Twitter system currently in use. He also spoke on the changes to the ranked system and how, in Season 2, the system is extremely harsh to players at God of Destruction. He said that the rematch encouragement in Season 3 is a good idea, and that he hopes the new season can also help with rank inflation.

He also spoke about how the matchmaking logic improvements are a blessing, as the current prowess system means that it’s difficult to take a secondary character into ranked, especially with wait times. The system now matches players based on their currently selected character, not their main character, making matchmaking for secondary characters easier, especially for higher-level players.

Overall, K-Wiss stated he is a big fan of what is being said, but isn’t as much of a fan of what is being shown. Having analysed the moves in the trailer, he’s not entirely convinced that Tekken 8 Season 3 is actually going back to basics, citing the defence patch that never was in Season 2. 

TheMainManSwe is a very high-level player with one of the largest audiences in Tekken and has proved equal parts knowledgeable and comedically salty. He stated that he would use the feedback portal, and that it could be a very useful tool, joking that he would send a lot of messages about Hwoarang.

He stated that changes to the Rank System are sorely needed. While he believed the rank inflation issue isn’t allowing casuals to make it to Tekken King, stating that casuals aren’t playing the game anymore, he did speak on the harshness of God of Destruction rank and above. He stated that no one has reached the highest rank yet and that only pros can realistically climb due to the flaws and harshness of the system at the highest level, while there’s handholding not much lower down.

TheMainMan also spoke on how, despite the theme being ‘refine’, he would like some excitement from new moves as part of the new season. He agreed with the overall philosophy for Tekken 8 Season 3 balance, especially with the mention of character-specific power-up mechanics (installs) and the Heat system. 

Ultimately, his overall thoughts align with K-Wiss’s, stating that the Tekken 8 Season 3 changes sound good on paper, but could be anything in practice after the ‘disaster’ that was Season 2.

Overall, the consensus of the Tekken 8 Season 3 roadmap is positive, but with the patch not coming until March, scepticism is rife after the mess of Season 2. Theoretically, the changes are good on paper, but the Tekken community has been burned before with false promises, and while many are hopeful this will put the game back on track, that isn’t a given.

Still, there is some hope that this will be a turning point, given that Tekken 8 has acknowledged the complaints and is seemingly on an apology tour for Season 2. Not all pros have been as analytical and vocal about Tekken news, although one of the game’s greats, Knee, has stated that Tekken 8 is simply not fun. Hopefully, Season 3 can change that.