Tekken 5

Tekken 5
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco EU: SCE
Director(s)	Masahiro Kimoto Katsuhiro Harada
Producer(s)	Hajime Nakatani
Designer(s)	Yuichi Yonemori Takahiro Noda Kazuo Takahashi
Programmer(s)	Masanori Yamada
Artist(s)	Yoshinari Mizushima Kazuaki Fujimoto
Composer(s)	Akitaka Tohyama Satoru Kōsaki Yuu Miyake Yoshihito Yano Rio Hamamoto
Series	Tekken
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation 2
Release	Arcade JP: November 2004 WW: December 2004 PlayStation 2 JP: March 31, 2005 NA: February 24, 2005 EU: June 24, 2005
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Arcade system	Namco System 256

Tekken 5 (鉄拳5) is a fighting game developed and published by Namco in 2004 for the arcades and in 2005 for the PlayStation 2. It is the fifth main and sixth installment, in the Tekken series, marking the tenth anniversary of the series. The game was upgraded to Tekken 5.1, which had mostly balance changes to the gameplay, and later an update Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection which was released for arcades in 2005 and later ported to the PlayStation Portable as Tekken: Dark Resurrection and on the PlayStation 3.

The game removes several major gameplay changes introduced in Tekken 4, such as uneven stage terrain, in favor of a faster gameplay akin to the older games in the series. It is also the first game in the series to feature the ability to customize characters with accessories, clothing, and other aesthetic items purchased with in-game currency. There are up to 32 characters to choose from, including seven new fighters. The home version includes a mode known as Devil Within, a variant of Tekken Force introduced in Tekken 3. Unlike Tekken 5.1 which merely tried to balance the game, the update Dark Resurrection adds a host of new content, especially in its home version for the PSP.

Tekken 5 was a critical and commercial success, selling over 8.2 million copies (including expansion). A sequel, Tekken 6, was released in 2007.

Gameplay[]

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Tekken 5 incorporates a faster, more fluid fighting system, improved graphics, returning characters, and some of the Tekken series' trademark infinite stages. New to Tekken 5 is the crush system which affects the vulnerability of a character while they attack. For example, a move with jumping properties, such as a hopkick, will be completely invulnerable during most of its animation time to all of an opponent's low attacks.

It also retains its wall juggling concept from Tekken 4, but the element is effectively less easy to abuse and easier to defend against. The home version is a collector's edition of sorts, as it includes the arcade versions of Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken 3, and StarBlade (as a mini-game at start up). Tekken 5 also allowed players to customize their fighter for the first time, allowing them to change the colors of their outfits, buy additional costumes (only available to a few characters), and equip them with items by using money gained from playing the Story, Survival, Time Attack, the side-story Devil Within, and Arcade Battle modes.

Tekken 5 includes a beat 'em up minigame in direct lineage to the Tekken Force modes in Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 called Devil Within. This minigame follows the adventures of Jin Kazama as he searches the G Corporation in search for information on his missing mother and other answers. Being somewhat story oriented, the player is not permitted to use their own choice of characters like previous iterations. The game also uses a limited button system, incorporating a Block and Jump button as well as sizing down the attack buttons to simple "Punch" and "Kick" buttons (though, some of Jin's fighting special moves can still be performed such as his Demon's Paw). Along with fighting various Jack models in the mini-game, the player must pursue minor key quests to proceed. This mode is one of the two ways to unlock the playable version of Jin's Devil incarnation, Devil Jin.

The raised and lowered sections of floors featured in the Tekken 4 levels were removed for the fifth installment. This change made gameplay throughout each stage generally similar, aside from wall placements. In addition to removing the uneven nature of the Tekken 4 styled stages, the design team returned to the style of stages from previous games by having some stages without barriers by allowing them to be infinitely scrolling. For walled stages, the fights take place in fairly symmetrical boxes without any uneven walls (again, removing a feature introduced in Tekken 4). Floors could also crack after one of the characters hit it hard enough. Only one part of a stage can be cracked at a time, however.

Other changes over the Tekken 4 design included the removal of the positional change techniques (throws became once again controlled by combinations of LP+LK or RP+RK instead of designating LP+LK as a position switch maneuver; only Steve Fox was given a position change attack), bringing back traditional air combat (Tekken 4 removed back and vertical leaps in favor of a more fluid 3D combat model) and using a juggle system more akin to Tekken 3 as opposed to the 4th game's less juggle-friendly gameplay. The fighters were also forced to remain stationary prior to the round beginning (Tekken 4 allowed the fighters to move freely before the opening of a round, fitting in with the more position-based gameplay of that game).

The single biggest change is Devil Within mode. This is the fourth installment in the Tekken Force series (the first two instalments can be found in Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 respectively. The third instalment was released as the Tekken spin-off game Death by Degrees). Similar to Death by Degrees, 'Devil Within' focuses solely on one playable character, Jin Kazama. This is a traditional platform game in which players must guide Jin through a series of labyrinth style levels and entire enemy armies. This mode features bosses, such as True Ogre (from Tekken 3), who is not playable in Tekken 5.

The opening loading screen features a few seconds from a video game based on an early 3-D Namco space flyer StarBlade. Like with Galaga in the PlayStation version of the original Tekken, players can control the space ship in the demo. The game can also be unlocked for full play in Arcade History mode. In addition, players can also play the Arcade versions of the first three Tekken games. Each game comes with an option to use only the default characters, or use the bosses and sub-bosses too; console only characters are not featured.

Plot[]

Set moments after Tekken 4's ending, Jin Kazama's departure from the Hon-Maru dojo, G Corporation helicopters approach and begin deploying Jack-4 pods into the building. Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya, are awoken to a squadron bursting through the walls. At first, the two battle the Jacks together until Kazuya leaves Heihachi for dead while escaping. The Jacks hold down Heihachi while one activates its detonator, creating a huge explosion that seemingly kills Heihachi. The only witness to the event is Raven, a mysterious ninja clad in black, who relays Heihachi's death to his superiors. Heihachi's death is declared all over the world with everyone foreseeing the end of the Mishima Zaibatsu. However, somebody else takes over the company from the shadows and business continues as usual.

Two months later, the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 is announced. Meanwhile, Jin is plagued by nightmares triggered by his Devil Gene and decides to enter the tournament in hopes of ending it. His father, Kazuya deduces that the Jack-4s were sent by G Corporation to assassinate him and decides to enter the tournament to take revenge against whoever had sent them. The secret sponsor of the tournament and owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu is finally revealed to be Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Heihachi who was confined below Hon-Maru by Heihachi after a coup forty years ago. However, he was possessed by a vengeful spirit who granted him insurmountable power, after which he broke out of Hon-Maru during the Jacks' attacks. Jinpachi, in his last act of morality, had announced the tournament in the hope that someone would be able to kill him before his potential reign of terror could start.

In the end, Jin makes it to the final round and faces his devil powered great-grandfather in a ferocious duel. Ultimately, Jin manages to defeat Jinpachi, who dissolves into dust and disappears shortly after, with his wish being fulfilled. With this victory, Jin becomes the new head of Mishima Zaibatsu, setting in motion the events of Tekken 6, unaware that Heihachi survived the explosion and is working to retake the Zaibatsu.

Characters[]

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The game features a total of 32 playable characters. Most characters from Tekken 4 return, including Bryan Fury, Christie Monteiro, Craig Marduk, Eddy Gordo, Heihachi Mishima, Hwoarang, Jin Kazama, Julia Chang, Kazuya Mishima, King II, Kuma II, Lee Chaolan, Lei Wulong, Ling Xiaoyu, Marshall Law, Nina Williams, Panda, Paul Phoenix, Steve Fox, and Yoshimitsu. Like its predecessor, the game also sees the return of several characters from earlier games (mostly from Tekken 2) that previously were cut from the canon series, including Anna Williams, Baek Doo San, Bruce Irvin, Ganryu, and Wang Jinrei, while removing Xiaoyu costume swap Miharu Hirano, Lee's alter ego Violet, and Combot, who was replaced by its predecessor Mokujin.

It is the first canonical installment of the series to have twenty default characters as opposed to ten in the previous three games and eight in the original (the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament also had twenty default characters). Lei, Nina, and Jin return to being default characters after being unlockable in Tekken 4. Bryan and Julia are default for the first time in the canonical series (aside from Tag) and Lee is default for the first time. Also, after being unlockable in the third game and absent in the fourth, the Jack model is unlocked from the start.

As opposed to Tekken 4 where every character spoke either Japanese or English, the developers had some of the characters speak their native languages in Tekken 5. Hwoarang and Baek were given Korean voices while Wang and Feng Wei were made to speak Mandarin. Ganryu, Heihachi, Kazuya, Yoshimitsu, Asuka, Jinpachi (final boss, non-playable character), Jin Kazama, and his alter-ego Devil Jin, retained their Japanese voices while Law, Paul, Marduk, Julia, Nina, Anna, Raven, Bruce, Bryan, Christie, and Eddy speak English. King, Kuma, Panda, and Roger Jr. only make animal noises, Mokujin is silent while Jack-5 only speaks in robotic yells and grunts. Lee Chaolan and Ling Xiaoyu speak Japanese despite being ethnic Chinese (Lee spoke English in the previous game). Steve Fox has his own British accent and Lei Wulong speaks American English with an occasional accent.

While several characters from Tekken 4 are given a new set of grunts (Hwoarang, Nina, Lee, Marduk, Julia, Christie, Eddy, and Steve) others retain their grunts from 4 (Jin, Kazuya, Heihachi, Xiaoyu, Yoshimitsu, Bryan, Paul, Law, Lei, King, Kuma, and Panda)

New characters[]

Returning characters[]

^a Unlockable character
^b Bonus character
^c Unplayable boss
^d Skin/palette swap
^e Unplayable enemy in Devil Within mode

Development[]

Namco first announced Tekken 5 in May 2004.^[1] The game was developed to be less realistic than its predecessor.^[2] This was mostly due to negative feedback Tekken 4 received to the point of being considered the worst installment within the series. In contrast to Tekken Tag Tournament, 5 runs on a System 256, a stronger arcade, allowing the team to produce more detailed backgrounds and characters.^[3] This was done thanks to the new engine provided by Namco.^[4] Early in development, Namco promised gamers there would be a minigame on action adventure style mode similar to the one provided by Tekken 3.^[5] Despite promotion from Tekken 5 claiming that the character has died in the intro, Namco Bandai denied this statement in interviews.^[2]

The game features a large cast of music composers, including Akitaka Tohyama, Yoshihito Yano, Yuu Miyake, Junichi Nakatsuru, Satoru Kōsaki, Rio Hamamoto, Ryuichi Takada, and Hiroshi Okubo. The cast returned for the PS2 version, with the addition of Tetsukazu Nakanishi, Keiichi Okabe, Kohta Takahashi, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Keiki Kobayashi, Nobuyoshi Sano, and Katsuro Tajima. The opening song for the PS2 version, "SPARKING", features vocals by Tom Leonard and Jeff Pescetto.^[6] The music encompasses many genres, including techno, rock and nu metal.^[7]

Versions[]

Tekken 5.1[]

Tekken 5.1 is a free upgrade to the arcade version of Tekken 5. It includes changes to the character life bars and character select screen, and some changes in character moves to improve game balance. For example, Steve Fox's infinite was removed, and a few other strong moves were toned down.^[8]

Dark Resurrection[]

Available in the version for the arcades, the PSP and the PlayStation 3 (via the PlayStation Network), Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is an update of Tekken 5. It was officially announced at the 2005 JAMMA AM Show but news of it leaked slightly beforehand. The update Dark Resurrection would further add additional characters, more features, and customizations in addition to gameplay rebalancing.

Reception[]

Tekken 5 was met with mainly positive critical response, resulting in a score of 88 out of 100 at Metacritic.^[9] The game's critical praise was matched with commercial success. As of July 2009, it has sold around 6 million copies.^[14] In retrospective, Harada believes Tekken 5, and Tekken 6, managed to attract a new group of fans, something Tekken 4 failed to do.^[15]

Tekken 5 was ranked by Complex as the sixth best PlayStation 2 game.^[16] SNK staff member Falcoon said Tekken 5 was one of his favorite games in 2005 although he did not consider himself an expert in the game.^[17]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Tekken 5 at MobyGames
• Tekken 5 at The Killer List of Videogames