Tekken's HypeTrain Disaster

[@missingno_fgc]

One more factor to consider regarding the patch timing is the certification process. The patch may have been submitted for review in December, but can take a while to go through QA on every platform. And while it's being QA'd, they're already working on the next patch after it.

[@kongk4]

Exactly, it takes two weeks for Sony and MS to test a patch and this process is completely unavailable during Christmas Eve to New Years Day. So the earliest they would've been able to test it would be Jan 2nd or 3rd, and any bug detected during this process could delay the patch by another week. In which case, the earliest the patch could have released was Jan 16th. There's been worse patch releases than that (poor JeBailey), but I imagine the team weren't keen on giving the pros a relatively short notice for the first major of the year.

[@TonguelessDanny]

Still doesn't justify him coming out in the state that he did when they already had years of balancing experience with Tekken 7. You cannot suddenly make a character this strong on accident after so many years of development.

[@bigbangbot-SuperSqank]

Oh yeah, I fully believe they knowingly made Leroy overpowered due to all of his hype and to boost up sales. There’s no way it was an accident. The only thing Bamco underestimated was the negative response to how overtuned he was.

[@Edmitsu]

Why did they release him like that in the first place. Having the context is nice. But it still looks like they released him broken on purpose to milk the cash at the cost of player’s enjoyment. Season 3 is where I lost almost all of my trust with the tekken team. The really questionable balancing decisions started with that season and they’ve only started to course correct with the patch for 8 in June.

[@Thorgue1910]

The “Y’all need to sit the hell down” was extremely poorly timed, you can’t throw fire back when the entire community is WARNING you the character will be the only thing in the next tournament top 8

[@C_Ranked]

in retrospect it's even funnier that they revealed Leroy in T8 during Evo Japan

[@complimentbot7015]

@@C_Ranked yes

[@Unlimited_Slip]

For me, the most memorable thing about Leroy in T7 is that he managed to make me want to see Julia win.

[@itsthatsvee]

Julia is/was my main, I felt like a true hero that day watching Mikio play lmao.

[@jigglyjoe206]

ah yes, Leroy, my favorite character, i’ve been playing him since Tekken 3

[@brianpbillingsley3687]

Heh! I see what ya did there. 😏

[@kinggold9087]

No bs 😂

[@FossilApostle]

Nice Tekken netflix reference

[@ProxyFox45]

I can’t believe how much of a jobber they made him in that show, Jin just wiped the floor with him

[@トーキ-g8v]

@@ProxyFox45tbf Jin has been consistently the strongest Mishima in the series with the best feats to boot, his first game had him killing the God of Fighting, next game he beats both his dad and grandpa after learning an entirely different martial art from what he was raised to know, next he beats his demon possessed great grandfather and the next one he one shots satan

[@imfinishedgrinding638]

Thank you Leon for gently informing me the big revelation that Marshall Law is actually British. Never would have known coz of his very convincing American Accent for a Chinese-British.

[@Ervonesque]

So that's why his beef were too damn spicy, those damn British thugs can't eat proper foods

[@sarika3689]

If he's based on Bruce Lee, shouldn't he be from Hong Kong? By his first appearance, Hong Kong would've been under British rule. Technically.

[@chocomarmotte]

No way man, the game’s lore states that he has to compete in the tournament to pay for his son Forrest’s medical bills you can’t get more american than that 🦅🦅🦅

[@Kuuga12-gc1gp]

thanks antimage

[@IkenFister]

​@chocomarmotte you pay for medical bills through taxes, and have a worse Healthcare systems for it lmao.

[@deegee6062]

I think it's fascinating to see how bad of an impression Leroy left on the Tekken community that even in Tekken 8 where Leroy is no longer a balance breaking monster he is one of the least played characters in the game, despite all that initial hype about his design, even when he isn't a problem, people still don't want to play him anymore due to that legacy.

[@WakiTheCroc]

which, frankly, is sad! He's still fuckin cool aesthetically and has his unique mechanics and playstyle, he's just not... full of broken shit like half the cast. He has clear strengths and weaknesses.

[@NemSumeragi]

He was also pretty weak on Tekken 8 launch. And even though he's received some pretty good buffs, people have already found homes in other characters. I think Chikurin still plays a little bit of Leroy in 8? He was also basically the only person still using Leroy to some extent in T7 after all the nerfs

[@subspacesausage5918]

It is the stigma, casuals still think leroy is broken despite all. Funny thing, I remember some time after the nerfs every leroy Id run into was incredibly toxic and for a good reason. If you checked their steam page it was just walls of bm sent by other players. Basically someone would pick up the chatacter and learn the game while being showered by insults. They just assumed it was normal in the community.

[@w21aaaaa]

Hopefully Leroy becomes a lesson for Bamco about not making DLC characters too OP. T7 forever tainted his legacy and his popularity still haven't recovered.

[@Noahtheorigianl]

Just like bayo in ultimate

[@salinalee2613]

honestly just stopped by to say that I *really* like the thumbnail's rejection of algorithmic fuckery. no clickbait title, no boring and hella derivative layout, just an engaging title with an image that piques the viewer's curiosity. tasteful. classy. a gd breath of fresh air, frfr.

[@GoogleAccount-jn5qb]

It's a clickbait title. "Tekken's HypeTrain Disaster" is textbook.

[@darthvaderreviews6926]

Yeah, but wouldn't it be better if the thumbnail was a picture of Heihachi with a censor bar saying "DISASTER" covering his eyes?

[@TenjinZekken]

You might be blind or illiterate because the title is textbook clickbait. It feels you no woodcutting about the video, while using words like disaster which draw you in bevause for some reason people love learning about failure.

[@osakeleto]

picture of kazuya with his eyes censored. "..tekken is DEAD.." in red font.

[@Tinil0]

@@TenjinZekken You really don't seem to understand what clickbait is. Clickbait isn't just "enticing titles", it implies deception about the contents of the video. That title accurately describes the entire thesis of the video.

[@ShingoKhan]

And then Fakhumram came and devs did the same thing

[@XShinobixXx]

And this is why you dont automatically try to make excuses or fence hop for devs. they have used up all their excuses for decades now. They need to start learning from their mistakes. And honestly be held accountable for it.

[@YourMasta]

@@XShinobixXx You need to take your medication, and go outside.

[@nonamepasserbya6658]

@@XShinobixXx What people and the maker of the video doesn't get is that this isn't unintentional. They are using the SFV method of using OP DLC to permanently destroy the meta to make people rush to the next installment (6,7,8,...) because new installment = more balance = more money for devs. Leroy may be an accident but Fahkumram sure isn't. Not a coincidence the actual Thai born Muay Thai practitioner doesn't return yet Leroy does.

[@XShinobixXx]

@@nonamepasserbya6658 thats a interesting theory. makes sense!

[@LSSTmusic]

@@nonamepasserbya6658 is it exhausting assuming everyone is out to hurt you? lol

[@sharpstevengg]

While I'm inclined to agree that Leroy's busted kit was an unfortunate misstep, just remember that this game charged you for frame data. The devs were absolutely greedy on this game!

[@strykah92]

On one hand, the practice of putting a game's ability to display it's frame data behind a paywall *is* silly. But the demographic of players that frame data is important to, should have had the season pass anyway, in which case you were effectively getting it for free. Also, Bamco already tried the goodwill route of 'free fanservice DLC' with Tag 2. The overwhelming majority of future T7 players didn't give Tag 2 a chance regardless. So there's that.

[@Wormopera]

Because the devs are the ones who decide everything about pricing and definitely not publishers, ceos, and the marketing team right

[@yomiiiu]

​@@Wormopera of course! I think janitors is to blame honestly. CEOs and greedy mans with money are too cute to be bad!

[@h2_]

Hold on, that throwaway line about Shadow Mewtwo releasing with literally solved gameplay, I need to know more. Has anyone made a video about that character out there? Please tell me if so

[@radishhat5736]

Shadow mewtwo came out with a loop that put you into infinite blockstun where you'd eventually shieldbreak or die from chip? iforget which.. from a ranged projectile that's a vertical pillar. They got fixed pretty quickly but like... you know. He was a boss character that they only later made playable so that's basically how it happened.

[@thesteamguy6171]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="287">4:47</a> and Bruce gets forgotten once more

[@blizzardleopardrecords3086]

And Raven too

[@strykah92]

That crossed my mind too. But to be fair Leon may have meant in Tekken 7 specifically since Bruce and OG Raven weren't around. And still never were afterwards either.

[@gentlguy1101]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="287">4:47</a> "This will also be the first african american representation" Bruce Irvin: "And i took that personally."

[@pavaoc0p]

Maybe Leon didn't want to mention Bruce cause he's his worst nightmare.

[@felipo_galaxy1853]

Raven too, hes not in 7 but still

[@Ravemaster620]

I'm assuming he meant African American as in a black guy from America. If not then Leon is just skipping over many other black characters in the game like many before him did when Leroy released

[@jossaccountofmadnessandmem1844]

@@felipo_galaxy1853 master raven too!

[@zb5902]

@@Ravemaster620 Bruce Irvin is/was American. So I guess he just forgor/never knew of him to begin with.

[@OnlyJerome4Reals]

Bruce was the first african american rep not leroy

[@thelastgogeta]

Yeah, right. Next thing you'll tell me that Tekken 7 wasn't the start of the series.

[@AirLancer]

Probably meant in T7, not the series as a a whole.

[@MegiDolaDyne]

ah yes bruce my favorite character in tekken 7

[@kushan_tk]

@@AirLancer Master Raven was the first African American rep in t7. She came with the game on release.

[@MrIcenice44]

@@thelastgogetadon’t worry tekken 7 was the start of the series

[@jliverman]

when the majority of pro players are basically saying, “character is busted and if you want a chance to win then play this character” then the tournament organizers should ban the character… esp when the devs have said a week in advance, “yes the character is busted and we’re gonna patch it.” and if you ask me, this Leroy hate has carried over into Tekken 8. it’s so sad.

[@MrOzzification]

At that time there was also a ton of downplay and "it's still too soon to make conclusions". Tekken community is also very averse to character bans in tournaments. It literally took 6 Leroys in EVO JP's top 8 for a lot of people to concede that maybe this Leroy character is a problem.

[@Bruce_Mazi]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="290">4:50</a> BRO WHAT ? Bruce was the first african american in tekken all the way back in T2 and then Ravenqas added in T5 yes his nationality is unknown but the distinctly american accent and being based off wesley snipes gives it away 💀

[@Yosefhouser]

I turned off the video when he did this because I was like lol wut? Everyone acting like every franchise was made yesterday. He didn’t even mention that the main selling point of Leroy is that I have always been disappointed that no one ever explored the Wu-Tang aesthetic in a fighting game.

[@ehhorve857]

@@Yosefhouser it turns out he never played a tekken game with bruce in it, man didn't know.

[@Micha-Hil]

New Leonardo Massive video, dropping everything I'm doing

[@ByrneBaby]

a Leonardo Massive W in my books

[@kadabraguy9846]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1973">32:53</a> I can't believe Leroy was MOASS this whole time

[@mojoforthewin3069]

Eventually the US government will have no choice but to concede to Leroy Players’ demands

[@cbd075]

If we DRS as much T7 DLC as we can afford, we can hodl for infinite damage

[@shumbojrimp8274]

If you want the viewer to understand what +13 damage to a combo means, maybe just telling us the HP value of some characters would be useful. I don’t know if 13 damage is 1/10 of a King’s HP, or 1/20, so the flat number doesn’t really mean anything. An increase from 64 to 77 supposedly means a lot, but you just saying that and showing the amount of interactions it takes for the game to be over doesn’t tell me how much of a difference that +13 makes for Leroy. If that makes sense, I’m also just a person who likes seeing all the number in fighting games.

[@NotLuigi]

Tekken characters have 145 health across the board for what its worth

[@MaejXIV]

​@@NotLuigiAt the time of Leroy's release, characters had 170 HP. After season 4, this was increased to 175 HP.

[@amaulana090]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="288">4:48</a> Wait... what about Bruce?

[@thelastgogeta]

SNK Kyo fans and Tekken Bruce fans must be getting numb to this FGC erasure.

[@justagamethrower]

Bruce can stay gone, Never thought he was cool in the older titles and fahkumram was just a direct upgrade in every way, Design, Feel, Balance not really obviously, He's more likely to come back than Bruce ever will be

[@MrOzzification]

​@@justagamethrower Your feelings about Bruce don't change the fact that Leroy wasn't Tekken's 1st African American rep.

[@ahmcha357]

It gets more interesting, as Tekken 7 would continue to have very strong DLC characters, with Fahkumram, Kunimitsu, and Lidia all being considered top tier at some point after their release. Tekken 8 on the other hand, seems to have gone in a vastly different direction so far, with Eddy being considered by some pros to be among the worst in the game, and Lidia being solidly middle of the pack.

[@yourdestination6897]

I absolutely prefer something like this. It shows you that they care less about baiting people into buying the DLC with an advantageous, powerful character, and more about adding interesting pieces for the game as a whole. We're getting a whole damn chapter in the story mode for free when Heihachi drops with the previous two DLCs starring heavily in it, so they're really putting care into the story through these additions now.

[@bigbangbot-SuperSqank]

Fahkumram at launch was almost as bad as Leroy, that’s the funny thing. Clearly top 1 in hindsight, had numerous overtuned tools and he was even literally borked in some ways having wonky hurtboxes and a throw that was harder to break than other throws. And then by the end of the game, he ended up as one of the worst characters in the game.

[@radumotrescu3832]

Jeondding has been cooking with Eddy tho. I think Eddy was considered lower tier at higher levels in T7 as well. But yes, its much more preferable to have it like this, especially with you not being able to use the replay features against these DLC characters unless you own them. SF6 has also done this quite well, Season 1 introduced 2 of the hardest characters to play, and the rest are considered good enough.

[@bigbangbot-SuperSqank]

One more thing I will add is that while Tekken 8's DLC characters haven't been a problem so far, I would not be surprised if at least one of them ends up being problematic at some point down the line. Tekken 7 did have some DLC characters earlier in its life who weren't competitively powerful on release but others... We'll obviously have to see how this plays out but considering that Tekken 8 is planned to have a very long life span and Bandai Namco's track record, I would be more surprised if the game ends up having no busted DLC characters.

[@radumotrescu3832]

@@bigbangbot-SuperSqank that can always happen, the point is that they react faster, unlike Tekken 7. And there's always the chance that a character seems strong but people just need to adapt, like DVJ in T8, or JP in SF6

[@Jin-lp5lt]

This shit was so painful to live through if you were big into Tekken 7. Game was being eaten alive by Bamco

[@richardsinclair7661]

I'm not disagreeing that Bamco's handling of the game was less than stellar at points, but it was also their continued support of it that saved the series.

[@Syrus2006]

​@@richardsinclair7661 hahahaha

[@hakageryu-hz7jz]

@@richardsinclair7661 that's hilarious. To further nail the point home, T8 is an absolute shit show in so many ways. T9 will be a 2D game, calling it now.

[@ricky2012100]

@@hakageryu-hz7jztekken 8 pretty much was 2D day one. Auzecena made me sick to my stomach

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

​@@ricky2012100So dramatic

[@quijassajiuq900]

Watching this while waiting for the Yu-Gi-Oh banlist thank you Leon

[@smallman9787]

lmao hearing about overpowered strategies from other games probably sounds like a sitcom to you

[@joelpaultre7440]

Turns out we actually got a fiendsmith hit.

[@ChicaneryBear]

Oof, sorry you’re playing YGO. I hear this format sucks.

[@quijassajiuq900]

@@ChicaneryBear Dpn't worry I don't actually play tcg yu-gi-oh I just think it's cool Thank you for the concern

[@KhanMann66]

No hit to snake-eyes. Garbage format as always.

[@tristan8369]

“Hey is anyone else been getting weird dms from Dr. disrespect?” That was so random and so funny lol

[@ratcatcher2048]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1972">32:52</a> holy shit I was not expecting to see a This Is Financial Advice reference in a Tekken DLC video essay of all things, hell yeah

[@Metalmanijak]

Dragunovs qcf4 in T8 is the equivalent of Leroys d1+2 in T7. Literally a move that does everything and has no weaknesses. Throw it out whenever and it will probably work. Just crazy to think that the devs havent learned their lessons in T7.

[@GianfrancoGalassoBaller]

It's not just that they didn't learn their lessons, they also double down on purpose by adding heat.

[@kumorizora2507]

it doesnt track to the right at all. Just like all the other bitching over dragunov, thats an exaggereation to say no weaknesses.

[@strykah92]

Well it isn’t is it? It’s at least 4 frames slower (assuming the Drag player does a perfect qcf input, and you’ll see from replay input history that they don’t 99% of the time) and can only be used as a launcher once per round with massive combo scaling. It’s a good move regardless but has a very different metagame to what Leroy’s d1+2 did. It sounds like the actual equivalence you’re really making is you’re just tired of seeing a ‘meta character’ very frequently. That’s always gonna exist to an extent in future seasons of T8 and beyond.

[@owlsomeguy9679]

POKKEN TOURNAMENT MENTIONED 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@DrunkenCoward1]

Oh shit, Leon is a fighting-game historical journalist now. I am certain his "Fear and Loathing" is fast approaching. Happy that you have found your niche! I remember in university (I studied History), we had to archive some website and explain why it would be worth archiving. I chose the Dustloop wiki and explained that it is impervious for media historians, as it gives us an understanding not just of the phenomenon, but also the culture around that phenomenon. I got an A for that. Even though I have no idea if the archive actually worked.

[@kainewest6308]

he gets a lot of facts about games that aren't GG xrd wrong to be considered a journalist. Like his KOF video about combo links or this very video about Leroy being the first african american Tekken character

[@DrunkenCoward1]

@@kainewest6308 Actually, reporting on things they get wrong are what a journalist often does. Because he's a journalist, not a scientist. Hunter S. Thompson was considered a journalist. And he wrote about drug trips. The important part is getting people interested to delve deeper into the topic.

[@funkrates4778]

@@DrunkenCoward1that’s not wha the meant and journalists don’t often get things wrong. And they certainly don’t get things wrong that are practically self-evident.

[@bandawin18]

​@@funkrates4778 journalists don't often get things wrong??? Are you serious? They get shit wrong on purpose, dude. They're blatant liars for the most part

[@valeoncat13]

The editing on this is amazing! It's nice to see fighting game essays with this much love put into them!

[@Ariamaki]

Wow I did not expect the extremely niche and brief Dan Olson "conspiracy jar" shoutout at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1975">32:55</a>.

[@dumbchild1514]

Damn Leon is so twitch chat pilled he popped a True

[@LeonMassey]

True

[@dashyweaver]

What a great video!!! SO much editing and the 3d models 🤯

[@Jumungous]

Leroy in the style of Where's Waldo/Wally is so killer, great visual gags throughout

[@louwashe]

Glad to have contributed the tiniest amount to this video reminding Leon that T7 had cabinets with instructions on

[@anon3631]

Bro really said KOF's Geese instead of Fatal Fury.

[@Smashvillain]

Never forget Yuriwo's incredible run at EVO Japan 2020 where she took Asuka into a sea of Leroys and almost made top 8. That's my hero right there.

[@DeliLizard]

Looking back at evo japan 2020, I always get so annoyed seeing julia as the saviour of the tournament. Julia was so cheap, but just not overpowered like launch leroy. Only thing keeping her out of the spotlight (by the end of season 3) was the 2d characters breaking the game and fahkumram being just as, if not more broken than launch leroy.

[@LeonMassey]

When I interviewed Kwiss for this this was a point that came up, I wish I could have found a way for it to fit into the video without bogging down the pace but yeah, Julia was mad annoying and for people to be cheering her on is nuts. Also nuts that Ulsan ended up playing a lot of Kazumi and was cheered on as a result, another character people were bored of.

[@DeliLizard]

@@LeonMassey I forgot about kazumi too, the end of tekken 7 really was a slog it actually made me believe kazumi wasn't that great. That was probably more of a side effect of zafina and kunimitsu though. Good video btw, I enjoyed it.

[@ilyamuromez6412]

The first african american? Did you forget Bruce?

[@liv3vil-Kei]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="287">4:47</a> the first african american... Master Raven: Am I a joke to you??

[@MitsuSC]

Bruce Irvin!!

[@liv3vil-Kei]

@@MitsuSC He wasn't in Tekken7

[@MitsuSC]

@@liv3vil-Kei He was talking about the first African American in Tekken, not the first in T7. Bruce was the first.

[@liv3vil-Kei]

@@MitsuSC Bro he is literally talking about new entries in T7.

[@quickpixel8933]

This video felt like the peak of Leon Massey this far. The new high quality with the older style. Its really good content, keep it up!

[@DrBaduba]

This video was really well done, a great overview of T7's lowest moments, but I don't agree with you on how intentional were the balancing decisions regarding Leroy. I can agree that the patch timing was a product of circumstance and that the devs definitely didn't want the top 8 of the most important tournament filled with Leroys, but making the character busted was definitely part of their design. Bamco has a history of making overpowered dlc characters to increase sales, and you just need to look at T7's dlc list to understand it. Here's a quick list of the characters that were, at least at some point, considered broken out of all of tekken 7's dlcs: Geese, Marduk, Julia, Zafina, Leroy, Fahkumram, Kunimitsu and Lidia. That means that more than half of T7's dlcs were purposely made too strong. Hell, they even did this again in T8 with Eddy's release lol. I love tekken, it was the first fighting game that I fell in love with and it made it possible for me to develop the passion that I have for the genre today. But tekken devs are undeniably money hungry worms that, at least in the last years, have repeatedly shown that they don't give a single fuck about how happy players are with their vision of the game.

[@strykah92]

The 'making DLC characters broken on purpose to help them sell' is a pseudo-intellectual conspiracy theory as old as DLC in fighting games itself. Games from Capcom, Arcsys, NRS, SNK and others have all been through it prior. But the fact that you've only listed half of T7's DLC characters automatically has your theory fall apart. In my case, I played Armor King, who was also a DLC character in T7, yet overall worse off from his Tag 2 incarnation. While I do agree Bamco lost the plot with Leroy and Fahkumram especially, they also could've had many moves from their spiritual predecessors (Wang and Bruce respectively) that they thankfully didn't. Like the sound of Leroy with waning moon? Yeah, me neither. Even Julia, who I wouldn't say was on the same wavelength as those two in their prime in T7, she has a whole laundry list of fuckeries from prior Tekken games that easily could've been brought back in T7 if there was a 'conscious effort' to make her broken.

[@DrBaduba]

@@strykah92... So you're saying that having at least 50% of DLC characters S tier on release isn't enough to make it kind of a "rule"? Would you have preferred to have all DLCs in tekken be made broken? Would that suffice for you to accept that Bamco loves these predatory practices (or, at the very least, has no idea on how to balance their own game)? I've been an AK main for 80% of T7's life, and that definitely wasn't enough to make me forget how stupid most of the DLCs have been lol. Also, AK was a special case since he had most of his core moves "stolen" by King in T7. Him being considered weak-ish was mostly due to his lack of defining characteristics when compared to King. Sure he had a wavedash and his dark upper for whiff punishing, but what's the point of that when you're giving King one of AK's best whiff punishers (f2,1) anyway? What's the point of playing the character who's more poke heavy and neutral oriented when some of his best pokes (d3, for example) were inherited by King, who still had the better Oki, throws, rage drive and damage? I reeeeeally don't think that AK is a good example of how the DLC characters were balanced in tekken 7, especially since he's always been a fan favourite. As an alternative example, think of Heihachi's reveal in T8. Bamco definitely doesn't need to make him S tier, since everybody already knows and loves the character, but even if they were to release him as a B tier, it wouldn't make me forget about Eddy lol. Also, I can't stress enough that we're not talking about releasing a "good" character. We're talking about releasing meta defining characters that will be consistently seen in tournaments until they get nerfed, all of this while not allowing those who didn't buy the DLC to lab said characters. I just don't understand how you can shut your eyes in front of these facts and act like Bamco isn't constantly trying to fuck you in the ass, my brother

[@dualboxdtox]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="290">4:50</a> "first african american representation" im no lore expert but isnt bruce from USA?!

[@XenoChron2]

Also hello? Raven?

[@dualboxdtox]

@@XenoChron2 facts

[@jonzumaki]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="287">4:47</a> "First African-American"??? Bruce? Raven? Master Raven? You high, bro?

[@kainewest6308]

Something similar to the Mikio storyline in 2020 happened recently with EWC top 8 with Tekken 8. Yagami was the fan favourite Reina that took it back from 0-4 to beat Chanel. Also isn't Bruce and Master raven/Raven African-American? Leon isn't beating the fighting game secondary allegations

[@LeonMassey]

Oh my days I completely forgot about raven, I've never played a game with Bruce in it so I'm not surprised I missed that but how did I forget about a character that's in 7 and 8

[@nonamepasserbya6658]

@@LeonMassey To be fair Raven has no clear origin. She could be a Mexican for all we know.

[@RexIsOnline]

I really appreciate the dimming of the white screencaptures to ease eyestrain. I am reminded each video that Leon's production for these is world class

[@TheJoyfulReaper]

I spit out my drink laughing at that Dr.Disrespect jab lol

[@TheJateke]

First African American representation???? Bruce, Tiger Jackson, and technically the Ravens. Even if they aren't directly American, come on lmao

[@ThePoodle]

Yes, African AMERICAN is important to this

[@Rizzo91]

He doesn't always upload, but when he does. I drop everything and enjoy the banger.

[@joesizzle10]

This was a really well made video about a topic I care about deeply. I've ranted about this stuff for hours to my girlfriend. I've always wanted to see a in depth video essay about Tekken 7 and what went wrong with it, thank you for making it.

[@tree2992]

Regarding the financial decision to release strong DLC characters... I will say, I've worked on two major live service games (LoL and Marvel Snap), and in both, designers explicitly want new characters/cards to be strong. Nobody wants to break the game, but they DO want the character to be competitive-relevant. For LoL, there's a sweetspot in the top 10-50-ish where the character is competitive-viable in both solo queue and esports, and Marvel Snap has pretty blatant power creep. Characters in that sweetspot generate a lot of positive marketing, engagement, as well as sales. With that said, LoL and Snap are able to identify and nerf problem characters much faster than fighting devs, for whatever reason. Also, as free-to-play games, the financial incentive is probably larger compared to a box + DLC revenue model of fighting games. I do appreciate you standing up for us developers though 😅

[@shajita]

This may honestly be your best video yet. Really good stuff. Excellent storytelling, pacing, editing, writing. Just hooked to my phone not realizing how fast the time went.

[@seanabj]

Man, the quality in editing is insane. The little sfx scratches my brain too

[@yuri-eo9sv]

the time period from Leroy's first trailer to Leroy Day One was the best time period of my life.

[@Weebfox]

Had to wait for my scented candles and a five course meal to arrive to enjoy another Leon banger

[@horobi-san4427]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="250">4:10</a> I laughed at the Jiri Prochazka reference, didn't expect the shaman magic comment to be referenced in a Tekken video Great content, as usual :3

[@devinj1424]

Always happy to see a Leon video pop up in my feed

[@pepsimaxwillhealmywounds]

the dustforce soundtrack blessing my ears

[@enemycrumbles]

I was completely blindsided by the Folding Ideas, but it was so perfect

[@anata.one.1967]

Absolutely god like production on the video with research to go along with it? Sub.

[@awareclueless]

Editing is top tier, loved the storytelling. Got a new sub with me. Great content!

[@Skuttie]

Leroy was and still is cool design wise.

[@spiffythealien]

Another fantastic video. I can't stress enough how much I love the quick jokes sprinkled throughout (<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1590">26:30</a> the oops). Also, sorry TastySteve, one of the reasons I'm not playing Tekken is because I play Soulcalibur, a 3D game where I can sidestep to the left, from crouch, while on the 2P side (turns out it's easy to do when your series is designed with 3D gameplay in mind from the very start, like Soul Edge/Blade, instead of being a 2D fighter with 3D models like Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 and SFIV).

[@FixerFour]

"The first African American representation" Master Raven - Am I a joke to you?

[@poiuytrewqazaq]

She's not "American", so she's not African-American.

[@Pellumbi]

I wanted to get back into strive a couple of times but that feeling goes away any time I think of happy chaos and I just decide to play Blazblue. So the idea that broken characters affects everyone is very real.

[@SkullKidDale]

Didn't expect to see Pokken mentioned at all lol, would love to see it as a topic soneday! Great video as always!

[@YourMasta]

I wish I could remove the concept of “turns” from the FGC. It only confuses people and doesn’t make sense outside of poorly made games like street fighter 5, which is the worst fighting game ever made. If you teach this “turn” BS to a new player, it’s only going to hold them back from improving.

[@etheweirdo_art]

Outstanding video, visuals are super dope. Man it really is a shame whenever a character release is really hype and once they are released something like this happens. You brought it up, but bayonetta in smash 4 was so insane and never actually got any significant fixes in that game. But man I remember how excited a lot of people were for her trailer. I do appreciate the section going over the weird conspiracies people have about overtuned dlc characters. It does really show the disconnect of game devs and gamers honestly. People get this odd idea that devs can just like, know and predict everything. And that you simply must just "make a character good but not too good" which can have no issues ever and if you mess it up it must be out of malice.

[@LemonRage75]

Awesomely made video! Thank you very much! 🙏🙌

[@doogong]

I know basically nothing about Tekken and the competitive scene. I loved this video! So well edited too

[@nabitea2886]

Holy shit dude I don’t want to glaze but the quality of your videos are always so good!!!

[@AED_001]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1032">17:12</a> "Rage drive is a fuckin' stupid mechanic" Thank you

[@thatren7179]

And then they released Fakh, Lidia and Kuni all over tuned

[@bandawin18]

Marduk...

[@wildeyedduck]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="399">6:39</a> this distracted me from the rest of the video for a bit cuz why tf does Zato-1’s belt do that

[@jamjox9922]

I think the final year of Tekken 7 stained Tekken 8's release sales. I bought everything in T7 to show my support cause it felt like the absolute best tekken since Tekken 5. Even though the content felt a little undercooked and lacking at the very beginning; at the very least it felt like Tekken was being remade for real and not just recycling an old franchise game. But the last year of DLC, specially with Leroy, felt like an unexpected cash grab by Bamco, like they were really trying to get their last big full Tekken 7 sales to boost up numbers; even if that wasn't the case, it really felt foul. I still haven't bought Tekken 8 because I felt so used as a Tekken loyalist who bought the game for friends as well, even if they didn't love it as much as I did. Something really felt off the more years went on with Tekken 7, as if Bamco had found their Call of Duty cash cow; again, even if that wasn't the case--it felt like that. I'm going to be slow on buying Tekken 8, and I might miss out on a lot of hype, but I really feel I have to be stingy with my money now. Specailly in a tight economy, throwing $60 for a base game, it's a lot to ask for.

[@CabbageGarbage123]

You ain't missing anything dw. There isn't any hype, tournaments are great but the game itself when you play it, NAH.

[@AlejandroSilva-mr7yy]

Never having played tekken in my life: tell me more, man voice in phone screen

[@0ctopusComp1etely]

I've grown spoiled from fighting game DLC's. I enjoy the base games, having the characters be tweaked and patched to reach general balance. Feels good. Then I'll drop the game once "That" DLC character gets unloaded that crushes the delicate state the game was in. Then I can just come back half a year later or something once things have been balanced more, if they ever get that way. There's enough other games to just do that these days, and it's basically inevitable for every fighting game with DLC to reach that state anyways.

[@KristietheZeraoraEnjoyer]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="804">13:24</a> HOLY SHIT I'M NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO REMEMBERS THIS GAME

[@slimballs9650]

I do too! Heihachu is easily one of the best parts.

[@neowo7378]

"leroy is the first black character in tekken" so does bruce just not exist

[@haziqtheunique]

I'm speculating here, but... the Tekken Project team seems to run into issues with balancing more often than other fg devs on a patch per patch basis. Tekken 8 hasn't exactly been a smooth ride either.

[@LeonMassey]

I'm not going to put my foot down, because it's really hard to tell what causes the games to come out in the state they do from a "meta" perspective, but I'd imagine that the quantity of options that everything can interact with means there's more tools to slip through the cracks. Some of these are insane though, how D1+2 made it through in the position it did drives me a little mad.

[@haziqtheunique]

@@LeonMassey It would probably be easier to balance the game if they cut the roster in half. The community complains whenever their main doesn't make it in, but honestly, Tekken 8 probably has more solid balancing out the gate if the game starts with 16 characters instead of 32. It also helps the players because there would be less of the "knowledge check" effect you get from over half the roster. Sometimes, the best way to add is by subtracting. Instead, we start with 32 & will probably have 60 or more characters by the time the game is a decade old, with each additional character to the roster increasing the chance of another Leroy situation happening. Because managing multiple dozens of Tekken flavor can't be easy at all.

[@richardvlasek2445]

the obsession with carrying everything from the past into the future is hurting tekken

[@NeCoruption]

They expect US to keep promoting and hyping up the game they refuse to pump quality content into. We get shirts and hats and avatar items.. not character outfits ir accessories.. 9/60 battpe pass items were for character and they all SUCKED out loud

[@TotallyNotUni]

i will forever remember what my brother told me about one of our local guys who was in Japan during EVO, not for EVO, but was there. He left during Day 2, never even saw Top 8, just because of how many Leroy's were being featured on stage. I wasn't much of a fan of Tekken thanks to him specifically, (Dude was a complete asshole and actually killed our FGC scene thanks to it LMAO) so it was nice hearing him suffer about a character being broken as hell, specifically because that's exactly what happened with Smash in EVO 2018, with the classic Bayonetta mirror at Grand Finals. The last time Smash 4 was going to be featured at EVO ends with the epitome of Smash's current history of balance changes, one last character completely trumping everyone else, making the game basically unfun to play. (Our scene actually died during that time, there was only 5-6 people showing up.) I was originally glad for Ultimate, but now it's stuck in the same situation that Smash 4 was in back then. History doomed to repeat itself.

[@lashisfly]

Your editing style is so awesome!

[@MitsuSC]

In a way, Mikio represents old school Tekken against new ways Tekken (Leroy). It’s clearly not in Namco’s intentions to respect classic Tekken anymore and the result is Tekken 8. This is a fantastic video btw. Subbed.

[@HitoriSanzo]

We've seen this happpen before, even in smash ultimate. We seen them nerf pichu, peach and zss into the ground; meanwhile kazuya exists, and steve was left unpatched, steve can do shit no other character can, he literally can prevent you from grabbing the ledge by placing a block there unless your recovery move has a strong enough hitbox. He is smash ultimate's on-release Leroy and was left unpatched because minecraft = sells :/

[@LeeFeather]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="860">14:20</a> <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="920">15:20</a> Parryable,His F4 could be jabbed. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1290">21:30</a> Ling's Bt 4 is 13f. Electrics are 11f. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1406">23:26</a> Proves every Tekken player that just chose Leroy, Knowing he had an advantage was just cheap. Although, Tasty Steve said something that is particular to any Rank player, if your opponent doesn't know how to punish something, They're going to do it over & over again. i'll say it because i don't believe others will, Leroy deserved Better.

[@IAmEnormous]

Don't know where you would've fit it in the video, but I _need_ people to know about the guy who got to Tekken God Prime (the highest rank) _who didn't know how to block._

[@LeeFeather]

Rest in Power Leroy's 1st reveal trailer track & Solitary Warrior instrumental⚰️🙏😔 Never being released.

[@Mimz670]

This is a masterclass edit for something thats nearly an hour

[@gabrielpezzi8774]

Leroy release began the end of good Tekken patches. And the worst of it, is that they never made the character balanced until devs took the decision to move to Tekken 8, in which in that game, the char began as a low tier one, until KJ cried so loudly on twitter that made Tekken devs accept unnecesary buffs for him (beside from bug fixing) This character fucked the game so much that Tekken community concept of "balancing" changed to the point that making every char a forced mixup is "good balancing", like they just did with an extra Hwoarang interaction recently, in which you could escape by backdashing, now you can't.

[@Raidus1]

I don't know anything about tekken besides that one pokemon kerfuffle, so nothing really, but the video explained pretty much everything while being interesting to watch. loved it!

[@projectk3151]

Not to downplay Mikio, he is without a doubt a cracked player, but Julia was also broken in her own right, not as egregious as Leroy of course, but Evo confirmed my suspicions that Julia was slept on.

[@hurricane7727]

In Tag 2 she was Jaycee

[@optimisticlucio6124]

NEW MASSEY VIDEO LET'S FUCKING GO HELL YEAH (ignore me being two days late to the party WOOO LESSGO)

[@logos8019]

fantastic video🎉🎉🎉

[@JonCail24]

This video is so worth the watch. My goodness

[@FieryAnubis]

I was never hyped for Leroy. Not like I hated him, I just found his design very mid (mediocre) since he reminded me of Nagoryuki in Guilty Gear, but old. His mannerisms of this "cool old man master" don't really do much for me. I'll always see him as just "old man Nago but human". He's just not for me I guess, but then again, I also never liked Bryan, another character people find hype and cool for whatever reason I can't really think of right now. That's why I hate it when he's good, and that's why I disliked Tekken 7 when Leroy was broken. Competitively, the worst that Tekken gets. And the most boring to watch. Leroy was boring, and Bryan is just anti-hype. And that's just my opinion in the end.

[@Duffy_SSBM]

Not the main point of the video, but I always appreciate your inclusion of Melee as a reference point among other fighting games

[@NotLuigi]

People who had never played fighting games before were buying Tekken 7 and Leroy the month he released and getting to Tekken God rank. People play this game for thousands of hours and can't even sniff those ranks. That's how absurd this character was

[@heroicsquirrel3195]

Stop exaggerating, no noobs were getting TG

[@NotLuigi]

@@heroicsquirrel3195 www.twitch.tv/parrygod1/clip/SquareSincereTapirDAESuppy?filter=clips&range=all&sort=time Here is a clip of a Tekken God Leroy discovering you can duck electrics Yes noobs 100% were getting Tekken God Prime I'm not exaggerating he was this broken

[@rainiscringe9149]

The Leroy situation reminds me of the Granblue Rising 2B and Beatrix dlc releases, felt like all the other characters vanished in the first few weeks of release.

[@hakakanokonahannaono]

Thank you Leon for Leroy video, I joined after all this had blown out in 2021 after realising DBFZ wasnt getting any love. I had a friend that mained Leroy when he dropped and has stuck to him since, but after T8 he dropped him and made him his "casual" pick. Feng took over, it's all Feng now.

[@marqueesecarter3181]

Yoooo your storytelling skills are amazing! New subscriber acquired

[@Leahcimmichael]

Don't fret about takinf 3 months. Appreciate the quality vids