While everyone expected some form of announcement from Bandai Namco surrounding Tekken at Evo 2022, not many predicted Tekken 7 would be getting a new balance patch and battle update that includes new tactics to approach matches with.
The main change in this update, which is labeled as patch 5.0, is adding more ways for the cast of characters to interact with the wall crush mechanic.
It also is changing elements for basically the entire roster’s moves.
For wall crush, every character now has access to moves that cause “wall crush inducing hit” or “wall crush inducing guard,” all of which are damage animations performed from a standing position. Bandai also notes characters can still block while being “wall crushed,” but it will still put them at a disadvantage because recovery periods are long.
All 51 characters in the game are featured in this patch, but several of them only received one or two changes, including the addition of the new wall crush tactics. Only a handful like Jack-7 and Asuka saw major changes, with the likes of Leroy, Fahkumram, Kunimitsu, and Lidia had having chunks of the patch dedicated to them. Though, as the community will point out, Akuma seems to have escaped being nerfed as significantly as some may have wanted.
Prior to this patch, Tekken 7 saw its last update regarding balance was a small one in Oct. 2021. And, while this update does have significance for the Tekken World Tour 2023 circuit that was announced alongside it, the teaser for what was likely Tekken 8 points to this being the final big burst of support for the game.
The release of this update actually lines up surprisingly well with the release of Tekken: Bloodline on Netflix too, which is likely more than a coincidence. But enough about the future of Tekken, here are all of the patch notes and details for Tekken 7’s 5.0 patch.
If you want to view the full 5.0 patch notes for Tekken 7 in text format, Bandai has uploaded them to its media center. Some small updates to the connection status display have also been added, which aren’t mentioned but do appear when you download the patch.
