Tekken 7 Pre-Launch Version - Looking at the Combo System

Update: Added a few more important bits of information in the stage awareness section.

Tekken 7 is a new game and with that comes with some new changes. Early reports from Japanese arcade goers paints an interesting picture as to how you will want to craft your combos in the new game. Now that bound as we normally use to perform them is altered and mostly removed, there's a new combo extending property that looks to 'bound' the opponent a greater distance then before in previous Tekken games. Just so we're all clear on what to call them, Bandai Namco is officially calling these new moves 'Screw Attacks' (Abbreviation - S!) so I guess the community can move on from calling the attacks Kirimomi/Tailspins. I've also got some other interesting quirks of the combo system in Tekken 7 that I feel like should be looked at so I've added all of those below. Of course, this all comes from a 'pre-launch' version of the game so this could all very well change in the future so do keep note of that.

▌On the Surface
￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣ ￣

It's only natural to assume that the standard combo in Tekken 7 will probably look a little like this:

Launcher → Filler → Screw Attack → Finisher

Here's 2 videos from Fuu-Chikurin in Japan that shows a little bit of this in action - There's also some interesting combos and findings in the video but it at least gives you the idea:

We don't know for now if these combos are optimal combos to perform when you land the launcher because of the..........

▌Combo Scaling
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Early reports from Japan suggest that the combo scaling in Tekken 7 is a little more drastic than in previous games. Take a look at this tweet from Zeugaru:

【ポール使い速報!!!!!!】 右アッパー→色々→スクリュー→締め技 と、同じくらい 右アッパー→ポンケン が、減るし、運ぶし、更には起き攻めしやすい。 スクリューなんて無かったんや！！！ (; ﾟ ﾛﾟ)ﾅﾝ!( ; ﾛﾟ)ﾟ ﾃﾞｽ!!( ; ﾛ)ﾟ ﾟﾄｰ!!

— ゼウガル (@zeu_zeu) February 23, 2015

Paul's d/f+2 combo report:

d/f+2 → filler → Screw Attack → Finisher

&

d/f+2 → Deathfist

These two combos do roughly the same amount of damage!

And here's another report from Master Toyama on 2 Claudio combos:

クラウディオのコンボダメージを確認中・・・・ 確認・・・・ん！？ pic.twitter.com/iz0paZdc4U

— マスター富山 (@masterTOYAMA) February 24, 2015

Combo #1: Genocide Cutter (Claudio's u/f+3 hopkick) → b+3 → Burn Knuckle (lunging punch)

Combo #2: Genocide Cutter → b+3 → bb+4 → Starburst 3, → 2,1,2

As you can see from the picture, despite the 2nd combo having more hits and a Screw Attack, it still does roughly the same amount of damage as the first, easy and simple combo. So this is one thing to wonder about when making your combos in Tekken 7. Here's another two examples from Zeugaru:

【ポール速報の補足】 ・214RKカウンター→ポンケンで４割減る←NEW!!!!! ４割 下段捌きのあとと、壁コンもポンケンで良いかもなー。

— ゼウガル (@zeu_zeu) February 23, 2015

Paul Report:

Pauls' ch qcb+4 → Deathfist does 40% of life

40%

例えばブライアンは、 横移動LP→66RK（S）→ダッシュ236LKRK→66RP の方が、 横移動LP→1RP→LP→66RK（S）→ダッシュ4LK3移行→RKLPRP より減ってるっぽい。

— ゼウガル (@zeu_zeu) February 23, 2015

Bryan Report

ss+1 → ff+4 (Screw Attack) → dash in ~ qcf+3, 4 → ff+2

does more damage than

ss+1 → d/b+2 → 1 (jab) → ff+4 (Screw Attack) → dash in ~ b+3~d/f → (qcf) 4, 1, 2

Going by all these combo reports, it seems that the combo scaling in this game seems to heavily degrade after the 5th hit so out in the open, it may be best to just keep your combos simple and short but damaging. Front load all your damage in the early hits of your combo to get the max out of it. Rage Arts in particular are really susceptible to the combo scaling since they normally have a large number of attacks in the animation reducing the overall damage and making you wonder if it really was worth using it as a finisher. You can see Sodam demonstrate this:

This doesn't however 'complete the picture' that comes when creating combos in Tekken 7 because......

▌TEKKEN 7 will have a greater emphasis on character positioning and stage awareness
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The combo scaling may affect your average combo but one thing to consider is that the combo scaling is reset in combos that features the wall or have any floor breaks and wall breaks (Thanks KYSG!). This means that you can still receive worthwhile damage in your long combos, but only if you utilize your in-game surroundings correctly. As for the stages themselves,

You've probably seen most of the stages in Tekken 7 by now. Mostly walled stages with walls, balcony breaks & floor breaks. A higher amount then Tekken stages usually gets and we haven't even seen all of the stages in the game yet. The Temple stage with all the columns has 3 floor breaks in it, the first stage we've ever saw from T7 - the jungle stage has a balcony AND a wall break (That 1st stage almost matches the complexity of the Strategic Space stage in TTT2 already) and the Mishima stage is a standard walled stage. The lava stage which you fight the Kazumi boss on has a stage transition in between the rounds. The only stage in the game so far to not have any of these stage designs is the Refinery snow stage which is an infinite - the only infinite stage in the game so far.

If you happen to know your stage positioning, you could perhaps be able to create some of the more damaging combos in the game - Here's an extreme example which was found recently: (Lili triple floor break DEATH combo)

(Now before anyone goes crazy about this, Harada already tweeted out that this combo has been fixed from a recent online patch given to the game. Yes they really did fix this combo a day after it was spotted.)

No. Can't do that (and already fix floor breaks bugs). RT@mischievous_bot you can do multiple floor breaks in one juggle??

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) March 3, 2015

@Flying_Wonkey @RavenboyRH Finally, I could test. No double break! Damage is the same. (means, damage reset remains)

— YOU@KYSG (@YOUKYSG) March 3, 2015

Back to the point, here is another Steve combo from Fuu-Chikurin:

And there's going to more cases of these in the future as the game gets more time. So while it seems like you can keep it simple with your staple combos to get the damage out in the open, utilizing the new Screw Attacks to go for the wall carry into the wall or floor/wall breaks can still be something well worth aiming for.

That's all for now, in this weird 'on the spot' analysis that I just wrote up. Of course the usual 'Game is in development,' 'things can change down the line' etc etc still apply.