Tekken 7 Doesn't Have Tutorials Because Nobody Cares About Tutorials

A lot of games have mandatory tutorials these days. It's especially endemic to the triple-A blockbusters, where the first couple of levels teach you how to play the game in a hand-holding fashion. Well, for Tekken 7 Bandai Namco went in the complete opposite direction because the producer says nobody really plays them.

Speaking with PCGamesN, famed Tekken 7 producer, Katsuhiro Harda, explained that nobody cares about tutorial modes in Tekken and that's why it doesn't have a mandatory tutorial...

Now keep in mind that this doesn't mean that the game doesn't have tutorials at all. It just doesn't have a dedicated, mandatory tutorial mode like a lot of other triple-A games. Instead, Tekken 7 eases you into learning the new features and functions through the story mode, where players learn how to utilize the new Rage mode, and perform some of the basic moves and specials.

The tutorials in the story mode aren't forced, though, and you can still utilize your own skills and play-style as you see fit.

If you need to actually learn how to play, the fight lab and practice mode allows you to train up your skill and take on challenges by completing certain tasks. In the older Tekken titles this was basically how the skill-curve of learning the game was done; you picked a character and you practiced in the Practice Mode.

Other games these days have gone in the complete opposite direction, forcing players to learn how to play through mandatory tutorials. Ubisoft is notorious for that with the Assassin's Creed games, where sometimes you'll spend hours going through missions that teach you how to do the basics. In the case of games like Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, you literally spent half the game just learning the different mechanics.

For games like Halo, the tutorial was about five minutes long at the very start of the game after the cinematic played, and from then on you were free to do your own thing.

It's interesting in Tekken 7's case because if the data is showing that people don't care about tutorials, then it seems like a waste of resources to focus so heavily on making them mandatory in some games.

Then again, I suppose it does depend on the game itself. 4X grand strategy games, turn-based titles like XCOM, and highly complex games like Star Citizen would probably benefit from a dedicated tutorial mode.

Nevertheless, Tekken 7 managed to sell quite well without forcing players to learn how to play the game in any specific manner.