The Atmosphere of Tekken 4

Kazuya threatening towards the Camera with a gun only to then punch the guy instead is the most Tekken thing I've seen.

I remember playing Tekken 4 as a 5-year old kid and was actually a bit scared by the atmosphere.

I thought I was too nostalgic about how good ps2 games were, I spend so many hours playing Tekken, MGS, and pretty much all the bangers back then. Turns out it wasn't me, they were and still are dope

Finally someone that gets it. People crap all over this game and ignore how special and unique it in the tekken series. Tekken 4 has a special place in my heart even though some other entries in the series are objectively better games

Every character's prologue in the game had great art work, narration and background music. This game truly is one of a kind.

the early 2000's had this magic where everything was dark, gritty, and cool as hell. everything was perfect, serious in tone, hi-tech and as futuristic as possible. for some reason though I can't imagine this phenomenon coming back nowadays. just the games, songs and movies were mostly all serious, everyone was a professional and involved dark aesthetics. movies like the Blade trilogy, Matrix and stuff, songs like Justin Timberlake (and 50 Cent with Ayo technology), Britney Spears with her blackout album (especially Break the Ice and Gimme More), Timbaland with Morning after Dark and so on, games like Deus Ex, Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear Solid 1-2, Halo 1-3, Mass Effect and the likes. it's just an era which you can never replicate ever again, it's all too iconic and perfect in every sense edit: even the unreleased Duke Nukem Forever had this dark futuristic setting with it's HUD and UI, it's brutal

the tone of this game was simply unmatched. the story has never been more mature before or since. things like marduk being sent to a state penitentiary for murder, law losing his restaurant & falling into depression & alcoholism, steve escaping the mafia because they put a hit out on him, etc. this game did not coddle you or hold your hand.

I remember when Tekken 4 came, it was critized for being "Too slow", but for some reason, I loved Tekken 4 with the storyline of Jin and how his ending was great with the "single white feather" to show that there are still hope for Jin

I totally forgot about the Kazuya Stage 7 cutscene. Actually such a simple alteration of his story that has a huge impact. Always love it when you get to face off against specific people at certain stages, where unique cutscenes or interactions take play. Also you pretty much took the words out of my mouth. I always end up going back to Tekken 5 due to the bigger cast and more fluid fighting but I can't quite shake the atmosphere of Tekken 4, from the music to the stages and so on. Also i first played Tekken 4 on a demo disc where Paul and Christie were the only two characters and yes, the quality of the faces on the loading screen blew my mind back then.

The music in TK4 is terrifyingly atmospheric deep Japanese ambient music of early 2000's of Japan.

There will never be a more impressive generational leap than going from Tekken 3 to Tekken 4. This game was mind blowing back then.

Tekken 4 gets a lot of hate for trying too many new things but it really felt ambitious and like we were moving forward. The atmosphere on each stage felt very distinct. And the character designs were realistic. Now almost every male character in Tekken has a copy & paste overly muscular physique. And we have cinematic combos that are suppose to be rage arts or "finishers".

God, I miss the "digital apocalypse" aesthetic so much. It was a little moody, but also tried to give off the impression that it was sophisticated in the sense that the game you were playing was an example of something that was pushing the limits of technology at the time, and it absolutely ozzed style. I also loved fiction that just embraced this idea of an ultra sophisticated digitized world and just had fun with the idea of it, stuff like being able to navigate the internet as if it were a physical place like in Mega Man Battle Network. It was so fun and cool. On a side note I miss when most AAA games had UI and menus that weren't soley made up of transparent boxes and text that that's all displayed in the most basic font. I love games that have really unique coherent styles in the presentation of their UI and menus that are able to help illicit a specific tone and compliment the game in a meaningful way other than just their functionality.

The PS2 era is honestly so unmatched, but this specific aesthetic you mention makes me so happy because I personally couldn’t put into words how games with the aesthetics like in Tekken 4 made me feel. I know for sure it was a positive feeling though. Like a rush🔥 so much nostalgia, man😭😭😭😭

I've always felt like i'm the only one with a passion for atmosphere and aestethics in video games. content like this shows me others feel the same way and it makes me happy

Great video. You definitely understand the feel of Tekken 4.

The stages and the soundtrack really represent the mood/feeling of the first decade of 2000

The late-90's to early/mid 2000's was a golden age where the limitations of the technology still forced creativity and crafty design choices from devs, but wasn't so limited that said creativity itself had to be limited too. Soundtracks, UI's, gameplay, everything was fresh and fun or cutting edge in some way, industries started really making their tropes and aesthetics theirs and the notable games were just fucking good no matter what console they were on. Gaming now is the opposite, where it's the advancements in technology enable more creativity and intensity than ever before, so there's still gems to be enjoyed, but they're gems and beloved for entirely different reasons than games like Jak & Daxter, Ridge Racer, Golden Sun, Resident Evil, Katamari, SotC, Metroid Prime, Wind Waker, and many, many other standouts of the time.

You're just making this video to help indie devs recreate this aesthetic for when all their PS2 inspired games come out in a year or two and frankly, I'm all for it.

T4 was my first Tekken game. The art direction was pulled off so well. The rooftop stage, the mall , the beach, the jungle. There were so many incredible stages that made me feel like I was in the game. It was almost addicting. Hooded Jin was so mysterious making you wonder who he was if you didn’t play Tekken 3