"They all thought I was out of the game... But I'm holding all the cards now..."
~ Kazuya Mishima
TEKKEN 4 INTRO
What is Tekken 4?
Tekken 4 is a 2001 fighting game developed by Namco. Developed for arcades in 2001 and later made available for the PS2 in 2002.
The game is the technically the 5th installment in the Tekken series, since Tekken Tag Tournament came before this one instead of Tekken 3.
Tekken Tag Tournament doesn't have a canon story, so Tekken 4 is the fourth game story wise. (Tekken 3 - > Tekken 4))
Tekken 4 Story
THE RETURN OF KAZUYA MISHIMA
Following the end of Tekken 2,
20 years ago a man named Heihachi Mishima kills his son, Kazuya and tosses him into a volcano.
Many years later.. Heihachi Mishima learns that his son's remains have been taken and kept in a laboratory owned by G Corporation, a research firm. They wish to revive Kazuya to learn about his special power, called the Devil Gene. Heihachi sends in his TEKKEN FORCE military to raid the G CORP labs to steal Kazuya's remains for himself, so he can research the Devil Gene for his own personal gain.
The raid is successful untill.. Kazuya Mishima shows up alive and well to give Heihachi a present. G Corp has successfully revived Kazuya and he seeks revenge. Kazuya wipes out the TEKKEN FORCE himself and leaves Heihachi a message. "I'll get everything back."
Heihachi, angered by Kazuya's threat, starts the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 in order to lure Kazuya in.
Find out more by playing Tekken 4!
TEKKEN 4 Box Art + Discs
USA
EU/PAL
JP
The Gameplay
WELCOME TO THE KING OF IRON FIST TOURNAMENT 4.
Tekken 4 was before Tekken became a crazy combo game where you get put into an infinite combo (looking at the new games cough). Tekken 4 has more a poke gameplay (using a set of good moves to chip away at your opponent's health), combos were still there but they weren't as crazy.
I feel as the poke gameplay was more fun as you aren't trying to have a competition on who can pull of the longest juggle combo. It was more like trying to pressure the opponent with your best hits!
This game was very experimental for the Tekken series, some of these changes people aren't too fond on.
Tekken 4 experiments with walls in stages and some stages with a bit of structure opposed to the flat arena type of stage people are used to.
The video below shows a perfect example for what i'm talking about.
Tekken 4 has one of my favorite game modes in Tekken called Tekken force.
Imagine a side scrolling beat em up but Tekken style. You go through 5 stages, beating up tons of enemies and fight a boss at the end of each stage.
This mode was always fun to play, but I could never beat it as a kid. The enemies always whooped my ass in stage 3(lol)
The Characters
Tekken 4 really went crazy on the character costumes, character personalities shine through their clothing. The Y2K vibe was strong here!
Other than costumes, Tekken 4 actually had serious stories for each character. After Tekken 6 character stories fall off badly. Trust me when I say that, it's discussed heavily in the community. It's unfortunate because you can tell there was effort put into creating the stories for this game.
I won't directly talk about the stories in this game but instead will leave it to you to play or research the game. Instead I'll show you some costumes.
Kazuya Mishima
Heihachi Mishima
Jin Kazama
Paul Phoenix
Marshall Law
Bryan Fury
King
Craig Marduk
Hwoarang
Julia Chang
Lee Chaolan
Kuma
Steve Fox
Christie Monteiro
Ling Xiaoyu
Nina Williams
Lei Wulong
Yoshimitsu
The Announcer
The announcer in this tekken was unmatched, he has a cool ass mysterious vibe to him.
The distortion in his voice really fits the dark tone of this game.
Personally my favorite announcer in the whole series. Take a listen!
Something interesting about these voice clips are the name callouts of characters that aren't even in the game. Shows that there were a ton of planned characters for 4 that were cut.
Jun Kazuma, Armor King, Gun Jack, Bruce.
The craziest one has to be Jinpachi Mishima, seeing that he was a potential playable character instead of boss before 5 is interesting.
Some of these voice clips are actually beta names for Steve Fox and Christie Monteiro! Since they were new characters in Tekken 4 they went through a lot of changes.
Steve - Ryan Lewis, Leonard Gardner, Sugar McGregor (i like this one, sounds silly but kinda rolls off the tongue).
Christie - Fiona Gilberto and Amy Nascimento.
The Music
The music really makes this game for me as well. Truely an unique Tekken soundtrack, the guitar in some of the tracks is so damn heavenly. I've included some tracks in the SCM player for your listening experience!
My favorite tracks are..
- Jet
- Authentic Sky
- Kitsch
- Touch and Go
- Didgerhythm
- Uninhabited
- Fear
- Bit Crusher
- The Inner Shrine
- Lights
- Hex
- Draw the Waveform
The Art
Takuji Kawano really captures the feel of Tekken 4. Through his sketchy and scratchy style he conveys the grittiness of the game perfectly.
The Stages
The most controvertial part of Tekken 4.
Tekken 4's stages are more grounded in reality. Instead of crazy stages with world destroying tornados and waves in the background, you had stages like the mall or airport. Not saying the crazy stages are bad, but I do enjoy the more grounded stages from 4.
As mentioned earlier, the stages of tekken 4 were very unique compared to the previous entries. I feel as after this Tekken the developers were afraid to go back to leveled stages / stages with walls. Yeah, stages with walls still exist but they're much different now.
Many people complain about getting stuck by getting hit into a wall, but lets be honest. Your average Tekken player is not gonna put you into an infinite wall loop where you can't escape.
Here's a list of the stages. I've included a star symbol next to my favorite stages.
☆ Airport ~ Touch and Go
An airport lot in the evening.
☆ Mall ~ Uninhabited
A mall filled with spectating customers.
Labatory ~ Fear
A closed off labatory space filled with steam.
☆ Building ~ Authentic Sky
A rooftop of a tall building.
The vibe here is pretty chill and mysterious. The helicopters flying around adds to the cool feeling of the stage.
☆ Jungle ~ Digderhythm
Takes place in a jungle, what more is there to say?
☆ Beach ~ Kitsch
A beautiful beach in South America (possibly). The best part of the stage was fighting in the water!
☆ Shinjuku ~ Bit Crusher
A busy city in Japan, my favorite part of this stage was hitting people through the phone booths.
Underground - Mob
An underground fight club! Takes place in a small circle arena.
Parking Area ~ Gym
A parking lot with a couple of vehicles nearby.
Arena ~ The Strongest Iron Arena
A caged arena in which the final boss takes place.
Unlockable Stages
Hon-Maru ~ The Inner Shrine
How to unlock it - Beat Tekken Force Stage 4.
A small dojo. This stage is where things go down in the story. It's where Tekken 4's story ends and where Tekken 5's story starts at.
Statue
This stage doesn't have a set song from Tekken 4, but instead shuffles music from Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 to play on the stage.
How to unlock it - Beat story mode as Steve Fox.
A small room containing a statue in the middle. It takes place in a room directly under the Building stage.
Character Stories ~ Tekken 4 Paul - Mini-Rant
I know I said I didn't want to discuss character stories but this is something I wanted to talk about.
Paul Tekken 4 Ending
My favorite ending in the Tekken series.
They butcher Paul Phoenix's character so badly after this game, it's so sad actually. After winning the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, Paul drowns himself in luxary. He loses himself in the process.. and he loses the things he loves. Realizing this isn't his way of life, he takes this wake-up call and gets his life back on track.
That's an interesting little ending, right? Well, don't expect these cool short stories in any newer games. Tekken 5 has Paul fighting aliens in outer space (WTF???). The contrast is such a huge one, it's a bit jarring for me. Back when I was a kid even I was confused on what the hell happened between these two games. The character stories + endings only get worse from Tekken 5 and beyond, Tekken 7 is the worst in that department.
I don't know man, the writers should've locked in. They took Paul, the man who could box hand to hand with Ogre and Kazuya to the guy who loses to Kuma and fights aliens in space.. bro..
This comment was funny to me but sadly it's true. His character truely regressed.
If you want to see Paul's Tekken 5 ending I've included it below.
This is a little off-topic, but this video is a good look at Paul's character history.
About me & Tekken 4
Who do I main?
I'm a Law main, always been one. This doesn't apply only for Tekken 4, but all tekkens. I do enjoy playing as Jin, Hwoarang and Steve sometimes.
Favorite Intro Poses
(Side note: Sorry if the editing seems choppy on these videos, the editing software was bugging out on me.)
I've edited a compilation of my favorite Intro poses!
Favorite Win Poses
As with the intros I edited a favorite win pose video.
My favorite win pose ever is Kazuya's pose where he lifts you into the air and says "You're pathethic."
- The other best poses have to be Bryan's pose where he beats the shit outta you (lmao)
- Heihachi's first pose, where he slams your head
- Hwoarang's first pose, where he sits down
- Jin's "Yuruse." translating to "Forgive me" (Damn he just beat your ass and said forgive him lol)
- Lei's scream and Lei's "You are not good enough"
- Marduk's "Name's Marduk, don't you forget it."
- and finally Paul's "Nothing like a good workout!"
Closing Personal Note
My favorite game of all time!
If you're interested you should try this game out, even If you don't like the gameplay you may like the story, music or something else. Tekken 4 is a truely special game for me and I think others should experience it!
There just something so unique about this Tekken, it has so much style.
Honestly influnced a lot of stuff I like!
And if you've made it this far, thanks for reading!