I haven't really been excited for this... I think getting rid of Talim in SC5 soured me on all Namco 3D fighters, lol. Are they trying to make this back up to me with Josie, a girl who cries even after WINNING? *shrug*
Well, I splurged gameplay vids of recent play some, made sure to get that Eliza pre-order bonus, and... errr... geeze customizations in this game look horrible, lol. Actually, even some defaults look bad. Asuka's shoulders and chest size look awkward and off, everyones shoulders in general makes their heads look too small (there's at least nice variety in body frames, however), Katarina's stance looks like she's trying desperately hard to show off her boobs, Bryan looks like an extra that snuck out of Army of Two or something, and Hwaorang apparently got a job as the bad boy on a Kdrama. (Actually, I don't mind that last one.)
The slow motion near-death moments seem to highlight bad animation wobbles and awkward clipping more than increase hype for me. I DO like the black-and-white moments that happen on particularly damaging hits though. Tekken has nice skin textures and lighting, and cool destructible arenas, but it's designs and character modeling will always feel a step behind the best of Soul Calibur, to me.
Oh, and... Lucky Chloe. ;D Her and Sylvie in KoFXIV have similar design inspirations (modern popularity interpreted by older companies to be put into years-old classic fighters), but one might be among my favorite new characters (BiDiBiDIIII), and one I utterly dislike. Maybe getting to play Chloe first hand will make me see some solidarity in her design... but for now, I think it's just that Tekken's overall style doesn't do a good job at making a character like her feel interesting, or even well executed.
The first time I saw Steve Fox in this game, I thought Jin received a new stance. Most of the Rage Arts (those are the super ones, or the armor ones?) look like Camera views on 10 hit combos, yet some look pretty sweet. Kazumi and Literal Tiger Uppercuts are trying really hard to make me forget no member of the Chang family, or Jun, are actually in this game. I don't even get Wang (who was my main in T6 and always on team TT2...)!
And yet with all that... will be picking it up tomorrow, haha. Tekken is such an odd series for me. I LOVED 2. Then 3 and 4 are completely forgettable, 5 brought me back in, 6 was quite likely the worse online experience I've ever had in a fighter, Tag 2 was fun, but is ranked as "6 done right" in my mind, and the F2P Tekken felt like a stripped down, awkward Tag, and now 7.
I really hope it surprises me as much as Injustice 2 did. In a way that even if some stuff feels weird and off, other parts are so quality, and so refreshing, that you can ALMOST look past the "meh" sections.
Oh, and best modern Tekken OST tracks for me: Moonlit Wilderness, Fallen Colony, LIGHTNING STORM.
Electric Fountain is pretty much the soundtrack of every PS1 Demo disk ever, which is mildly great and amazingly horrific at the same time.