Paid DLC for a game’s training mode is pretty unusual.
Bandai Namco recently charged Tekken 7 players $4 (if they didn’t have the season pass) for a long-requested feature, one its producer had resisted for a variety of reasons: the ability to see frame data — the speed of every move in the game, in 60ths of a second — displayed on screen in the game’s training mode.
Here’s the thing: Players who are serious about the game probably bought it, confusing those who don’t understand the intricacies of fighting games. Why would anyone care about this data so much that they’d be willing to pay for it?
Animation is gameplay
Tekken 7’s frame data display is hardly the first of its kind, but it solves a long-standing problem with the game’s community. Like improved netcode for better online play, showing frame data is necessary for any fighting game that wants to be taken seriously.
Keeping the frame data from players in a fighting game is like Ikea launching new flat-packed furniture without instructions. The community will figure it out eventually, but things are probably going to be ugly for a while.
It’s going to take a little bit of time to explain why this information is so important, and to do so, we have to begin with the basics of fighting games in general.
Imagine the action of a punch, in slow motion. The arm winds up, and then plunges forward. The fist strikes the target, and then the arm pulls back to its starting position, ready to strike again.
It may be helpful to slow down these clips by playing them and then pressing the “slow down” button to the right of the play button, or step through them by frame by frame by pausing and pressing the left and right buttons.
The phases are the same whether you’re animating a simple punch, a flying kick, or the swing of a blade. We can break up attack animations into a starting motion, the moment of impact (note the spark effect), and the recovery time it takes for the fighter to return to their ready stance. In Tekken 7’s training mode, and thus these videos, the characters turn blue to demonstrate when they’re recovering from attacks.
Now think of the character that’s taking that hit. For a fighting game to feel satisfying, those hits need to carry some weight. Whether the successful attack sends the opponent flying, or gets stopped by a strong guard, there should be a moment where the opponent absorbs the force of the blow and can’t act. We call that “stun”; in this case, it’s either hit stun or block stun. You can see it very clearly when Paul turns blue in these videos.
Without windup and follow-through in the attacks, and stun and other hit reactions to properly sell their impacts, an action game is lifeless. Even a sandbag reacts to a punch.
What I’m describing here is basic cause and effect, and the tricks fighting games use to force you to feel both. Designing these interactions well is crucial for a fighting game to “feel” good, much less be playable at the expert level.
Everything also has to be balanced for the game to be fun. If a single attack stuns the opponent for too long, or if the character recovers too quickly, it could lead to a character who can attack a blocking opponent forever with no fear of reprisal, or even a character who can kill with a single hit.
In this extreme case from the original Tekken, shown in the video above starting at the 1:30 mark, King has an elbow attack that breaks an opponent’s guard and stuns them for half a second. King opens them up for so long that he can walk in afterward to land a free hit or even launch a combo.
It both looks wrong and is clearly absurd in practice, but remember: This is one of the first 3D fighting games ever made. Balance wasn’t on the menu yet.
Even so, a sufficiently severe issue with balance — and there have been some bad ones in the past — can instantly kill a fighting game. If one truly unfair character or tactic completely takes over play, the average fan is going to walk away.
At the same time, competitive players actively seek to exploit any crack in a game’s design, so keeping attack animations balanced is a tall order. In a game like Tekken 7, which at the time of this writing includes 47 characters, with hundreds of animations for each one, balance is a never-ending battle. Each of these interactions has to feel good and look good, and they have to work together to create a competitive environment that’s both understandable and fair.
Getting all that to happen is a ridiculously complicated task. But part of that challenge can be mitigated, at least somewhat, by providing accurate information about exactly what’s going on to the players. If there’s something off about your game, your most dedicated fans are going to find it.
Right now, for example, they’re a bit concerned about Leroy Smith. Would they have found these issues without the frame data? Absolutely. But having that data allows the most analytical players to know exactly why the character is unbalanced, and share that information with both the community and, by extension, the developers.
So now that we know a little bit about how fighting games work, let’s dig into why the frame data is so important. If the design of a fighting game is its geography, then the frame data is a map players can use to learn how to get where they need to go.
Here’s how it all works.
Counting frames: the 60 fps clock
We use the word “frame” here not necessarily in reference to individual frames of animation, but as a unit of time. We can chop up an hour into 60 minutes, and we can chop up a minute into 60 seconds. In the very specific case of video games that run at 60 frames per second, we can further chop up a second into 60 frames.
This is the clock on which most modern fighting games run. It’s also why it is essential for a fighting game to run at a consistent 60 frames per second, regardless of platform. Anything less directly compromises the play. There’s no room in competitive fighting games for a game with a variable frame rate; this is a genre built on precision and repeatable strategy. Neither can exist in a game running at an inconsistent frame rate.
Here is where the frame data becomes crucial. Tekken 7’s newly released frame data tool shows (as “Startup Frame”) that the standard left-hand jab has a startup time of 10 frames. This is the fastest move in the game, and a unit of measurement itself. For comparison to faster-paced 2D fighters, the fastest attacks in Street Fighter 5 start up in three and four frames.
The fastest move typically wins in fighting games, especially in Tekken. A quick jab will always counter a big kick, and only a precious few “armored” moves can push through a fast strike. Heavier characters can have slightly slower jabs — 11 frames — but, as we’ll see, this is a serious handicap.
A 60th of a second — 16 2⁄3 milliseconds — means a whole lot in this world, is what I’m trying to say. It can often mean everything.
Recovery and punishment
When Paul throws his whole body into a shoulder check, he’s naturally going to take a long time to return to his ready position. In fact, he takes so long that he’s open for 16 frames. (Tekken 7 tells us this directly under “Frame Advantage” in the frame data tool: +16 for the defender.) A quarter-second is an eternity in fighting game time, and having blocked the attack, Julia has a wide range of choices with which to counterattack the defenseless Paul.
In Tekken 7, this is called a punish. Some moves might deliver a ton of damage or be difficult to defend against, but that possible reward for the attacker comes with a major risk. If the defender blocks that powerful launcher attack or low sweep, they get an opening wide enough to counterattack for big, guaranteed damage.
In Tekken, a move is “unsafe” when it leaves the attacker at a disadvantage of 10 frames or more when blocked. The defender can usually punish with a quick jab.
In the finely tuned Tekken 7, each additional frame of disadvantage represents another level of risk. At 12 frames, fast characters can often score a fair amount of damage and the initiative to keep attacking, like this punish that gives Julia an additional five-frame opening.
At 13 frames, they might be able to get a knockdown. This is a big opportunity in a game like Tekken, where you can literally kick the opponent while they’re down.
At 15 frames and above, most characters can launch the opponent into the air, starting one of Tekken’s trademark juggle combos and robbing the opponent of a major chunk of their life bar.
But Tekken doesn’t put blinking neon lights that say “hit me now!” over the characters’ heads. It’s up to the player to learn which moves are safe and which are unsafe, and then to recognize those moves, punish them on reflex, and reap the rewards in damage. That skill is born from study, practice, and experience. To this end, Bandai Namco has also added a “punishment” drill to Tekken 7’s training mode, which teaches easy punishes for every character.
This raw knowledge is considered a foundation that any serious competitor needs to memorize and master, more important than the flashy combos that most players learn first.
And yet, until this update, new players had to figure everything out on their own, without the benefit of the actual numbers being provided. It’s a grueling process, but a necessary one.
Now that the frame data is available, however, everyone benefits.
Frame advantages mean fighting games are actually turn-based
In a system where the fastest move typically hits first, tiny advantages — even of a single frame — can decide who’s going to attack and who’s going to defend. Though Tekken is a real-time game, players do take turns, in a sense.
In the above exchange, Julia attacks first with a dashing elbow, and Paul blocks her. Julia has left Paul an opening of two frames; we call this advantage. That’s not enough to punish Julia for damage, but Paul gets to move first. When both fighters use the same fast jab in this situation, Paul always wins. It’s effectively Paul’s turn to get on the offensive.
If Paul attacks from here and Julia successfully guards, eventually Paul will give the advantage back to Julia by leaving another tiny opening, and it’ll be her “turn” to attack again.
Though players can often intuitively understand who moves first just from looking at the animations, having the exact numbers for common situations gives advanced players another level of control.
For example: Julia’s Party Crasher elbow hits in 11 frames and gives a seven-frame advantage when it counterhits, which happens often, given its lightning speed. With numbers like that, it’s one of her best moves. And having the numbers available means that we know this definitively; it’s not something anyone has to guess at, or work out through repetition and testing. The information is right there.
But what does that information tell us? At a plus-7 frame advantage, Julia can try for any attack with a startup of 16 frames or below.
Are you starting to see why this data is so important in evolving the level of play? If you know the frame data for the rest of Julia’s available moves, you know exactly what will hit and what won’t. Data becomes strategy, in a very direct sense.
If the defender tries to attack, the fastest move wins, and Julia will always land her counterattack. A lot of players call this being “frame-trapped.”
Against a player who’s thoughtlessly mashing attack buttons at all times, I can be pretty sure to land a counterhit Party Crasher, immediately use Julia’s 15-frame combo starter, and repeat.
Against a more experienced player, I’ll predict that they understand the severity of a seven-frame disadvantage, and try some evasive action like a backward dash or a sidestep. I can try and halt my opponent’s retreat by charging forward with a quick attack, cutting their ankles with a fast low kick, or running in with a throw.
Needless to say, a high frame advantage is a strong position, and it’s all the better if you understand how to maximize its potential.
To do that, you need access to the numbers.
Vital information, and a competitive standard
Not every player needs to understand this stuff — just every serious player.
The highest-level players have known about frame data for decades. They’ve bought guidebooks, they’ve dissected videos, and they’ve experimented in-game.
The best, and most effective, competitors in the fighting game scene don’t just have the best reflexes or the best instincts; they’re almost always also the best at breaking down and understanding the systems that make the game work. Playing a fighting game against one of the best players in the world is like playing four different games of rock-paper-scissors at the same time, and frame data represents just one of them.
Frame data is behind many of the mind games being played at high levels of Tekken and many other fighting games. If you aren’t aware of these situations at all, or choose to ignore them, you’re effectively playing poker without looking at your cards. For competition, it’s that big a deal.
Modern fighting games style themselves as serious competitive esports complete with pro tours. Tekken 7 had a particularly strong 2019, with one of the most vibrant international scenes in fighting games.
But if developers are serious about fostering professional players, they need to give the audience — each one a potential pro in the making — the stepping stones to get there, and that includes access to frame data in-game. The feature needs to become a standard for the genre. Depending on how in-depth the tool is — Tekken 7 will soon be able to analyze your game replays and give you suggestions, as part of this same DLC — it might well be a feature worth paying for. But it must be available, one way or the other.
Pro-level games deserve pro-level features, and players willing to make the time investment to improve deserve some help getting up there. As with tutorials, if these features can’t make it to launch, years late is better than never.
But while I gave no thought at all to buying my $25 season pass this year — I mean, look at how cool Leroy is — frame data display needs to be a basic, free feature. People simply need to know what cards they’re holding if the game is going to be fun to play, or watch.