Bryan Fury is one of Tekken’s most iconic characters. First appearing in the genre-defining Tekken 3 released in 1997, Bryan has been a mainstay in the roster for very good reason. Not only is he a cool, psychotic cyborg that hunts down ninjas, but he also has one of the more unique game plans among the Tekken roster. This game plan has given Bryan the identity of the flashy, difficult character that pros can pull out when they’re in the zone. But even if that’s the case, Bryan has always been considered mid-tier in every Tekken game…until now.
Tekken 8’s version of Bryan Fury is probably the strongest version of the character and one of the strongest characters on the roster in general. Well, I’m here to tell you that while Bryan may be at his peak right now, he is nowhere near the top of the food chain in Tekken 8.
Barrier to Entry
Bryan Fury’s game plan revolves around counter-hits, but not in the traditional way. Traditionally, if you were a counter-hit character, you would have frame traps that caught your opponent off-guard when they pressed a button thinking it was their turn on offense, but Bryan’s game plan revolves around mental frames. These mental frames required the Bryan pilot to condition his opponent, doubling down on the mental stack and making the opponent think twice about pressing or not. Not only was this an unorthodox fighting style, but Bryan also lacked some generic tools. No traditional df1 for a safe 13 frame mid poke, no hopkick, no df2 easy launcher, and a lack of panic moves that made Bryan weak to rushdown.
Aside from that, Bryan also has his infamously difficult taunt jet upper. To those that don’t know, taunt jet upper is a sequence of moves that allows Bryan to launch his opponent with an unblockable setup at the cost of your wrist and your sanity. The execution is so tight that high-level players always get the crowd to pop off whenever they do it in a tournament. That continues to be a trend with Bryan moving forward, shiny and overpowering to those players who choose to invest their time and sweat into learning the character. For reference, I’ve been playing Bryan for a year now, and I still have trouble hitting his jet upper to launch punish rage arts.
Perfect Playstyle
Tekken 8 has always been touted as the “hyper focus” Tekken 8, something that has angered fans since the start of Season 2, and something that everyone has had to adapt properly. Thankfully for Bryan, this is the perfect environment for a psycho like him. Tekken 8 not only made Tekken more offensive-heavy, but it also brought in a lot of players who did not know how Bryan worked. As I mentioned previously, Bryan is a counter-hit character that punishes players who don’t know when to take their turn, and it just so happens that in Tekken 8, everyone wanted to take their turn all the time.
Bryan Fury wants you to come closer and start your offense; he wants you to press when you’re minus; he wants you to hesitate, and all of which blends in perfectly with Tekken 8’s hyper offense. Not only that, but Bryan’s game plan was also made much simpler moving into Tekken 8. He wasn’t given any real panic moves aside from an orbital or armor move, but he was given probably one of the best approach tools pre-nerf, and what is arguably the best low poke in the entire game. That, plus Bryan still had his taunt guard break mechanic, which received a slight buff by just giving Bryan easier options off the guard break.
Competing For The Top
Now, with all that said, Bryan may sound like a top-tier character that rips apart the Tekken meta, but I’m here to tell you that Bryan is just a speck compared to what the rest of the Tekken cast has to offer. Surprisingly enough, Tekken 8 is in a balanced state where every character is mid to top 5 based on how well the pilot is playing, which is where Bryan comes in. Bryan is a difficult character that demands hours of practice to play effectively, in a game where other characters can deal the same amount of damage at only a fraction of the difficulty.
While Bryan may be perfect in this game, perfect doesn’t always mean you’re at the top of the leaderboards. I believe that the perfect characters in Tekken right now, characters like Anna Williams, Nina, Steve, Alisa, and Jin, are all characters that lessen the mental stack on the players, an important quality to consider when you want to take a character into ranked.
So the next time you go yelling and begging for nerfs against characters that whooped your ass, take the time to review your tapes and hunker down in the lab first. No more Bryan nerfs, please.
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