As someone who has clocked in over a thousand hours in T4, it's simple: It's simple. And by that I don't mean easy or anything, but it got around the biggest problem the franchise has: Clusterfuck. Every character has the SAME moves, often copy-and-pasted in every new game, plus a few on top. You have literally thousands of different moves in the games, since more and more characters join the roster and they bring back every god damn fighter almost every game. T4 was the last fresh start in of the franchise, where you had a truly "new" game and experience. Since T4 every Tekken has basically been the same. Just with more added stuff to a point where it's bloated beyond saving, if they don't pull another T4.
T4 actually cut back moves, added new, changed animations of existing ones, changed moves altogether and even changed whole fighters and their fight style. The small roster also allowed for an extremely good insight into every fighter and every fighter played entirely differently. I admit that the roster was too small, since there were no DLC or patches, but rather start small and add a few (ala SF4, even tho there are too many fighters now as well), than to add 50 right away.
Also had the best gameplay along with T5. The level and character design were also the best in the entire series. Paul's ending (and costume) were top notch. I watch it occasionally to this day. The goofiness was turned down, which worked much better imo. Now everything and everyone is a joke. ´
T4 was basically "refined". It was a rough diamond. By far not the "worst". T5 is a step up from T4 in almost every way, but in some points into the wrong direction.
edit: And don't get me started on how they fucking removed features that were in T4, like the combo-recorder.
R.
