What is Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection?
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection (T5DR or just DR) is a major update to the original Tekken 5 which was released in arcades in 2005, with home ports to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable releasing in 2006. Compared to its direct predecessor, DR focuses primarily on reigning in some of the oppressive offensive capabilities of much of the cast, honing in on the defensive, twitchy space control and layered timing mindgames which Tekken fans have come to love the series for. Much of the game at a high level focuses on its extremely powerful movement - many players have described movement in DR as akin to ice skating. The speed and distance on both backdashes and sidesteps are extremely generous, and it's this strength and flexibility of movement, along with very high average combo damage, which lends the game its characteristic intensity and excitement as both players use movement to try and get into each other's heads.
At the ground level, DR is extremely easy to pick up as far as Tekken games go, featuring no secondary mechanics such as Rage or Heat, and the lack of a combo extension mechanic (such as Bound, Screw or Tornado) means combos are simple and fairly short. But due to its focus on the bare bones of Tekken's core gameplay, it retains tremendous depth and is immensely rewarding to play, leading to DR being fondly remembered by Tekken fans as one of the best entries in the series.
How many versions of DR are there?
DR got three releases overall - the original arcade release, the PSP release and the PS3 release. This wiki primarily focuses on the PS3 release, as it is the most accessible of the three - however, there are no major gameplay differences between the three versions.
Arcade
The original arcade release on the Namco System 256 arcade board. This is where most Japanese and Korean matches were played back in the game's period of relevance.'
PlayStation Portable
Released as just Tekken: Dark Resurrection, the PSP port of DR is shockingly faithful to the original arcade game, compromising only on graphical fidelity and stages, as it lacks the original Tekken 5 stages. It features a robust single-player mode in Tekken Dojo mode, as well as several other side modes and wireless ad-hoc multiplayer.
PlayStation 3
The PS3 port of DR is fairly barebones, meant to focus primarily on delivering the gameplay of DR to home audiences. As such, it lacks many of the PSP port's bonus modes. However, the PS3 version received an update, renaming the game as Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online, which naturally added online multiplayer as a core gameplay mode.
Is there a tier list?
SuperCombo Wiki Tier List
This tier list was present on the original version of this wiki, and is not sourced.
S+: Heihachi, Devil Jin
S: Kazuya, Feng Wei, Lei
S-: JACK-5, Ganryu, Julia
A+: King, Anna
A: Steve, Kuma, Law, Bryan
A-: Marduk, Eddy/Christie, Lee
B+: Lili, Baek, Jin, Xiaoyu
B: Raven, Asuka, Roger Jr., Armor King, Paul, Hwoarang
B-: Nina, Dragunov, Wang
C: Bruce, Yoshimitsu
Arcadia Tier Ranking (January 2007)
This is the tier list from the Japanese Arcadia magazine. According to the magazine, DR is "the most balanced Tekken game yet," and even though there are tier listings, any character can win.
S+: Heihachi, Devil Jin
S: Julia, Kazuya, Steve, Feng Wei, Lei
S-: JACK-5, Ganryu
A+: King, Anna
A: Law, Bryan
A-: Baek, Marduk, Eddy/Christie, Lee, Asuka
B+: Lili, Jin, Xiaoyu
B: Raven, Roger Jr., Armor King, Paul, Hwoarang
B-: Yoshimitsu, Nina, Dragunov, Wang, Bruce
C: Kuma
Can I play online?
Both the PSP and PS3 versions can be used to play online. However, both require emulation, and neither are incredibly reliable.
The most common way to play DR online is via the PS3 version on the RPSC3 PS3 emulator. There are two ways to play online with this version - the first is to play online natively through the built-in online mode and RPCS3's online service, RPCN. This allows you to use all of the features of online mode and track rankings, win-loss statistics and customisations, but the netcode in this release is notoriously inconsistent. Because of this, many players frequently choose to play online by screen-sharing with Parsec - this often results in a more reliable and stable experience, but the nature of Parsec means that there can be some differences in quality between the host and the client player.
A less common way to play online is by using the ad-hoc multiplayer functionality of the PSP version in the PPSSPP PSP emulator. The PSP version is significantly easier to emulate on a broader range of systems compared to the PS3 version and can be more stable for both players than RPCN or Parsec, but due to the PSP's connection speed limitations, it's only possible to play against players with whom you have a very strong, stable connection.
