Heihachi Mishima, the mustachioed villain from the Tekken series, will be the next DLC character for Tekken 8. He was last seen with his loving son Kazuya, who he threw him into the volcanoOf course, the complete immersion in impossibly heated, molten rock is just a long-running family joke for the cast of this 3D fighting game, kind of like forcing grandpa to do the ice bucket challenge, but with lava. No one really expected the horned headbutter to be completely removed from the series. But I’m a little surprised he’s back so soon.
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As the third DLC character, Heihachi is set to arrive in the fall, although a specific release date has not yet been confirmed. He follows one-button rioter Eddy Gordo and Polish Prime Minister Lydia Sobieska, who recently joined the game’s roster.
As you can probably tell from the trailer, players are also getting an additional story chapter related to the elderly man, in which Heihachi trains a group of monk-like assistants to wave over burning coals. Very entertaining, Mr. Mishima. Tekken 8 has “character episodes” for each of the playable biffers from the base game, but the newer DLC characters do not. So it’s nice to see that Eddy and Lydia also seem to be critical figures in what the elderly, immortal man is up to. The additional story chapter will be free to all players, it was saidregardless of whether you buy these characters or not.
As I said in our Tekken 8 review , it’s a solid biff ’em up. My main complaint (aside from lamenting the loss of the slower, more cautious playstyle) was that my favorite characters were nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, that’s still the case. I don’t see the relative C-tier heroes Miguel or Josie appearing anytime soon. At least not before the likes of Marduk, Lucky Chloe, or Armor King. My best chance is to wait for the jokey super cop Lei Wulong, my favorite for silly fights and goofing off. Ah, maybe next year.
Bandai Namco has announced the return of the elderly grump at the EVO 2024 fighting game tournament, with Arslan Ash facing off against Atif Ijaz in the Tekken 8 finals a typically tense match with many thoughtful uses of the modern Heat meter mechanic in the game. So watch this if you’re curious about what high-level Tekkenization looks like.
