That’s a sentence nobody who plays or has played Tekken wants to hear. Yes it’s true, over the EVO Japan weekend Bandai Namco thought to grace us with the reveal of Fahkumram as the latest character for Season 2 of Tekken 8.

The non-reaction of the crowd really sells it. For those that don’t know, Fahkumram is universally despised by the vast majority of the Tekken community, owing to his bland design and broken gameplay (it got so bad in Tekken 7 that he was actually banned competitively in Pakistan tournaments, something that typically only happens to intentionally busted boss characters in fighting games).

if you’re wondering why he was awful to fight, here’s this fahkumram defense guide I made 4 years ago https://t.co/S4iRq5rjta

— PhiDX (@PhiDXGames) May 11, 2025

His return was actually leaked a few months ago alongside Tekken 7 newcomer Lidia Sobieska and… Craig Marduk, the fact that Lidia and Fahkumram have now released lends a ton of credence to Marduk’s arrival and boy if there is one character from Tekken 7 that could compete with Fahkumram in unpopularity it’s Marduk.

Tekken 8 has been on a bit of a downward spiral ever since its Season 2. With heavily rebalanaced gameplay that, instead of smoothing over the problems many had with the gameplay, instead doubled down on the many problems players had with the game. Since Season 2 the player count has steadily been decreasing and the Steam rating has tanked to an absolutely abysmal Overwhelmingly Negative.

The reveal of Fahkumram has only exacerbated these problems. As stated, many players just hate him on principle but Fahkumram is now the fourth DLC character from Tekken 7 to also be a DLC character in Tekken 8 (Lidia Sobieska and Anna Williams were DLC in Tekken 7) and with the Marduk leaks looking more real it’ll be 4 characters people paid for in Tekken 7 that they have to pay for in Tekken 8 again. Things are just looking incredibly uninspired if not downright insulting from Bandai Namco.

Fahkumram had a high pick rate in Tekken 7, but only because he was literally broken not because people actually liked him. Bandai Namco have taken this pick rate out of context and decided that he should return and that really feels like how they’ve approached Tekken 8 in general. There’s a clear disconnect between the development team and the playerbase, and the usually flippant attitude from Tekken’s directors aren’t going to cut it this time. Something needs to change and the community has made it clear Fahkumram is a step in the wrong direction.