Tekken fans were greeted by some fantastic news today as a new trailer dropped for Bandai Namco’s latest installment of the fighting game franchise, Tekken 8. This trailer, titled The Return of Legends indeed features some returning faces of the franchise: Panda, Zafina, Lee Chaolan, Alisa Bosconovich, and Devil Jin.
The trailer also reveals a bit about Tekken 8’s story mode, namely Devil Jin’s relation to Jin Kazama. Jin, the protagonist of the series and famously a war criminal since Tekken 6, looks to confront his inner demon likely literally if Devil Jin’s dialogue in the trailer is anything to go by. This confrontation will likely be the apex of Jin’s redemption arc, as so far it’s looked like Tekken 8 has been trying to portray Jin in a more heroic light.
But Devil Jin, and Lee Chaolan, are massive fan favorites and were practically considered guarantees for Tekken 8’s roster (even if Lee missed the initial version of Tekken 7, fan outcry was so loud that Bandai Namco added him to the Fated Retribution release of that game) but a bigger surprise would probably be the return of Zafina and Alisa. Both characters are well-liked, but not so popular that many would consider them for Tekken 8’s base roster before Miguel Rojo, Julia Chang, or Eddy Gordo.
A reveal that’s likely to stir up at least some controversy in the community is the addition of Panda, a joke character given her own character slot separate from Kuma who she historically shared a roster spot with. Kuma is already in Tekken 8 so it’s not unlikely that many will be a bit miffed that Panda got priority above some of the fan-favorite characters that look likely to miss Tekken 8’s initial roster.
But not all hope is lost, Tekken fans, as revealed at the end of the Legends trailer it looks like there will be another character reveal on November 2nd, with a third and final character reveal coming on November 13th, so two fan favorites could make their return or these could be the newcomer slots. But in any case, it’ll be good to stay tuned for more exciting reveals as Bandai Namco looks to release Tekken 8 next year on January 26th, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.