Just hours after the announcement of Bandai Namco’s Tekken 8 demo fans of the 3D legacy fighting game were blessed with a new trailer for an old fan favorite. Though calling him a familiar face would be a bit disingenuous, as he has a new look every time he shows up. Make way for Yoshimitsu, Tekken and Soul Calibur staple and cyber ninja extraordinaire.
It’s notable that fans so far have shown nothing but adoration for Yoshimitsu’s Tekken 8 look. Though this is likely expected because it’s so evocative of Yoshimitsu’s Tekken 3 default, probably his most beloved appearance in the whole series, while also doing a new thing. It seems that the ninja is taking advantage of Tekken 8’s new heat systems pretty well, showing off new hard-hitting quickdraw moves involving his demon blade, as well as old staples such as his signature flash, as well as a Rage Art with film grain evocative of old samurai flicks.
But Yoshimitsu isn’t the only recent trailer we’ve been graced with for Tekken 8, a little over a week ago we were shown the trailer for Sergei Dragunov, the cold Russian Spetsnaz operative will be bringing his hard-hitting style back to Tekken 8 as well.
To contrast Yoshimitsu’s flashy and confusing style, Dragunov is brutal and straight to the point. When he isn’t putting his opponent’s in twisting command grabs on the ground, he’s simply beating them to death with simple but effective hard bludgeoning blows, a satisfying fighting style that has made Dragunov a favorite in the series ever since his debut in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.
Tekken 8’s full release will come on January 24th, 2023 for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC through Steam. You can also play the Tekken 8 demo on December 14th for Playstation 5 or wait for the demo’s release on PC and Xbox Series X|S on December 21st and test drive the game with Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Nina Williams, or Paul Phoenix.