Excitement has been steadily building around Namco’s upcoming Tekken 8, and the developers have continued the hype train by announcing four more characters to be added to the game’s roster when it releases this coming January.
Lee Chaolan, Alisa Bosconovitch, Zafina and Devil Jin were shown off in a new trailer released by IGN on Tuesday morning, with all four characters returning from previous titles. Namco will be revealing the final two base characters for Tekken 8‘s roster on Nov. 2 and Nov. 12, respectively.
Lee Chaolan returns once again as the suave ladies’ man, who debuted in the original Tekken and hasn’t missed a game outside of Tekken 3. In the game’s story, Lee is the adopted brother of Kazuya Mishima, who became the founder and CEO of a successful robotics company known as Violet Systems after numerous failed attempts to take over the Mishima Zaibatsu. In gameplay, Lee is a highly technical character who uses stances and deceptive counter-hitting moves in order to gain an advantage over the opponent.
Zafina returns from Tekken 6 as the fortune-teller who contains the hand of Azazel, the demon from the same game who almost destroyed the world. In Tekken‘s story, Zafina seeks to kill the bearers of the Devil Gene, Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima, in order for Azazel to become powerless. Zafina is an evasive, defensive character who uses a variety of stances to duck, dodge and crawl under attacks while being very difficult to hit herself. Zafina was considered one of the best characters in Tekken 7 toward the end of the game’s competitive lifespan.
Alisa Bosconovitch, the Russian android designed in the image of her creator’s deceased daughter, returns from Tekken 6. Alisa is an android who accompanies Lars Alexandersson for much of Tekken 6‘s scenario campaign and slowly grows close to him. She fights with Lars in order to stop the Mishimas from taking over the world. Alisa is one of the more unique characters in Tekken, using a combination of ballet-style martial arts with deployable chainsaws, rocket arms and jet boosters, making for a moveset that’s a far cry from the more grounded martial arts of a typical Tekken character.
Lastly, the evil Devil Jin returns from Tekken 5. Devil Jin is what protagonist Jin Kazama becomes when he succumbs to the devil gene. Sporting wings, horns, tattoos and a different outfit, Devil Jin’s maniacal glee and desire for brutal violence is a far cry from the typically stoic Jin Kazama. In gameplay, Devil Jin uses the Mishima fighting style that Kazuya and Heihachi employ as opposed to Kazama’s traditional karate, while also taking advantage of the devil gene through the usage of flying attacks and laser blasts. Devil Jin has also infamously terrorized the competitive Tekken scene across his various iterations, especially in Tekken 5 and for much of Tekken 7.
With two characters still left to be revealed for Tekken 8, excitement is at an all-time high for the upcoming fighting game. Luckily, Tekken fans won’t have to wait too much longer, as the game releases on Jan. 26, 2024 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.
Source: YouTube via IGN
