Summary
Tekken 8is scheduled to arrive early next year, continuing the story of the Mishima family.Tekkengames have always featured diverse rosters, but the conflict between the Mishima families' various members has always been front and center. This relentless focus on the bloodline has contributed significantly to the unique feeling of the story as none of the Mishimas are good people. While Heihachi and Kazuya are probably the most recognizable characters of the bunch given their iconic proclivity for tossing one another off of cliffs, the games feature plenty of other Mishima family members as well, andTekken 8seems to be introducing another.
While it hasn’t been spelled out specifically,Tekken 8’s Reinaappears to be a Mishima, bringing a new approach to the family’s signature fighting style. Heihachi has had multiple secret children in the past, so Reina being another one is unsurprising. She was the final character announced for the game, joining the pre-existing roster.
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Reina Will Fill Heihachi’s Shoes
Tekken 7’s storysaw Kazuya finally overcome his father. With Heihachi’s permanent death, Tekken lost one of its Mishima-style fighters. Games in the series have always featured multiple characters in each fighting style. This means that players have multiple characters to explore depending on their preferred combat techniques, each providing a unique variation on the style or, at times, hybridizing it with another one. Reina will be combining Mishima-style fighting with Taido, an Okinawan martial art that seeks to modernize the teachings of Karate. While Reina is undoubtedly unique, her move-set contains many of Heihachi’s iconic attacks.
Reina, like other Mishimas, has the family’s iconic electric powers. Many of her attacks can be seen highlighted with purple and yellow lightning. Her connection to Mishima’s style doesn’t end there, though. Reina has Heihachi’s iconic headbutt and overhead kick, seemingly pulled directly from his move set. Like all the Mishima family members, she also has the Hell Sweep and Electric Wind Godfist. Her Rage Art pays homage to Heihachi as well with a large shadow shaped like his hair forming around Reina as she finishes the attack.Tekkenuses real fighting styles, so these over-the-top attacks are placed alongside her use of Taido.
Reina Will Have a Strong Focus on Movement
Reina is a practitioner of Taido, a variation of Karate that focuses heavily on different types of movement. Throughout the trailer, Reina can be seen performing various evasive maneuvers and intricate movements during and between attacks. She has command ducks and command rolls, allowing her to go under opponents' attacks and punish aggression. During her reveal, the developers said that her concept is duality, so her focus on evasion and defensive movement is paired with over-the-top violence. On top of her signature use of Mishima moves, she can be seen stomping on opponents and abandoning her training to perform otherwise vicious attacks. The diversity of Reina’s move set gives her the potential to be one ofTekken’s strongest fighters.
Reina’s focus on movement and diverse move-set makes her similar to fellow series newcomerAzucena, one ofTekken 8’s most powerful fighters during the game’s last open beta. While Reina’s trailer reveals a lot about her fighting style, understanding how she actually plays and fits into the game’s meta will take a lot of time.Tekkenrewards legacy skill by carrying over move lists from previous titles, so it’ll be interesting to see how she and other new characters stack up next to returning fighters that have been evolving over the course of multiple entries.
