When it launched near the start of the year,
His typically pointy hair lays flat across his shoulders, and he dons attire more befitting of a Monk than a warrior martial artist. However, fear not: His iconic look is an option, and Heihachi’s style is even more overbearing than before. This plays perfectly into the offensive gameplay of Tekken 8.
“We wanted to make him more aggressive and more powerful than past iterations, like less poking, et cetera,” Ikeda says. “We focused on his mid and high attacks, where he had a lot of strong options to begin with, but to make them even stronger in this iteration, and also by adding those two stances–the Thunder God and the Wind God–those techniques that came out of that are just way more powerful than you’ve seen in past iterations, and they may come even more aligned to that concept of being aggressive and going on the offensive against your opponent.”
After Chapter 5 closes out with a mysterious mention of a vow of some sort, I played through the rest of the story mode to follow through on that narrative thread. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about the remaining chapters, so with that, I move on to Versus matches.
As I get to know Heihachi’s style a bit more, I start feeling like he might become one of my mains. His powerhouse style embodies that sense of balance the Tekken Monks are striving for in the Unforgotten Echoes storyline, with mind, body, and technique informing his movements and combos. I loved learning his combos and how to best leverage his devastating Heat Smash attacks, and pulling off stance switches, which open up new moves. Heihachi also features a new Warrior’s Instinct mode, which makes him more powerful, but can only be triggered after three uses of Heat in a match, meaning it can only be used in Round 3 or later.
I spent my entire time in Versus on the gorgeous new Genmaji Temple stage, which is a mountain temple with Japanese architecture. When you first step into it, it has a dusk autumn setting, while later rounds transition to a nighttime winter backdrop. If you prefer a less moody version of the environment, you can select a plain daytime variant of the stage as well.
After playing through several Versus matches, including a few against Kazuya (you get a special animation between him and Heihachi at the start of a match if the two are facing off), I decided to check out the character customization. Tekken is known for its zany customization options, and Tekken 8 certainly carried forward that tradition. I used the end of my time to create a younger version of Heihachi with long, black hair and a scruffy beard, as well as a version rocking a Freddy Krueger sweater and a loaf of bread around his face. No matter how cool or hilarious you want to make Heihachi look, you can be sure he’ll still play it 100% straight-faced.
Since the series’ inception, Heihachi has played a major role in the Tekken storyline. While his presence was certainly felt in the main story through characters like Reina, it’s good to have the franchise’s big bad back on the roster-select screen. And when you add in a new side story and a beautiful new stage, this fall’s update is looking to be Tekken 8’s most substantial yet.
Heihachi, the Genmaji Temple, the Unforgotten Echoes story mode, and the rest of version 1.08 arrive on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions of Tekken 8 this fall.
