Heihachi’s Surprising Return In Tekken 8 Rights The Fighting Game Roster’s Greatest Wrong
When it launched near the start of the year, Tekken 8 was praised for its dazzling visuals, over-the-top storytelling, gameplay focus on aggression and offense, and outstanding cast of characters. Though many of the series’ mainstays were present at launch, Bandai Namco left out a few heavy hitters. The first season of post-launch content is steadily remedying that, as it kicked off with fan-favorite capoeira master Eddy Gordo being added to the game and then followed that up with the addition of relative newcomer and Polish karateka Lidia Sobieska. However, a Mishima-shaped hole remained in the Tekken 8 roster.
And it makes sense. After all, Heihachi, who has served as the series’ main antagonist, canonically died at the end of Tekken 7’s story. Or so we thought. It turns out he somehow survived being tossed into a river of lava by his son and Tekken 8 antagonist, Kazuya. Given that Tekken takes place in a world where characters can ride motorcycles up skyscrapers and into a helicopter, survive the subsequent explosion and crash into the ground, and then emerge without a scratch and transform into a devil to punch their opponent through buildings, we probably don’t need to overthink how Heihachi could have survived his lava-snorkeling expedition.
However, if you just need to know how the series’ bad guy is back, you’re in luck, as–in addition to adding Heihachi to the roster–the version 1.08 update brings an all-new side story called Unforgotten Echoes, which goes into explaining how the big bad has returned. Heihachi and his stage, Genmaji Temple, join the roster as part of the paid Character Year 1 Pass, but the version 1.08 update is free to all players. That update also adds new collaboration items with Nike and Gentle Monster, and additional quality-of-life updates like online practice and main menu customization.