When players last saw corporate tyrant Heihachi Mishima, he was fighting his son Kazuya in the hellish mouth of an active volcano. The tense battle ended with Kazuya fatally punching his father in the chest. In typical Tekken fashion, Kazuya tossed his father’s body into a river of molten magma, finally returning the heinous favor his father committed back in 1996.
Heihachi may have met a grisly, fiery end during the closing moments of 2017’s Tekken 7. But somehow, the indomitable, homicidal patriarch and martial arts master has returned.
The iconic villain Heihachi has been announced as the next downloadable combatant for the excellent Tekken 8, coming sometime this fall. The announcement was made with a trailer released during EVO 2024, the world’s biggest annual fighting game tournament.
When Heihachi met his demise, the moment seemingly ended the paternal blood feud that has spanned three decades, movies, television shows, and at least a dozen video games, once and for all. While the character would appear in a handful of flashback sequences, Tekken 8 marked the first time Heihachi was not included as a playable fighter in a mainline Tekken game. Like Eddy Gordo, Heihachi’s absence was felt. Many fans hoped the intimidating granddaddy of the Mishima dynasty would make a miraculous return. And Bandai Namco is granting them that wish.
Series director Katsuhiro Harada told IGN that Heichaci’s return had been in the works for a while now.
“We were kind of feeling that the players kind of missed him as well,” Harada said. “Obviously, we did, too. So, it was kind of decided later on that we would do that.”
Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda said they even teased Heihaci’s return in the game’s 30th Anniversary logo, with the devil wings imitating the character’s iconic hairstyle. While the circumstances of his return remain a mystery, Ikeda promised that Heihaci’s will still hit as hard and heavy as he has in the past.
“To give some hints, he has a very powerful play style throughout the series, so we tried to recreate that in Tekken 8,” Ikeda said. “If you saw the story hints about the monks in the footage and what he has to do with them, that will maybe dictate some of his move set as well.”
Heihachi will join Lidia Sobieska and Eddy Gordo as downloadable characters for the critically acclaimed fighting game. There is still one more combatant scheduled to be released for season one before the end of the year. The mystery fighter will be released during the winter.
Fighting games just can’t seem to quit their iconic villains. Earlier this year, Capcom announced that M. Bison, the Shadaloo boss who’s been the primary antagonist of the Street Fighter series since its inception, will make his return to Street Fighter 6 later this year.
Tekken isn’t the only fighting game to get a major update during EVO 2024. WB Games’ Multiversus announced that Samurai Jack and Beetlejuice will be headlining the game’s second season. Meanwhile, Guilty Gear Strive will be adding Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Lucy as a playable fighter.
