At the end of Tekken 7 the ever antagonistic Heihachi Mishima had his heart stopped by deadly punch to the chest before his already lifeless body was thrown (as is tradition for the Mishimas at this point) into an active volcano. Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada would later comment on the character in November of 2023, stating “Heihachi Mishima is completely dead” at an Evo Tekken 8 Showcase.
Despite this the iconic franchise figure was revealed as the next Tekken 8 DLC character on Sunday, and while we’re more excited than confused, we are admittedly confused. IGN led an interview with Harada with a question about Heihachi’s re-emergence, and the Director cleared things up… sort of.
With a playful tone the IGN representative asked Tekken 8 development leads, Michael Murray, Kohei Ikeda, and Harada why they “lied to us” in going so out of their way to conclusively kill Heihachi, only to bring him back yet again as Tekken 8 DLC.
“I didn’t mean to lie,” starts Harada. “He seemed to die, but after that happened Tekken 8 was released… we felt the players kind of missed him and, obviously, we did too. It was decided later on that we would [bring him back]. Also, the timing is right since it’s the 30th anniversary of the franchise, so we need all three Mishimas,” he explained.
When pressed for details about how Heihachi will play in his Tekken 8 appearance, the devs were fairly tight-lipped but did say that there are some hints hidden away throughout the T8 story that may tip us off in terms of grandpa Mishima’s abilities.
The conversation continues on for another 15+ minutes as Murray, Harada, and Ikeda discuss how Tekken 8 has been evolving since launch, its current state, plans for its future, and more.
We recently got the game’s second DLC character, Lidia Sobieska, along with the 1.06 patch following an exciting Evo 2024 weekend, so after a strong launch and a powerful first Evo Tekken 8 is shaping up to continue roaring along as one of the top fighting games of 2024.