Fighting game fans are in the home stretch of waiting for Tekken 8’s imminent arrival later this month, and though we already know everyone on the starting roster, its DLC characters still remain a mystery.
With the Tekken World Tour 2023 Finals taking place this very weekend where it’s presumed at least the first DLC fighter will be announced, we’ve decided to delve into who we believe has the best chances to make it into the Season 1 cast.
While there are technically only four characters being added in the Year 1 Pass, we’ve got our top five here, so not everyone is going to make it.
There have also been some dubious leaks recently suggesting that Josie may be the first new fighter added to Tekken 8 after launch, but we’re not so confident that she’s going to be making the first cut here.
Some characters like Kunimitsu and Lidia may have had a good chance of making it onto our list, but it appears as though some of their move sets have been repurposed into new additions like Victor and Reina.
There is pretty decent chance that a brand new character will be coming to Season 1 like we saw quite a bit throughout Tekken 7’s life, but there’s not much we can say about someone we don’t know yet — so they aren’t going to be here either.
This is our subjective list as to who we think is most likely going to show up in Tekken 8, so let us know who you’d pick differently in the comments.
After basically taking over for Michelle, Julia Chang hasn’t really missed a mainline entry since her introduction in Tekken 3.
She’s arguably the most popular female fighter who’s not already on the starting roster and is someone that even more casual fans are likely to recognize.
Not everyone is as happy with her character arc in Tekken 7 where Julia became an internet streamer though it’s also not very likely that she’ll become her wrestling persona of Jaycee again in the main timeline.
Out of all the remaining characters, we feel Julia probably makes the most sense.
Like Julia, our boy Eddy hasn’t missed a single Tekken game since 3 either, but he surprisingly was not in the starting cast for 8.
He may be one of the more annoying characters to actually fight against, but the dude is still a pretty popular pick not in the new game, especially for newer / more casual players trying to get into Tekken and quickly pull off some cool-looking moves.
We’re lacking that Capoeira in Tekken 8 right now, which is why we feel Lucky Chloe could end up getting the nod instead.
Or perhaps Bandai Namco will surprise us with them as a package deal to make everyone happy and mad at the same time.
Or hell, maybe they’ll finally bring back Christie to fill that role.
Heihachi Mishima may be dead for good as far as Tekken’s story goes after the events of 7, but that doesn’t mean DLC characters have to be canon.
The big man is still one of the icons of the franchise, and though he’s passed down some traits and moves to Kuma and Reina, there’s no total substitute for the real deal.
His potential inclusion being a non-canon feature actually opens the door to way more possibilities than if he were alive as well that’s even more exciting in gameplay and design facets.
The developers could bring back Heihachi in his prime, as an angry charred husk from his time in a volcano or perhaps even ascended onto a higher plane of existence in martial arts.
Perhaps his return would be more impactful, however, if they can hold off until Season 2 or 3 before pulling that trigger.
Although Katsuhiro Harada rightly pointed out that there would be no guest characters in Tekken 8’s starting roster like we got with Akuma in 7, he certainly didn’t rule them out post-launch.
We believe Final Fantasy 7’s Tifa Lockhart would be the most sensible addition as a crossover, especially with many fans asking for her inclusion for multiple years now.
Square Enix already showed they’re more than willing to play ball by giving Final Fantasy 15’s Noctis to Tekken 7’s early DLC roster alongside SNK’s Geese Howard, and they’ve continued to show they’re open to big crossovers with Sephiroth and Kingdom Hearts’ Sora coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — which Bandai Namco also co-developed.
With Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth set to release about a month after Tekken 8, this would mark the perfect time to do this cross promotion that people won’t stop clamoring about.
Tifa’s advanced and flashy martial arts would fit the best into the world of Tekken for basically any guest character that’s reasonably available unless they come from another fighting game.
Capcom or SNK could still likely be down to loan out one of their signature fighters again, but we’re giving the nod to Tifa for the most likely.
Our last pick came down between Eliza and Kazumi, but since we’re already resurrecting Heihachi from the dead, we figured we’d go with the character who’s already undead.
Opinions on Eliza are pretty darn split across the playerbase of Tekken 7, yet it’s hard to deny the character’s popularity, especially in her design.
Although she could be pretty frustrating to deal with in the last game (and presumably Tekken Revolution but I never played that more than 30 minutes), her gameplay style hasn’t really been filled in Tekken 8, and we feel there’s a lot the developers could improve or refine in a second mainline outing.
This vampire is still lurking in the shadows, waiting for her next chance to show what she’s got… unless she falls asleep first.
That wraps up our breakdown of our top five picks for Tekken 8’s Season 1 DLC, but there are some honorable mentions we considered to including Bruce / Fahkumram, Kazumi, Armor King, Marduk, Josie and Nina.
The reveal of Tekken 8’s first DLC character will presumably come down on this Sunday, January 14, on the last day of the Tekken World Tour Finals, so stay tuned for that show.