As Tekken 8 nears its release early next year, Bandai Namco has unveiled the game’s final new character Reina, who could play a huge role in the franchise, thanks to their possible connection to the Mishimas.
Bandai Namco launched a character trailer for Reina on Nov. 13, which showed a glimpse of her fighting style. She can be seen doing attacks that somehow resemble the Mishima style of karate. In a PlayStation blog post, Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda added more information about Reina’s range of attacks.
“Reina employs an acrobatic fighting style rooted in Taido, using swift and brutal techniques such as knife-hand strikes, eye pokes, and scratching that reflect her character,” Ikeda said. “She utilizes a special movement called Sentai to close the distance quickly and launch rushes, while Unsoku allows her to deliver powerful attacks with agile footwork, demonstrating a speedy and aggressive combat approach.”
Ikeda also discussed the process of creating the fighting style used by Reina, revealing that Bandai Namco collaborated with four-time Taido world champion Tetsuki Nakano.
“When producing Reina’s Taido techniques, we collaborated with the renowned expert, Mr. Tetsuji Nakano, who has won the Taido World Championships four times,” Ikeda added. “Mr. Nakano is not only knowledgeable in Taido but also in various other martial arts. His advice on brutal techniques helped bring out the distinctive features and personality in Reina’s movements even more.”
As for Reina’s possible involvement with the Tekken franchise’s major characters, the trailer gave hints about how she might be connected to the Mishima clan. Aside from her Mishima-style fighting antics, Reina called Jin Kazama “senpai,” implying that she could be younger than the Tekken protagonist while also implying some sort of possible connection. She also had a conversation with Kazuya Mishima, saying that he would “understand soon enough” when Reina was asked about who she was.
Reina is the 32nd and final new character coming to Tekken 8, which will be released on Jan. 26, 2024. The already huge roster of returning characters from past Tekken games is already given, which includes Jin, Kazuya, Paul Phoenix, King, Yoshimitsu, and more. But as a tradition, new characters will be added to the game in the upcoming installment.
Aside from Reina, Victor Chevalier and Azucena will make their debuts in Tekken 8. Ikeda also gave some notes about Chevalier in the same blog post as Reina, saying that “Victor plays a vital role in the setting of Tekken 8, influencing the power balance in the world.”
