Resurrecting Heihachi gives Tekken 8 a seismic franchise shakeup

Heihachi Mishima returns to Tekken 8 on Sept. 30, and I was able to try out the original King of Iron Fist and other upcoming DLC content early. And, not only does Heihachi look and feel amazing to play, but the game’s new story expansion is also incredible. 

While I was out in San Diego two weeks ago, Bandai Namco gave me the opportunity to go hands on with Heihachi Mishima, who was confirmed as the next Tekken 8 DLC fighter back at Evo in July with an absolutely wild reveal trailer that I was lucky enough to experience live.

I expected to get some time with Heihachi in T8’s versus mode, but what I was not expecting was for Bandai to let me play the entirety of the game’s upcoming story expansion Unforgotten Echoes. And, just like with my Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO preview from last week, I was blown away.

I have a lot of thoughts! But I will focus on Heihachi as a character first before moving into the story DLC and what it might mean for Tekken moving forward. 

Back from “Hell” stronger than ever

The Tekken 8 team has openly talked about how every character in the game was reworked to incorporate new ideas into their movesets while also pulling from their previous iterations. This holds true for Heihachi, who has evolved from a character that will poke and prod to deal damage into an overwhelming force that builds up strength over the course of a match. 

This version of Heihachi has access to a special gauge tied to the Heat System called Warrior Instinct.

With Warrior Instinct, every time you activate Heat, Heihachi will receive a permanent boost in various ways such as damage output or enhancing specific moves. This maxes out when you use it a third time and unlocks his full potential, allowing for more moves to connect in combo strings and options out of defensive pressure. 

This turns Heihachi into a bulldozer if you play your cards right, but since you can only use Heat once per round, you will only maximize what the character can do by the third round in any match. This makes Heihachi in the first round a bit underwhelming without a Heat boost, but I can easily see some optimization turning him into a passive early-game opportunity seeker who flips into an oppressive powerhouse in round three. 

Overall, the Tekken team has moved Heihachi into more of an overwhelming force through his evolution in T8’s story, giving him new techniques using updated Thunder God and Wind God stances that T8 producer Michael Murray says he “graduated” into. This also let the developers make him a bit more approachable by changing up how some of his more iconic and harder-to-master moves work. 

A story expansion that hits

Taking place at the same time as T8’s The Dark Awakens main story, Unforgotten Echoes follows a core cast of Eddy Gordo, Lidia Sobieska, and Yoshimitsu of all people as they learn about the existence of a secretive group called the Tekken Monks. 

Throughout the opening chapters, you will control both Eddy and Lidia as they deal with happenings coinciding with the main story, with a few key crossovers with characters like Jin Kazama and Reina to add depth to this side of the narrative’s coin. And, by the time you are actually introduced to Heihachi in his current iteration, all of the story threads weave together in a way that could point a bigger picture for Tekken’s next entry. 

I won’t go into too much detail, though the reason behind Heihachi’s miraculous survival from his final fight with Kazuya in Tekken 7 is due to the interference of the Tekken Monks. This group has roots tied to the Mishima family dating back to feudal times and now, the leaders of this hidden warrior clan want Heihachi to help them bring the Mishima fighting style back to a state of “purity.”

Lidia and her crew get roped into helping with this and you get to see a side of Heihaci that Bandai hasn’t really shown in previous games, which was a big focus for Murray and the team. 

The theme of overcoming your past and rising again in the face of failure holds strong from the minute you start following Eddy to the end of this DLC. It also leads to one of the most Tekken series of events you ever could ask for. That is all I will say, both because I’m sure the Mishima Zaibatsu are watching and I want everyone to experience the journey for themselves. 

What does this mean for Tekken? 

While this story expansion does focus largely on Heihachi once you meet him, the other two DLC fighters do get some nice character growth—sorry Yoshimitsu, you are kinda just there to fill space. 

I think it does an incredible job of being a companion piece for Tekken 8’s main story, which was a big part of why I reviewed it so highly at launch. The ending specifically does an incredible job of paralleling where we leave off after Jin’s fight with Kazuya and the credit scene with Reina—so look forward to more wild theories!

With how fighting game stories have been getting more cinematic over the last decade, I think Tekken learning from the likes of Mortal Kombat and adding single-player value to T8 with post-launch story content is a great move. I honestly expected something similar with Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode, but so far Tekken is the only other big title to deliver this type of update.

It is unclear right now if we will get another story expansion, as Murray noted this is the first time Bandai has done something like this and it lined up well with the 30th Anniversary of Tekken, which in turn makes it an even bigger reason Heihachi is at the center of it all.

The Tekken team obviously put a lot of love into this free update, so even if we don’t see more or have to pay for the next one, Unforgotten Echoes is definitely worth your time. 

Since almost the entire cast of this story expansion is made up of DLC fighters—once again, sorry Yoshimitsu—it also provides an interesting way for new players to try Eddy, Lidia, and Heihachi out without needing to buy them. Sure, it isn’t the same as playing with them online or in training mode, but getting multiple matches to spin the tires on DLC characters at no cost is always a good thing. 

As a reminder, the Unforgotten Echoes story expansion is free to all Tekken 8 players and will release on Sept. 30 alongside Heihachi. T8 is also adding online practice mode and the ability to swap what character appears on your game’s main menu too. Heihachi and his new stage are paid DLC.

Thanks for reading! Previews like this take a lot of work, and since the blog is small, every click or share counts (especially as games media continues to degrade.)

BoosterBlogs is going to have a busy few months moving forward, especially since we have started releasing content on YouTube! To go along with this preview, there is a 30+ minute discussion video you can listen to that goes a bit deeper into Heihachi and what Tekken 8’s new content has to offer. If you want another breakdown of Heihachi’s gameplay and how Warrior Instinct works, go give my buddy TJ Denzer’s preview a read on Shacknews!

That content pairs nicely with the Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO preview I published last week, which features exclusive gameplay and comments from the game’s producer. If any of that interests you, please consider subscribing to the blog and checking out my other links! It really helps me out, and there is plenty more coming soon.