How Heihachi lives on in Tekken 8, even after death

When Heihachi Mishima was revealed to be Tekken 8’s next DLC character, I was both surprised and not surprised. The series antagonist was killed off in the previous entry, Tekken 7, by being thrown into a volcano, but miraculously survived somehow. The only thing stronger than death is DLC, I suppose.

Heihachi’s return comes with a new story mode called Unforgotten Echoes, which details what the other DLC characters — Eddy Gordo and Lidia Sobieska — have been up to during the events of Tekken 8. Thankfully, Unforgotten Echoes is a free update, so players can try out the DLC characters without having to pay for them.

Digital Trends played the first five chapters of Unforgotten Echoes and sat down with producer Michael Murray to discuss why Heihachi was brought back, how he differs in Tekken 8 compared to his previous iterations, and how characters are balanced compared to the rest of the roster.

Bringing back bad

It seems like Bandai Namco couldn’t let go of Heihachi. Both fans and the developers missed him, so it only made sense for him to come back. At first, director Katsuhiro Harada told the team to make Heihachi “look very dead,” and they actually went into the process with the intention of killing him off.

“But then Harada was like, ‘What? I didn’t say kill him!’” Murray tells Digital Trends. “I guess he meant just to make it look realistic without actually killing him. So a lot of the fun of Tekken 8 was trying to devise a way to bring him back from the dead. So we really did intend it at first.”

Heihachi comes with a new gameplay mechanic called Warrior’s Instinct, which changes the properties of some of his attacks and adds a sinister reddish aura around him. In this powered up state, he can deal more recoverable health damage and has access to more extensions on his moves, making it easier for him to combo and juggle his opponents. This mechanic ties in narratively too, as the team wanted Heihachi to still feel powerful.

“In Tekken 7, he was a more technical character, where you had a lot more fine detailed techniques, like little moves here and there that you had to use to try to open up your opponent to damage,” Murray says. “Whereas now he has a more dynamic and powerful way of being able to attack your opponent.”

In order to balance out Warrior’s Instinct, one of its disadvantages is how long it takes for Heihachi to activate it. He can’t do so on a whim; he has to enter Heat state three times, which can only be done once a round. So Warrior’s Instinct won’t even be available until later in the match. As a character, Heihachi still has weak low attacks, making him susceptible to being blocked and counterattacked. This way, Heihachi isn’t terribly overpowered compared to the rest of the cast.

New horizons

The update also brings a new stage called the Genmaji Temple, which has a pivotal setting for Unforgotten Echoes as it’s a secluded training ground for Tekken monks. The environment features intricately detailed temple buildings filled with bright light and surrounded by lush greenery. To commemorate Heihachi’s return, the developers wanted to create a Japanese-themed centerpiece stage.

“They really like to focus on that change from autumn into winter. Falling leaves determine the colors and accents, that kind of brown orange going into white snow,” Murray says. “We wanted to focus on that being a hidden area where people had practiced martial arts while not being too serious and to give it a little bit of a Tekken comedic flair.”

One of the more notable new characters in Tekken 8 was Reina, who was positioned as a new big threat. But with Heihachi in the spotlight again, where does Reina fit in? Murray mentions that he and Harada wanted to do a female Mishima character for quite some time now, and are happy with the positive reception Reina has received.

“Just because Heihachi comes back doesn’t mean she’s going to be sidelined,” he explains. “But whether there’s going to be a deep trail about her and Heihachi is something we can’t really talk about. You’ll just have to wait for the future.”

Tekken 8‘s DLC 3 launches on October 1 for Season Pass owners and October 4 for everyone else on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.