Characters

Players can choose from a diverse cast that hails from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and fighting styles. A few characters have supernatural origin, such as Devil, Mokujin and Ogre, while animal characters like Kuma the bear provide comic relief. In the story mode of the game, each character generally has their own personal reasons for entering the tournament and competing for the prize.

So far, only six characters have appeared in all eight Tekken installments: Heihachi Mishima, Paul Phoenix, Nina Williams, Yoshimitsu, King and Kuma (the latter two albeit technically being two different characters with the same name). The Jack cyborgs, Anna Williams, Kazuya Mishima (though he did make a cameo in the third game), Lee Chaolan and Lei Wulong also come close, having appeared in seven installments.

Characters with background connections in the story typically have styles or moves in common. For example, the three playable generations of the “orthodox” Mishima family (Heihachi, Kazuya, and Jin) have handed down many family techniques, such as their signature “crouch-dash” and the moves that chain from it. Jin is more divergent, because his mother was also a playable character, and he inherited some of her moves along with Kazuya’s. There are other story relationships that affect gameplay, such as Wang Jinrei and his granddaughter/student Ling Xiaoyu, or Baek Doo San and his student Hwoarang. Some, like Anna Williams, started as an “alternate costume” for an existing character before branching out and getting some unique moves in later installments.

Some of Tekken characters have been featured as guest characters in other video games, such as