It seems that it’s actually onerous to kill a Tekken character, particularly with gravity. Regardless of Tekken collection creator Katsuhiro Harada doing his greatest to persuade us that Heihachi Mishima was truly, actually, actually 100% lifeless this time round, lo and behold the third DLC character for Tekken 8 is none apart from the King of Iron Fist himself.
The upcoming free story enlargement for Tekken 8, titled Unforgotten Echoes, is all about explaining the how and the why of Heihachi’s return, and as a part of a preview occasion, I obtained to play the whole thing of the two-hour-long DLC marketing campaign. My common impression? For those who’re capable of flip your mind off and simply let it take you for a journey, it’s extra good (albeit fairly foolish) ass Tekken story content material.
Whereas Unforgotten Echoes is an eight-chapter story of how and why Heihachi survived being tossed right into a pool of lava on the finish of Tekken 7, it truly begins by catching you up with what Eddy, Yoshimitsu, and Lidia have been all doing throughout Tekken 8’s marketing campaign. Eddy now works below Lidia as part of a resistance drive towards G-Corp, alongside Yoshimitsu, who… I’m gonna be sincere, largely simply appears like window dressing all through this whole DLC. Sorry Yoshimitsu followers, in case you have been upset at his lack of a presence within the base Tekken 8 story, this DLC nonetheless doesn’t actually give him a lot of an opportunity to shine.
The early fights with Eddy do largely really feel like filler, as there isn’t actually a lot story consequence to them, however at the very least they’ve obtained some cool moments like Eddy reuniting with Jin for the primary time since Tekken 6, and in addition they do a very good job of together with snippets of gameplay from outdated Tekken video games as flashbacks, which is a really cool contact.
Finally, Eddy, Lidia, and Yoshimitsu all get wrapped up within the lives of a gaggle referred to as the Tekken Monks, which is the place Heihachi comes into play. I don’t wish to spoil how Heihachi managed to outlive, or something regards to his particular journey by means of the DLC, however I’ll say that the DLC does a very good job of displaying one other facet of Heihachi, and the way in which it ties again into the principle storyline of Tekken 8 left me with an enormous outdated smile on my face, much more desperate to see what’s subsequent within the storied collection.
As for Heihachi himself, the phrase that involves thoughts when describing what he feels wish to play as is “highly effective”. That’s to not say that I believe he’ll be among the finest characters within the sport, however fairly that his strikes hit with such unimaginable drive that “highly effective” is simply the primary phrase that involves thoughts. His assaults really feel extraordinarily impactful and brutal to have a look at, with a moveset that’s full of display shaking stomps, slams, chops, and no scarcity of electrical wind god fists. It’s all extraordinarily satisfying, even when he looks like a personality that can require some severe time within the lab to get good with, because of ordinary simply body timings of the aforementioned Electrical Wind God Fist that every one Mishimas share, on high of additionally having a brand new stance within the Wind God’s Kamae, and a brand new mechanic that seemingly buffs his assaults and provides him entry to new strikes as soon as he will get it to stage 3.
In the end, Unforgotten Echoes was a positive technique to spend two hours, and does a very good job of establishing no matter comes subsequent on the planet of Tekken by reintroducing Heihachi into the fold. Most significantly although, it’s free, and is a neat technique to give the DLC characters a check drive to see in the event that they suit your model of play earlier than you drop precise cash on them. Time will inform if Bandai Namco decides to do one thing comparable for future DLC packs, or if this was only a particular one-off because of Heihachi’s function within the story, and as a celebration of Tekken’s thirtieth anniversary.
In any case, you’ll be capable of expertise all of it for your self as soon as Unforgotten Echoes is launched in for Deluxe and Final Version house owners on October 1, and for everybody else on October 4.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You could find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit