Tekken 8 story trailer teases an epic showdown as Kazuya goes full supervillain

In the wake of previews, Tekken 8 shared a bombastic trailer for its cinematic story mode, which looks set to feature almost the entire roster.

We recently got to go hands-on with Tekken 8’s story mode, but the trailer teases far more of what to expect, including what could be the final confrontation between protagonist Jin and his father Kazuya. The whole thing has some real Avengers Endgame vibes to it. We see many other characters joining Jin’s crew in order to stop Kazuya’s plans, who has well and truly embraced being a supervillain, attacking cities with his devil powers and promising to take over the world.

The number of participating characters already makes Tekken 8’s story an improvement over Tekken 7’s, which was so focused on the Mishima family that only a small fraction of the roster had any involvement. Fans are hoping other characters besides Jin will be playable and not just appear in cutscenes, even if they’re admittedly fun and flashy.

As we saw in the preview, Jin’s sudden loss of his own devil powers will be a significant plot point. It also looks like he’ll be aided by his mother Jun, who was supposedly killed in Tekken 3 by that game’s final boss, Ogre (who even makes a quick cameo in the trailer—could he be a secret playable character or DLC?). It’s not quite clear if Jun’s actually alive or is appearing to Jin spiritually, but either way, she’ll likely play a pivotal role, too. Kazuya, meanwhile, only appears to have gotten stronger. He even has an entirely new devil form; one that allows him to effortlessly take on several fighters at once.

Personally, the biggest surprise of the whole trailer is that the fun, coffee-loving Azucena (a newcomer to the series) is apparently on Kazuya’s side. During a confrontation with Leo, she’s revealed to be working with G Corporation (the company that helped resurrect Kazuya and was subsequently taken over by him), just because it “makes for better brand optics for [her] coffee.” That’s certainly up there in terms of weird motivations for working for a literal devil.

Tekken 8 could fail to stick the landing, but so far its story mode is earning points for presentation and style. It’s certainly flashier than what Street Fighter 6 and even Mortal Kombat 1’s story modes offered. Even if it does fail to impress, the core gameplay promises to hold up, which is really the most important aspect of any fighting game.