Tekken 8 is just over 2 weeks away, and we’ve started to get the big marketing push that one can expect from such a massive franchise. Just a few days ago, we got The Story So Far Promo, narrated by Succession‘s Brian Cox, and now we’ve got a brand-new trailer that highlights how strange the franchise is at times.
Tekken is known for its over-the-top nature. The craziest creatures literally fight against literal devils. The main attraction of all these strange creatures is Kuma, a literal fighting bear. But perhaps what is even stranger is Kuma’s crush and Ling Xiaoyu’s best friend and pet.
Panda Joins the Fight in Tekken 8
This character was introduced all the way back in the Tekken 3 days, right alongside Ling Xiaoyu. Since then, Panda has been in every single subsequent Tekken game. This character and Kuma are collectively called “The Bears” by the FGC, probably due to their appearance but also because they have the same exact movelist.
The newly released promo highlights all of the character’s greatest moves, as well as some new, never-before-seen attacks that are enough to make players reminisce about the good old days of Heihachi Mishima.
Specifically, moves like the Dragon Uppercut are taken straight from Heihachi’s movelist, and all of these moves are shared between Kuma and Panda. The only thing that is different mechanically between the two characters are the Rage Arts, as well as the unique character interactions.
The Rage Art shown off in this promo shows the loveable creature spinning the opponent around like a toddler before throwing them up in the air. The epic cinematic concludes with the opponent spinning towards the bear and finishing off with one of Ling Xiaoyu’s signature moves.
The unique intros that have been revealed for Panda so far are when facing off against Kuma and when facing off against Ling Xiaoyu. Kuma attempts to propose to the character with a massive sardine before being turned down immediately. Xiaoyu’s interaction with the character is playful, as they face off to decide what to have for lunch.
Like all characters in the massive franchise, this bear also comes with quite a bit of a backstory. Ling Xiaoyu was admitted to Heihachi Mishima’s high school as she showed a lot of promise when it came to martial arts.
At this point in the timeline, Heihachi already had Kuma as a martial arts pet and sparring partner, so he gifted Xiaoyu a bear of her own to act as a bodyguard. This bear was also well-trained and was perfect for someone like Xiaoyu. And so Panda and Xiaoyu became best friends and started spending every single second with one another.
These aren’t the only strange creatures that the Tekken franchise has. It also has characters like Roger and Roger Jr., who are literal fighting kangaroos, and Alex, who is a fighting dinosaur. In a world of humans, there are also aliens like Yoshimitsu, and occasionally a character like Gon makes his appearance, such as in Tekken 3.
All this to say, Tekken has had a crazy past with even wackier characters, a martial arts-trained Panda being at the top of the list. Tekken 8 is shaping up to be the franchise at its best, and the January 26 release date just can’t come sooner.
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