Upon looking at its 51 characters, including season pass DLC, Tekken 7 will need to decide which characters from its roster should return in Tekken 8.
With an inevitable new installment on the horizon, Tekken 7 will have to decide which of its 51 playable characters should not appear in Tekken 8. The game launched with 36 base characters and added 15 characters through DLC. With so many characters, players have a wealth of choices about their playstyle. However, Tekken games tend to thin their rosters heading into new titles. When Tekken 8 launches, there are several characters it should avoid bringing along for the ride.
Of the 36 characters in the base roster, 26 are returning characters. Of those 26, only Heihachi may be a possible omission from Tekken 8. After all, Heichachi dies at the end of Tekken 7 in his battle against Kazuya. However, it would be strange to omit a long-standing fan favorite from the series even if he is canonically deceased. Plenty of characters, who appear to be deceased, have never returned to Tekken even through DLC or season passes. For example, Jin Kazama believes that his mother, Jun, was killed by Ogre in Tekken 2. Jun hasn't appeared since Tekken 2, despite her official status technically being unknown. Yet, Tekken 7 also features Kazumi Mishima who was killed by Heihachi long before the events of Tekken 7. While omitting Heihachi feels like a mistake, it's probable that he might be on the way out.
While Heihachi comes into question because of Tekken 7's ending, the ten newcomers have a couple of characters who probably shouldn't come back. Most notably, Master Raven and Shaheen. First, Shaheen is a fairly weak character. Tekken 7 Esports tier list sites like Esports.gg routinely list him in the D to C range. While there are worse characters than Shaheen on those lists, many of them are legacy characters like Kuma/Panda who are usually low tier. Being a bad non-fan favorite character usually means that character won't return. Many game characters are modded into Tekken 7, and Shaheen might become one of those. Master Raven's issue is that she replaced a fan favorite in Raven as a female counterpart to the original. If both characters could remain together it would be ideal to have them both. However, if Bandi Namco wants to select only one of the Ravens, then it's hard to beat the original.
Tekken 7's guest characters included Geese, Noctis, Negan, and Akuma. Noctis and Negan, from Final Fantasy 15 and The Walking Dead respectively, are both from outdated titles. To have them return would be disappointing as those spaces could be reserved for newer characters that fans can gravitate toward. Geese and Akuma, however, might be interesting to keep around. Having the villains from Fatal Fury and Street Fighter could attract more players to the game and Tekken 8 would benefit from teasing both Geese and Akuma in promotional trailers. With two more quest slots open, a character like Tifa Lockhart from FF7 in Tekken 7 instead of modding her. Overall, it would be disappointing to see Noctis and Negan return.
Among the many DLC characters, fan favorites like Kunimitsu and newcomers like Lidia, Leroy, and Fahkumram also look to be hard locks. Among the DLC, only Zafina and Ganryu are questionable for Tekken 8. Despite not being in a mainline game since Tekken 2, Ganryu has been DLC since Tekken 5. Whether or not fans like him, Ganryu seems to be a DLC mainstay for Bandi Namco. However, Ganryu is a weak character and should probably be reworked if he appears in Tekken 8.
Other Tekken characters like Kunimistu returned to Tekken 7 later and took a break only to reappear stronger. Zafina is one of the strongest characters in Tekken 7, but her move set has changed since Tekken 6. While she is strong, she might need to be added to the main roster if not removed entirely due to her lack of character consistency. Players won't pay for a DLC character that might be worse in their next appearance.
Source: Esports.gg
