Tekken 8 game director reveals details on new characters Reina and Victor

Today, we’re happy to reveal two fighters joining Tekken 8’s roster: Reina, who employs an acrobatic fighting style rooted in Taido, and Victor Chevalier, who utilizes super spy-style CQB in combat. In this PS Blog post, we’ll dive into the design and story backgrounds of both. 

Reina

Reina was a character conceived during Tekken 7’s story development a decade ago. She plays a vital role in Tekken 8’s story, The Dark Awakens. Despite her fashionable and charming appearance, she exudes a charismatic sense of evil, reflecting her character’s duality in both personality and fighting style.

Attacks that reflect her personality and acrobatic movement based on Taido

Reina employs an acrobatic fighting style rooted in Taido, using swift and brutal techniques such as knife-hand strikes, eye pokes, and scratching that reflect her character. She utilizes a special movement called Sentai to close the distance quickly and launch rushes, while Unsoku allows her to deliver powerful attacks with agile footwork, demonstrating a speedy and aggressive combat approach. In addition, Reina has somehow acquired techniques like Wind God Fist and Spinning Demon, synonymous with the Mishima-style karate, and even exhibits a power fighter aspect, delivering powerful moves from the Heaven’s Wrath stance once used by Heihachi, who is now deceased. Her offensive capabilities near walls, in particular, are among the most potent of all characters.

Reina is a character that emphasizes duality in various aspects. To create a distinct counterpart to the powerful Mishima-style karate, we chose Taido as the second fighting style. Taido is known for its graceful and speedy movements, with sharp and agile attacks. When producing Reina’s Taido techniques, we collaborated with the renowned expert, Mr. Tetsuji Nakano, who has won the Taido World Championships four times. Mr. Nakano is not only knowledgeable in Taido but also in various other martial arts. His advice on brutal techniques helped bring out the distinctive features and personality in Reina’s movements even more.

A design that emphasizes the duality in Reina‘s character.

We were eager to work with Ms. Mariko Shimazaki, who had previously contributed as a designer for characters like Kazumi and Josie for Tekken 7. We contacted her to handle the design during the early stages of brainstorming character concepts and keywords, despite giving her the challenging task of capturing a genuine martial artist’s appearance with a bold fighting style that blends elements of Taido and Mishima-style karate, while being a young woman who appears somewhat mysterious and has that duality. She delivered an exceptional design.

Thanks to the design proposals we received from Ms. Shimazaki, the grand direction for Reina was clear from the beginning. In creating the 3D model, we worked on incorporating elements related to her hidden background and duality and how to shape it into an appealing design. So, please do keep an eye out for these aspects.

Victor Chevalier

Founder of the Union of Nations’ armed forces and a living legend in the French military. During his time in the Navy, he carried out numerous dangerous missions. He successfully returned, all while displaying the quirks of being an extreme penny-pincher and having a flamboyant history of romantic relationships with more partners than one can count. He left behind various anecdotes in different countries. Driven by his aspiration to save more people, he eventually assumed the role of the commander of the UN’s forces and decided to lead from the front lines in battle.

Victor Chevalier, a key character in shaping the power balance in the world of Tekken 8

Victor plays a vital role in the setting of Tekken 8, influencing the power balance in the world. In past installments, the leader of the UN was not revealed. However, in this game, with the growing influence of the G Corporation led by Kazuya Mishima, the founder of the UN’s armed forces, Victor, makes his debut. His participation promises a unique and substantial twist in the story compared to previous titles.

Victor’s unique fighting style – super spy-style CQB

Victor is an extraordinary combatant with combat knives, karambit knives, and optical weapons. He excels in dual-wielding, combining skills from military combat techniques, science fiction, ninjutsu, super spy tactics, and gentlemanly style. He can attack from a distance with firearms, strike from outside an opponent’s range with his long-reaching sword, and use his flashlight at close quarters to take opponents by surprise. He possesses remarkable spatial control abilities, particularly with his beloved sword, Takemikazuchi. With his “Iai Position” stance, he employs electromagnetic battōjutsu with superlative reach to break through an opponent’s defenses. His high-speed movements with optical camouflage allow him to effectively evade enemy attacks and launch counterattacks.

Stylish and practical, his sleek suit style is fashionable yet highly functional

Although Victor wears a slim suit, he’s a character who carries multiple weapons. Thus, the design focuses on making sure each weapon is easily accessible and practical while also ensuring that the overall silhouette looks aesthetically pleasing. Given his position as Raven’s superior, the concept was to convey a somewhat sophisticated and conceited image, with the idea of him looking fashionable and appealing to the ladies. Therefore, a suit style was established as a direction quite early in the process. Being a simple suit style, attention was paid to the sleekness of the silhouette, texture, and fine details in accessories to convey Victor’s gentlemanly character. Moreover, the simplicity of the suit style serves as a great contrast that highlights the various weapons he carries.

Although he may appear perfect, he’s an extreme penny-pincher

With his esteemed family background and expertise in arts and martial arts, Victor may appear as the perfect gentleman at first glance. However, given the nature of Tekken characters, many of whom have distinctive and somewhat quirky traits, it was decided to add a unique feature to Victor. Thus, despite being a high-ranking individual as the founder of the military, in his personal life, he enjoys romances with more than a dozen women and is extremely frugal, creating an overly extreme personality. 

Additionally, Victor’s deep knowledge of Eastern martial arts and culture is evident through his skillful use of a Japanese sword during combat. His stingy personality is an embodiment of the Japanese virtue of Mottainai (disdain for wastefulness), which is reflected in his actions, lines, and more. I hope players will discover and appreciate these unique traits of Victor when the game is released.