Summary
During Tokyo Game Show 2023,Tekken 8reveals the return of Panda to the roster, though the announcement wasn’t presented in the usual way. The latest game in the long-runningTekkenfranchise has continued to deliver news about its roster and game mechanics at a consistant pace. Following theTekken 8announcement nearly a year ago during a State of Play digital event, announcements have been fairly constant from the developers, many of which have been new character trailers revealing the likes of classic returning characters as well as new fighters like the “Coffee Queen” from Peru, Azucena.
AlthoughTekken 8isn’t launching for another few months, fans have had a couple of opportunities to go hands on with the title through Closed Network Tests. In addition to players being able to test out some of the new game mechanics with a fraction of the roster, the sessions gave Bandai Namco valuable information to prepare the online network and rollback netcode in advance of the game’s launch. With Tokyo Game Show kicking off,Tekken 8was not only at the show, but had an interesting reveal for fans of the franchise.
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While typicalTekken 8reveals happen through trailers, Bandai Namco decided on a different method through the use of its Tokyo Game Show booth. Behind a massive red curtain, Bandai Namco revealed a new character statue of Panda, a character that originally debuted insideTekken 3closely linked to the character Lin Xiaoyu. The statue reveal was followed by an official statement from theTekken 8X account, which showed off actual in game screenshots of the bear in action.
Panda’s overall look remains similar to what fans saw from her inTekken 7, though the red hat seems to have been replaced by a sort of ear warmer. Outside of that, Panda retains the scarf, bracelets, as well as a red anklet. Unfortunately, theTekken 8account didn’t provide any additional details, though the screenshots did show a couple of action shots including one that looks like a claw swipe with pink visual flair.
Panda’s reveal follows closely to the last trailer announcement of Feng Wei, though neither character was originally part of the massiveTekken 8roster leak over the summer. Unfortunately for Bandai Namco, certain users were able to crack a Closed Network Test, not only allowing it to be played beyond the stated test dates, but files were analyzed and contained a number of unannounced characters at that point in time. While some, like Yoshimitsu, have since been officially revealed, the leak was no doubt a major headache for Harada and his team.
Tekken 8will launch on June 02, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
