Tekken 8, the latest entry in the decade-spanning 3D fighting game series, hits PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on January 26. Ahead of the launch, Bandai Namco Entertainment has dropped a story breakdown to get everyone up to speed on the game’s rather convoluted lore Best of all, it’s presented by none other than Brian Cox.
If Cox’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he played the main antagonist on Succession, HBO’s satirical dramedy that started in 2018 and dominated 2023. His character, Waystar Rayco CEO and Roy family patriarch Logan Roy, is an egocentric and volatile old man who loves damaging and manipulating his opponents, making Cox the perfect person to host Tekken’s “Story so Far” video.
The video runs a clean five minutes long. Though brisk, it packs a lot of lore in about the Mishima family, the centerpiece of Tekken’s story. As Cox tells it, Tekken starts with Heihachi Mishima throwing his son, Kazuya, off a cliff because he fears the boy’s devil gene, a DNA segment that lets its host transform into a winged devil. Kazuya survives the fall and trains for two decades to beat his dad’s ass, which he does in 1995’s Tekken. Kazuya then tosses Heihachi off a cliff in retribution, because that’s just what you do when you’re a Mishima. Later, we learn Heihachi survived and goes on to train Kazuya’s son Jin, and everyone’s hellbent on revenge. This war of manhood between Heihachi, Jin, and Kazuya continues until 2017’s Tekken 7, where Kazuya finally kills Heihachi by…throwing him into a volcano. As one does.
This road then leads to what sounds like the end of the Mishima family’s story in Tekken 8. With Kazuya on a warpath toward complete global control, it’s up to Jin—the only other person with the devil gene (that we know of, at least)—to stop his dad. Will Jin throw Kazuya off a cliff, too? I’m betting he will. But all questions will be answered when Tekken 8 launches on January 26.
But the context of this story rundown goes further than an unexpected cameo. It wasn’t long ago that the fighting game community (FGC) was up in arms over how “anti-beginner” the franchise can be for newbies. And the “Story so Far” video does an excellent job of contextualizing the nucleus of The King of the Iron Fist Tournament, the competition that kickstarted Tekken’s narrative. With new (Victor Chevalier) and returning (Kuma) characters getting into the mix, now’s a great time to brush up on the story before Tekken 8 comes out.
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