Tekken 8: Unlockable characters

With the latest Tekken instalment releasing in a couple of days, everybody is wondering if are there any unlockable characters in Tekken 8

If you are a somewhat older gamer or just enjoy retro games, you might remember the classic PlayStation 1-era Tekken titles where half of the fun was getting unlockable characters. Games like Tekken 2 or Tekken 3 would start with a very small roster, but by completing the arcade mode with each fighter, you would unlock another playable character.

While Tekken 8 continues to redefine the fighting game experience, one nostalgic aspect seems to have evolved – the unlocking of characters. In this quest for the hidden fighters, we explore the intriguing question: Are there any unlockable characters in Tekken 8? Let's delve into the details.

Unlockable characters list

Flash forward to the present time, and such moments no longer exist in games. Sure, there are still additional characters to unlock, but their "unlocking" now occurs exclusively through paid DLC and sometimes through pre-order bonuses.

And just as was the case in Tekken 7, the same can be said for the newly arrived Tekken 8. In our test, we completed the Story mode, as well as all Character Episodes, and made significant progress in the brand-new Arcade Quest mode — and yet, there are no unlockable characters in sight. Bandai Namco later confirmed this with the announcement for Season 1 DLC.

Credit: Bandai Namco

For now, four additional characters have been announced for Tekken 8, which will be added to the game through paid DLC for Season 1 and will be released throughout the year:

· Eddy Gordo, the legendary capoeira fighter, will be the first DLC character for Tekken 8, and he will be added to the game in the spring (no date set at the moment).

· The second DLC character is currently unknown but will be added to Tekken 8 in the summer of 2024.

· The third DLC character is also unknown and will be released in the fall of 2024.

· The fourth DLC character for Season 1, you guessed it, is also unknown and will arrive in winter 2024.

Since several iconic characters from the rich history of Tekken are missing from the roster in the eighth instalment, we believe that these three currently undisclosed characters will most likely be new versions of some of Tekken's long-standing fighters, making us wonder why they aren't already in the game.

Regarding additional DLC Characters the previous game, Tekken 7, took a slightly different route by adding numerous guest characters such as Noctis from Final Fantasy XV, Akuma from Street Fighter, Geese from Final Fight and many others. Whether this will be the case with Tekken 8 remains to be seen. Certainly, we are just at the beginning of Season 1 DLC, and judging by Tekken 7, which had four seasons with a total of 19 DLC packs, most of the new content for Tekken 8 is still ahead of us. The only downside is that you will need to have your credit card ready for everything, without the possibility of unlocking anything from within the game itself.