How the hell is Heihachi back?
Everyone was surprised when it was announced that Heihachi Mishima is going to be the third DLC Character coming to TEKKEN 8 when it was previously—and officially mentioned in a developer talkshow—confirmed that Heihachi Mishima is dead. This follow-up, story expansion of TEKKEN 8 showcases the reason how Heihachi got resurrected and opens up the door towards the future of the TEKKEN lore.
This is JJ-kun and this is my review of TEKKEN 8: Unforgotten Echoes Story Expansion.
The story starts off with Eddy Gordo by the end of TEKKEN 7’s timeline where Eddy is gathering the TEKKEN Force in order to stop Kazuya Mishima until they have discovered the existence of warrior monks known as the TEKKEN Monks. These TEKKEN Monks see the Mishima Zaibatsu as something that needs to be destroyed, and likewise sees Kazuya Mishima a threat that must be eliminated. That said, it was the same group of people that saved Heihachi from his death from lava and was taken in custody by the Monks for already half a year during the events of the story. A timeskip happened but after his “death” in TEKKEN 7, it was revealed that he had amnesia and forgot about all the evilness that he did. Seeing this as an opportunity, Lidia helped the Monks train Heihachi in order to become an asset as an ally.
You know, TEKKEN isn’t particularly known for its story but after what they’ve done with TEKKEN 7 and especially in TEKKEN 8, I gained hope that we’re about to enter one hell of a ride as everything seems to be being placed down for something bigger. However, immediately after the announcement of Heihachi as DLC, it disappointed me. I’m even gaslighting myself that all the DLCs, just like in TEKKEN 7, have no bearing in the overall lore and are there only for greed and fanservice purposes…then they announced the story expansion which stars the DLC characters AND Heihachi. All of my hope, gone.
See, the reason I see this as a problem is that it heavily undermines the story and what TEKKEN 7 built. Heihachi Mishima was supposed to be history. He died from the final punch to the chest by Kazuya, and to top it all off, he threw him to the lava…but the latter apparently didn’t happen.
Anyhow, talking about Unforgotten Echoes, just like TEKKEN 8’s base story, it still had some problems with its pacing, but it is quite reasonable in this specific case as Unforgotten Echoes happened in the background while the story of base TEKKEN 8 is happening. In addition to this, there were some time skips as well to a reasonable degree. I found it quite difficult to follow at first as I thought it straightforward going from A to B, but it instead cut to D, but once you recognize those, it’ll be much easier to follow.
I already spoiled the story a bit and I won’t go any further but I would just like to say that while I enjoyed Unforgotten Echoes, on a technical perspective, I hated it. I hated how they had to bring back Heihachi. The Mishima Saga is already done, right? It’s an excuse and only an excuse to bring him back, but the twist wasn’t something I was expecting at first.
Honestly though, it could’ve been a Character Episode, especially that this free story expansion is just over an hour long and it was overall an enjoyable experience to play…if only it did not destroy TEKKEN 7’s story—but hey, I got myself a new main.
I’m not going to talk about the music, graphics, or the gameplay here for this specific review since everything is honestly the same, but I would like to just point out that the updated Chapter Select Screen is quite aesthetic. Furthermore, aside from Unforgotten Echoes, it also added more information about the lore which adds up more background, and answers to why some things appeared in TEKKEN 8’s story.
If you want to know about this, head over to my review of TEKKEN 8.
It’s a free update. Everyone can play it. Whether you’ll enjoy it or not, will be up to you. At the very least, even if you don’t have the Season Pass, you’d still be able to get a taste of playing Heihachi and playing on the new stage.
