With only about a day left before it’s release, it was tempting to think that Bandai Namco didn’t have any more surprises left for those eagerly awaiting Tekken 8. It turns out, however, that the publisher had just one more reveal in store, and it finally hit today with the announcement that Devil Jin, the “Black Wings of Ruin” himself, will be rounding out the arcade fighter’s initial roster.
Devil Jin has had a presence in Tekken going all the way back to Tekken 3, where his initial appearance was part of Jin’s ending. It wasn’t until two games later, in Tekken 5, that he’d become a playable character and a proper part of the story. As for what exactly Devil Jin is, he’s Jin Kazama, but a version of him that’s been taken over by the Devil Gene: a malefic, powerful genetic factor that runs in his family. In this state, Jin is almost an entirely different entity, one consumed by bloodlust and the desire to annihilate anything and everything in his path.
As for his appearance in Tekken 8, it looks like the developers have dialed everything about him up a notch. He hits harder, moves faster and looks altogether more unhinged than previous incarnations. In terms of actual gameplay, it appears as though Devil Jin’s style his its foundations in Jin Kazama’s normal style. He’s still Jin somewhere in there, after all.
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It doesn’t end there, though; Devil Jin seems to be able to take any of normal Jin’s combos and augment them with extra mobility and damage options. For example, he can catch people in midair with his eye-beam, or throw them down and follow up with that same beam. If the trailer here is any sort of hint, though, this is just barely scratching the surface of what he can do with even just this one extra tool in his belt.
Tekken 8 is out on January 26 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, so fans don’t have much longer at all to wait before they can see what he’s capable of first-hand. Before that, though, make sure to check out our review and see what else is being introduced here.
Review: Tekken 8
Tekken 8 is a bold direction in the fighter genre that ultimately leads to it being one of the greatest fighting games of all time.
