Publisher and developer Bandai Namco has revealed a brand new character for Tekken 8, the fashionable yet evil Reina.

“Reina was a character conceived during Tekken 7’s story development a decade ago,” Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda said. “She plays a vital role in Tekken 8’s story, The Dark Awakens. Despite her fashionable and charming appearance, she exudes a charismatic sense of evil, reflecting her character’s duality in both personality and fighting style.”

Here’s a rundown on the new character, plus her reveal trailer+gameplay:

Attacks that reflect her personality and acrobatic movement based on Taido

Reina employs an acrobatic fighting style rooted in Taido, using swift and brutal techniques such as knife-hand strikes, eye pokes, and scratching that reflect her character. She utilizes a special movement called Sentai to close the distance quickly and launch rushes, while Unsoku allows her to deliver powerful attacks with agile footwork, demonstrating a speedy and aggressive combat approach. In addition, Reina has somehow acquired techniques like Wind God Fist and Spinning Demon, synonymous with the Mishima-style karate, and even exhibits a power fighter aspect, delivering powerful moves from the Heaven’s Wrath stance once used by Heihachi, who is now deceased. Her offensive capabilities near walls, in particular, are among the most potent of all characters.

Reina is a character that emphasizes duality in various aspects. To create a distinct counterpart to the powerful Mishima-style karate, we chose Taido as the second fighting style. Taido is known for its graceful and speedy movements, with sharp and agile attacks. When producing Reina’s Taido techniques, we collaborated with the renowned expert, Mr. Tetsuji Nakano, who has won the Taido World Championships four times. Mr. Nakano is not only knowledgeable in Taido but also in various other martial arts. His advice on brutal techniques helped bring out the distinctive features and personality in Reina’s movements even more.

A design that emphasizes the duality in Reina‘s character.

We were eager to work with Ms. Mariko Shimazaki, who had previously contributed as a designer for characters like Kazumi and Josie for Tekken 7. We contacted her to handle the design during the early stages of brainstorming character concepts and keywords, despite giving her the challenging task of capturing a genuine martial artist’s appearance with a bold fighting style that blends elements of Taido and Mishima-style karate, while being a young woman who appears somewhat mysterious and has that duality. She delivered an exceptional design.

Thanks to the design proposals we received from Ms. Shimazaki, the grand direction for Reina was clear from the beginning. In creating the 3D model, we worked on incorporating elements related to her hidden background and duality and how to shape it into an appealing design. So, please do keep an eye out for these aspects.

Tekken 8 is set to launch on January 26th, 2024 for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.