Highlights
- Tekken 8 announces the return of Panda to the roster during Tokyo Game Show 2023 with a unique reveal method instead of a typical trailer.
- At its Tokyo Game Show booth, Bandai Namco revealed a massive statue of Panda, later confirming the character through in-game screenshots.
- Panda's design in Tekken 8 remains similar to her appearance in Tekken 7, with a few changes, and the game is set to launch on January 26, 2024.
During Tokyo Game Show 2023, Tekken 8 reveals the return of Panda to the roster, though the announcement wasn't presented in the usual way. The latest game in the long-running Tekken franchise has continued to deliver news about its roster and game mechanics at a consistant pace. Following the Tekken 8 announcement nearly a year ago during a State of Play digital event, announcements have been fairly constant from the developers, many of which have been new character trailers revealing the likes of classic returning characters as well as new fighters like the "Coffee Queen" from Peru, Azucena.
Although Tekken 8 isn't launching for another few months, fans have had a couple of opportunities to go hands on with the title through Closed Network Tests. In addition to players being able to test out some of the new game mechanics with a fraction of the roster, the sessions gave Bandai Namco valuable information to prepare the online network and rollback netcode in advance of the game's launch. With Tokyo Game Show kicking off, Tekken 8 was not only at the show, but had an interesting reveal for fans of the franchise.
While typical Tekken 8 reveals happen through trailers, Bandai Namco decided on a different method through the use of its Tokyo Game Show booth. Behind a massive red curtain, Bandai Namco revealed a new character statue of Panda, a character that originally debuted inside Tekken 3 closely linked to the character Lin Xiaoyu. The statue reveal was followed by an official statement from the Tekken 8 X account, which showed off actual in game screenshots of the bear in action.
Panda's overall look remains similar to what fans saw from her in Tekken 7, though the red hat seems to have been replaced by a sort of ear warmer. Outside of that, Panda retains the scarf, bracelets, as well as a red anklet. Unfortunately, the Tekken 8 account didn't provide any additional details, though the screenshots did show a couple of action shots including one that looks like a claw swipe with pink visual flair.
Panda's reveal follows closely to the last trailer announcement of Feng Wei, though neither character was originally part of the massive Tekken 8 roster leak over the summer. Unfortunately for Bandai Namco, certain users were able to crack a Closed Network Test, not only allowing it to be played beyond the stated test dates, but files were analyzed and contained a number of unannounced characters at that point in time. While some, like Yoshimitsu, have since been officially revealed, the leak was no doubt a major headache for Harada and his team.
Tekken 8 will launch on January 26, 2024 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
