Tekken 8 Finally Does Right By Jin

With Street Fighter 6 setting the bar impossibly high for fighting games last year, you might think that Tekken 8’s biggest challenge would be living up to that legacy. You’d be wrong. Tekken 8’s real biggest challenge is making Jin Kazama a likeable character again.

When Jin was first introduced in Tekken 3 as the son of Kazuya and grandson of Heihachi, it was clear that he was being positioned as the series’ main character moving forward, replacing his wrinkly grandad and stale father as a cool-headed young’un who could be Tekken’s answer to Ryu and Liu Kang.

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Despite struggling with his dark side, Jin filled that role well and became Tekken’s poster boy and one of its most beloved characters for the next few games in the series. He had a great moveset, a cool design that was made even better when he turned into a devil, believable motives that made you want to see him win, and a connection with the biggest members of the cast. Jin could simply do no wrong.

All of that changed in Tekken 6 when, after defeating Heihachi and becoming the new head of the Mishima Zaibatsu, his personality did a complete 180, and he turned into a war-mongering dictator who killed innocents and scoffed at the people he once loved. Jin's ending attempts to excuse this by revealing that he was just purposefully being evil to summon Azazel and get rid of his Devil Gene, but that hardly makes up for the death and destruction he caused to get to that point.

Everyone still cheers for him at this game’s King of Iron Fist tournament, so maybe they weren’t all that bothered by it.

Tekken 7 seemingly understood that it’d messed with Jin’s characterisation too much and pushed players too far away from the once-beloved character, as he barely even featured in that game's campaign and stood on the sidelines while Father Dearest sorted his own daddy issues out with his fists.

With that monster of a heel turn, I scoffed when I heard that Tekken 8’s campaign would be all about Jin trying to redeem himself for his actions and go back to his more heroic ways. I wanted to be proven wrong and see Jin back in the light after I and every other Tekken fan hated the direction the series forced him down, but it seemed impossible for him to make up for past misdeeds, no matter what story contrivance or excuse was pulled out for him.

Spoilers for Tekken 8’s story follow.To my surprise, though, that’s not what Tekken 8 does at all. The story mode doesn’t excuse Jin’s past actions to make him heroic again in the face of Kazuya taking over the world. Instead, it puts them under a microscope and makes them a key part of his character and something he needs to live with and try to make amends for.

This is best shown in the game’s first chapter, where Jin challenges Kazuya to a fight and threatens to take him down for his tyranny despite having been even more evil just a few games ago. Kazuya directly calls him out for being a hypocrite, nicknaming him the “monster who fanned the flames of war across the world” and pointing out that he started the problems that he’s claiming to fix.

“What a bunch of bull. You’re the one who started this war”.

After getting annihilated in his first fight against Kazuya, Jin also loses access to his devil powers and has to work to earn them back through months of rigorous training and tournament fights. Although he’s steadfast about wanting to use this power to take Kazuya down and make amends, he doesn’t care about what happens to himself and is willing to die for his goal.

Throughout the rest of the story, Jin slowly seems like his old self again as he reconnects with the people he tried to cut off and acknowledges that he can only try to make up for everything he’s done. All of this leads to one of Tekken 8’s greatest moments, where he confronts the Devil inside of him and makes peace with him, understanding that he can use its power for good instead of evil.

Not only does Jin literally get turned into an angel after unlocking this power and using it to take on Kazuya again, but he finally understands what his purpose in life is and what he’s fighting for - ensuring the safety of everyone he cares about and the future of the world he finally wants to live in.

By the end of Tekken 8, Jin hasn’t magically wiped his slate clean of all the innocent lives he’s inadvertently claimed and the destruction he’s wrought, but he’s accepted himself for who he is and set himself on a path towards redemption. I thought this was impossible after Tekken 6, but hearing Jin scream that he wants to live and help his friends hit me harder than an Electric Wind God Fist.

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