Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada recently shed more light on the long and twisted story of the Mishima bloodline and its different members. This infamous family feud started in the original Tekken, in which Kazuya Mishima sought revenge against his father, Heihachi, by taking control of the Mishima Zaibatsu corporation. In 1997’s Tekken 3, Kazuya’s own son, Jin Kazama, would enter the fray, leading to a three-way battle between the different generations of Mishimas that would carry over across the rest of the series so far.

Future Tekken games would branch out the Mishima family tree even further. 2008’s Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion introduced Lars Alexandersson, Heihachi’s illegitimate son, who seeks to stop his more villainous relatives despite lacking their power-granting Devil Gene. Then, in last year’s Tekken 8, players saw the debut of Heihachi’s estranged daughter Reina, who has inherited both her father’s Tekken fighting style and a Devil Gene of her own.

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Tekken 8 and its later story DLC left many unanswered questions about the Mishima family, but longtime Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada recently shared some secrets on Twitter over the weekend (via GamesRadar). Harada had previously revealed that Heihachi has no less than 25 children floating around, and explained that this is the result of a string of experiments to see where the Devil Gene that Kazuya and Jin possess comes from. He says that Heihachi wants to confirm that the Devil Gene doesn’t originate from the Mishima bloodline, and that he has “pursued every possible avenue of genetic research” to prove it.

Katsuhiro Harada Reveals More About Tekken’s Mishima Family

Sure enough, Kazuya (and, by extension, Jin) inherited his Devil Gene from Heihachi’s late wife, Kazumi Mishima, which Heihachi infamously confirmed by throwing Kazuya off a cliff as a child at the beginning of the first Tekken game. Lars, on the other hand, is the son of a researcher who was working alongside the Mishima Zaibatsu’s Tekken Force in Sweden, hence his lack of Devil power. As a result of this, Heihachi sees Lars as little more than evidence to back up his belief that the Devil Gene hasn’t infected the Mishima bloodline as he once feared.

Lastly, Reina is the offspring of a woman whom Heihachi suspected of possessing the Devil Gene, and who was also one of his few genuine allies. Reina would inherit her Devil power from her mother, along with Heihachi's strength and obsession with power. While the rest of the Mishima family is dysfunctional on a good day, Reina and Heihachi actually have a genuinely positive relationship - at least for now. Only time will tell how this relationship develops in future Tekken games, as well as any other dark secrets that could emerge from the long-troubled Mishima bloodline.

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9 /10

Tekken 8
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Fighting
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
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Released
January 26, 2024
ESRB
t
Developer(s)
Bandai Namco Entertainment, Arika
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Multiplayer
Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play
PC, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S
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DIGITAL
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Tekken 8 brings the fight to the latest generation of consoles, powered by Unreal Engine 5. Feel the power of every hit in Tekken 8, the latest entry in the legendary fighting game franchise from Bandai Namco.  Utilising the power and realism of Unreal Engine 5, Tekken 8 pushes the envelope for fighting games by taking full advantage of the power of the latest generation of consoles.  Ground-breaking new features, breathtakingly detailed character models and dramatic environments make this one of the most visually stunning and immersive titles in the genre yet.  Tekken 8 picks up after the gruesome battle that ended in Heihachi Mishima’s defeat in Tekken 7, focusing on a new rivalry, pitting father against son as Jin Kazama stands in defiance against Kazuya Mishima in a city-shattering face-to-face showdown.

Genre(s)
Fighting