During the Tekken World Tour 2022 Global Finals, a major showcase for the upcoming Tekken 8 revealed the return of Nina Williams, gun-toting assassin and extremely fashionable queen. This go around, she’s ditched the wedding dress of Tekken 7 for a leather jacket and revealing purple dress combo, complete with thigh-high boots and dual pistols.
Her look is much more in line with her classic purple getup, and combines elements from all her past outfits. It speaks to her past as deadly killer, and to her previous antics, spoiling her sister Anna’s wedding.
A new trailer also reveals some obvious tweaks and callbacks in her updated moveset. While Nina maintains her submission-focussed and high kick-based attacks, she also now incorporates guns into her fighting repertoire.
Read: Tekken 8 will be a major ‘turning point’ for the franchise
On high-powered attacks, she will whip out dual pistols to fire at her opponent, and they also appear as part of her Rage Art attacks. That said, they don’t appear to be high-damage weapons, as even multiple shots will not finish off an opponent.
Still, her moves are very flashy, and are made all the more intimidating by her powerful and scene-stealing outfit. You can see Nina in action below:
In addition to revealing Nina, Bandai Namco has also unveiled the game’s new Heat System at the Tekken World Tour 2022 Grand Finals. This system will allow fighters to enter an ‘Awakened Mode’ that will give them an advantage on the battlefield, and allow them to perform stronger attacks.
The state will only last a few seconds, but can be extended by successful blows, allowing players to continue delivering devastating hits as they rail on their opponent.
These attacks will also be aided by a separate Rage System which increases attack power when characters are low on health. In this state, players will be able to recover health by hitting opponents or forcing them to block, adding a fresh twist to gameplay.
You can see these systems in action in the new gameplay mechanics trailer:
Tekken 8 is set to launch for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC in future. It does not have a firm release date.