February was truly a month of "Tekken 8" frenzy. First, the Tekken World Tour Finals gave us a better look at the heat system (opens in new tab) and revealed Nina Williams' return to the roster. Last week, a character trailer for Kazuya Mishima (opens in new tab) was released, showing off his flashy particle effects and abundant muscles. This week, it's the turn of his son, Jin Kazama. A flashy trailer was released, suggesting a reworking of the moveset.

Like Kazuya's trailer, the two are fighting on a whole new stage, as if Tekken were Times Square in New York City. He uses techniques never seen before, and even appears to have taken a few things from Devil Jin. It is unlikely that Devil Jin will return as a playable character; instead, the two may have merged, allowing Jin to (somewhat) curb his demonic side.

Tekken 8 seems to strip away some of its dark realism in favor of flashy anime showmanship. Particle effects are very much in evidence, and not everyone enjoys them. That said, this is just the beginning, with three character trailers currently available and many more to come. If Bandai Namco keeps up this pace, I half expect new trailers to be released every week leading up to EVO Japan at the end of March. Currently, the six characters that have yet to have a trailer released are Jack-8, King, Lars Alexandersson, Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix, and Jun Kazama.

In other words, six characters are now in the game, and there are only four weeks left until EVO Japan. We can already see the characters that we know will be in the game, and then we will likely see bigger characters revealed during the tournament. Jun's trailer probably won't be out for a while yet, given that she has been away from the series for so long (opens in a new tab). Personally, I would like to see a trailer for Lars next. Especially since, so far, much of Tekken 8's airtime has been spent with him getting beat up by other characters.