Bandai Namco’s team has always had a special eye for narrative. The Tekken series has had an ever-evolving tale spanning three decades, with the canon story developing in every main-game that is released. With how deep the games already are, they could’ve left the main narrative behind a long time ago, and focused on the part of the game that people actually spend hundreds of hours on.

Instead, Katsuhiro Harada and his team usedTekken 8to prove that they’d do the exact opposite: giving us the most impressive main story we’ve seen in the series. If you’re here, you’ve probably played it, and you’re likely filled with questions. What did that ending actually mean?

Spoilers For The Ending Of Tekken 8’s The Dark Awakens Campaign Below

The Dark Awakens Ending, Explained

For the eighth entry in the series, Bandai Namco kept the blueprint from Tekken 7 andgave us two narrative paths: The Dark Awakens and Character Episodes. This article is focused on the former, as it is the de facto main story in Tekken 8.Althoughsome Character Episodestie into the main narrative, they mostly do it as “what-ifs”, and none of them seem to be canon.

The Dark Awakens storyline surrounds the Mishima family, of course. With Heihachi out of the picture, that leaves us with Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, and Reina Mishima, the newcomer. The narrative revolves around Kazuya’s ploy to control the world through a combination of his Devil Gene powers and Azazel, while Jin tries to accept his own Devil powers to be able to take a stand against his father.

The final battles between the two end up cleansing both of them of their Devil Gene powers, with the big climax happening at the end of an honest duel.Jin Kazama is the only one left standing on the battlefield, as his father, Kazuya Mishima, falls to the ground. Like at the end of Tekken 6, Jin leaves his opponent on the ground, instead of throwing them off a cliff or into a volcano.

We get two crucial scenes following this:Jun Kazama’s shoescan be seen approaching an unconscious Kazuya on the ground; Reina Mishima shows up again after the credits, and unleashes her own Devil Gene.

Is Jun Kazama Alive?

Jun Kazama, Jin’s mother and Kazuya’s former partner, is confirmed to be alive in Tekken 8. She wasn’t actually killed by Ogre, she escaped and was just lost in a “long nightmare”. Although it isn’t clear what part of the character episodes are canon, Jun also shows up at the end of The Dark Awakens story, further confirming the fact that she is actually alive.

Now that we have that confirmed, what role will she play? Despite not physically showing up, she was the key to Jin accepting his Devil Gene, while not succumbing to its dark side.The final scene with her approaching the unconscious Kazuya implies that she might be trying to bring him back from his villainous arc, which might now be possible without the Devil Gene’s influence. Whatever it is, Harada and company have something planned for Jun Kazama in the future. Tekken 8’s main story felt like a prologue to Jun’s true arc.

Is Kazuya Irredeemable?

It has long been discussed whether the Devil Gene is what has been making Kazuya progressively more evil as we progress through the series. After all, Jin started out as a pretty nice guy, and ended up starting World War 3 in Tekken 6. That theory is faced with two problems in Tekken 8’s The Dark Awakens, though.

Kazuya does not give the semblance of someone who’s lost or is losing control. He is so powerful during this entry in the Tekken series, that he manages to get his own Devil Gene and Azazel’s power under control simultaneously, without ever going into a shōnen rage like we see from Jin in the game’s first chapter.

In addition, during the entirety of chapter 15, Kazuya Mishima is supposedly entirely devoid of the Devil’s power and, consequently, any of its possible influence. Despite this, he doesn’t stop trying to kill Jin until he falls to the ground, defeated. To further exacerbate this point, Tekken 8 devs inserted a secret ending into the game. If you lose the fight against Kazuya when he becomes enraged (this is easily spotted by his entire health bar getting a red glow), you get a “bad” ending, which begins with Jin being thrown off a cliff by his father, a throw back to the first game in the series.

What’s Next For Jin?

Jin Kazama has been the de facto Tekken series protagonist. Since he showed up in Tekken 3, he’s been the character we’ve played as the most during the Tekken campaigns. We’ve seen him deal with loss, overcoming his own hurdles, making enough mistakes to become a villain, and going on a redemption arc that turns him into a literal Angel. With his father defeated, his own Devil Gene removed, and his mother returned, what is next for Jin Kazama?

His main motivation throughout all these years has been putting a stop to the Mishima bloodline. He likely believes he’s done that with his triumph over Kazuya, but what about Reina?Will a conflict between Jin and Reina take the main stage in a future Tekken game, or is the hero of T8 going to take a break from the spotlight again, as he did in Tekken 7? This very long chapter of his story has finally come to an end, but it definitely feels like another one has just begun.

Reina Mishima - Protagonist Or Villain?

The last, and possibly biggest, question that Tekken 8’s The Dark Awakens campaign leaves us with is Reina Mishima. The unforeseendaughter of Heihachiplays a big role in the first half of the campaign, but goes missing for most of the latter one.

She makes an appearance after the credits roll, smashing the Bandai Namco logo into the mud, alongside any expectations that she’d be a throw-away character in the series. While Kazuya and Jin lost their Devil powers in the final battle, thinking that the Gene is now gone from the world,Reina manages to unleash her own winged-persona.

Now that we’re headed into a future where she is the only character with a Devil Gene in Tekken, is she going to fill in her uncle and father’s shoes as the main villain, or will she be the next protagonist we play?

Frankly, she’d be great as either. Her motivations are justified, but not entirely clear. She is a character with a complicated backstory, an even more complex family history, who is fueled by revenge and a thirst for power. Whether she fills Jin’s or Kazuya’s shoes, she’s sure to take the Tekken series to exciting new territories, and we can’t wait to see that narrative unfold in the future.