Tekken 7: Fated Retribution
Tekken X Street Fighter! Oh wait, that’s the Tekken logo. Interesting…

In an announcement at the King of Iron Fist Tournament in Japan, Tekken players were treated to some surprising new information. Akuma from Street Fighter would be joining the new roster of characters in the update to the Japanese arcade-exclusive Tekken 7, known as Fated Retribution. Fans of Tekken 7 had guessed that a silhouette Kazumi spoke to in the original intro to the game was series mainstay Heihachi, but it turns out that it was actually Street Fighter villain Akuma.

What makes this of particular interest is that Akuma is not entering into the roster as just a guest character, but as an integral part of the story. In the reveal trailer (see below), Kazumi Mishima requests Akuma to put an end to Heihachi should she be unable to stop him, a request to which he agrees. The details beyond that are sparse, but some footage of Akuma in action is shown in the trailer. Seeing the use of projectile attacks is pretty uncommon in the world of Tekken, but the possibilities it creates are exciting to say the least. He seems to have much of his attack arsenal from Street Fighter intact, though it remains to be seen how smoothly it will run in a three dimensional environment. Also shown are some other new additions to the roster:

This announcement does call into question the status Tekken X Street Fighter project, however. The game was originally announced alongside of Capcom’s take on the crossover, Street Fighter X Tekken, in 2010, but very few details from Bandai Namco’s game have been released other than a promotional image and some promises that the title was still in development as recent as this year.

Is this the result of the crossover, and are more characters from Street Fighter bound for Tekken 7‘s roster? Nothing in the trailer seems to indicate anything of the sort, and all of that is speculation at best. Until we know more, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution and Tekken X Street Fighter are still their own separate projects, though it probably is not too much of a wild guess that assets from the development of the latter are being utilized in the former. If even more Street Fighter characters join the fray in future updates or the console release of Tekken 7, then there would probably be more license to worry about the fate of the crossover. We’ll be sure to keep you posted if anything comes up in regard to either of these titles!

Tekken 7: Fated Retribution is slated to release at a TBD date for arcades in the future, and a console release is intended to release eventually as well.

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Alexander Jones
Alexander Jones is a 24 year-old with a BA in History and has been gaming as far back as he can remember. Growing up, he was raised strictly on Nintendo consoles, but this fueled a passion for Japanese gaming and design. Though he does still have a soft spot for Nintendo, he has grown to love any developer and console with fun, enjoyable games. Some of his favorite games of all time include Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy XIII, Chrono Trigger, and Katawa Shoujo.