Now, I said this would be on Friday, but I couldn’t resist, so here:
Tekken is a complex universe. In fact, @Seddielover12 even said that the alignments were on the character infoboxes as the characters were too complex.
So that says that the characters are human enough to have complexities, emotions, and motivations, but that’s not what we’ve gathered here for.
Now, ever since I started playing, I’ve wondered how powerful the Tekken characters are. Some of them, like Leo or Azucena, seem like everyday people, while others, like Kazuya or Jin, seem like the all-powerful sorcerers you see in fantasy fiction such as The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.
And that’s where we’ll begin.
As every fan knows, the saga of the Mishimas starts around fifty years ago, when the great Heihachi Mishima threw Kazuya Mishima down a cliff. The fact that he survived already proves that he has extremely strong power in the Devil Gene, so the Devil Gene gives you superhuman powers.
So, the Devil Gene makes you immortal and invincible? I don’t think so. Heihachi’s wife, Kazumi Hachijo-Mishima was also a Devil. To say, she also had the Devil Gene, like Kazuya.
So when Heihachi murdered her, she should have stayed alive, right? She would have survived and unlocked and invincible form, right?
Nope. Instead, she gave in and flopped to the floor, dead.
That tells us that although the Devil Gene gives people supernatural powers, they are not invincible and can still be killed and defeated. That means that Devils are slightly weaker than you thought.
Additionally, Azazel, the true Devil, was defeated by just the Devil Kazuya, so maybe the strongest Devil forms are created by will itself. Kazuya wanted to defeat Azazel and gain power, so the power he already had inside of him became stronger and let him consume an otherwise stronger Devil.
An alliance of Claudio and Zafina were also able to seal Azazel up (for three seconds!), so they have considerably high power. Claudio was also known of having ancient arts, able to use Sirius Exorcism Arts on any demon and capture them. That gives him extreme strength. On the other hand, Zafina is capable of the same powers, along with fortune telling (apparently). And she’s said to be even stronger than Claudio, giving her extreme power
However, you don’t need the Devil Gene to be all-powerful. Heihachi Mishima was, like Kazuya, able to survive a toss down the cliff or two, although not having the Devil Gene. That’s saying that Heihachi’s abilities can match the Devil Gene.
Add that to the clues given to us by the Electric Wind God Fist, and we can tell how powerful this thing really is.
Practicers of Mishima Style Karate can use, as many know, a powerful uppercut called the Electric Wind God Fist. It both uses electricity and causes a wind, telling us about the Ki powers of the characters.
In Chinese and Japanese mythology, Ki is a life force that many people can use, by focusing powers of the inner earth into a part of the body known as the Dantian, and, well, meditating naked in extremely uncomfortable poses.
It is said in those cultures that use of Ki can let you slowly become a god. First comes a trainee, a person with average supernatural abilities, and then comes the Sword God, extremely powerful people who use magical weapons to accentuate their skills. They have been said to be able to control swords at will. Then comes the Immortal, a god created from Ki powers. Becoming an Immortal gives you world-changing powers equal to a god, or well, the Devils from Tekken.
So the Devil Gene might not be a curse, but Ki spread from a pact with the devil.
That says that even everyday people in the Tekken world can harness the mythical powers of Ki and use it to good effect, examples being knocking the shit out of people.
Guest Characters also appear a lot. However, the only important one is Akuma.
In the Street-Fighter-verse, Akuma is the strongest character. According to lore, Akuma is a powerful man who trained the arts of Ki, before a particularly murderous type called the Satsui no Hado took him over and got him turned into a merciless demon.
Akuma killed many people, but his greatest three feats were being able to survive underwater and destroy a cruise ship in less than ten seconds, crushing the world with the force of the Kongou Kokuretsuzan (known in Street Fighter 6 as the Adamant Cleaver), and coming back after death from inside the stomach of an ancient demon, Necalli, with a single punch. Akuma can also use the legendary command grab, the Shun Goku Satsu, which roughly translates to Instant Hell Murder or Instant Prison Massacre.
Kazuya was shown in the games to be able to withstand the Shun Goku Satsu, which would otherwise cause to die a thousand deaths by being mauled by the past sins you have made in your life, and vicious evil punches, and you’ve got to admit that Kazuya did his fair share of evil acts.
Kazuya seriously kicks ass, baby.
Our second topic (and last topic for today and until we want pt2 and I need five likes for that) is creatures.
In the Tekken-verse, even animals such as Panda or Kuma have considerable intelligence and power. I mean, Kuma being able to fire salmon rockets and Panda able to use Ki? Animals in this world are considerably stronger than in real life.
And some bosses, like Ogre, seem to be ancient beings capable of ending the world. Ogre can be seen in many different forms.
Base Ogre is already bad enough, able to crack ground and summon stuff and go crazy. True Ogre is even force, with his magical powers and powerful rampages. Then comes that extremely powerful form Monstrous Ogre, whose crazy powers will ruin the world. He can sweep, he can eat, and he can fire barrages of crazy infernos. He’s a madhouse! A talking, walking madhouse!
But yet, Jin defeated him. And Jin was considerably weaker than Kazuya at that point.
Everything is powerful in the Tekken world. So far, I give this world a power rating of 8/10 stars.
Stay tuned for next time.
