At the end of the Tekken 7 King of Iron Fist Tournament, Bandai Namco and the Tekken Project team had one last surprise to show fans. It was indeed the arcade update subtitled Fated Retribution. Besides new characters, costumes and a graphical facelift, this ain't your typical arcade update as there is one big addition. Akuma from the Street Fighter franchise will become a playable character in the Tekken series and he's surprisingly a big factor into the Mishima storyline.
Akuma has been a guest character before in a fighting game besides Street Fighter, which was X-Men: Children of the Atom. Sure, Capcom made that game but it was the one that started the popular versus fighting series between Marvel and Capcom characters. From the trailer above, he looks great in the new graphical facelift with his signature moves intact including the Raging Demon. Yes, he can throw fireballs in a Tekken game, but at least you can sidestep them. We'll see how the balancing works with him in the coming months.
I'll treat Akuma's Tekken 7 appearance as the tease for Tekken X Street Fighter, still in development according to Bandai Namco. Will his moves be input the same way as they were in Street Fighter especially with the leniency compared to Tekken's movement? How much damage would his fireballs and Raging Demon will be done to opponents? Time will tell as Namco expects the bring builds of the update to US tournaments and events besides Japanese arcades next year.
Tekken 7: Fated Retribution will likely be the console version of Tekken 7 seeing how Tekken 6's console versions were the Bloodline Rebellion update. Hopefully the console versions of Tekken 7 are still slated for release later next year especially with this new arcade update around first. But what about Akuma in Street Fighter V? I still think Capcom has plans for his inclusion in the future since he's such a mainstay in the franchise now, so my guess is that he'll be the secret boss again.
Surprised by Akuma's new role in Tekken 7? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
