Tekken 8 dropped a full trailer for the first season of content, revealing plenty of new content releasing over the next several months. This includes story DLC, several free features, and the return of Lidia—which has the community mixed on what future fighters could be coming next.
During the Tekken 8 top eight at Evo Japan 2024, Bandai Namco shared an updated roadmap for Season One following the release of the first DLC fighter, Eddy Gordo, on April 5. This next wave of content will include an expansion for Tekken 8’s main story—something that rarely happens for fighting games—and multiple free updates will be available to all players, while teasing the next DLC fighter, Lidia Sobieski.
Lidia was the final DLC fighter added to Tekken 7, meaning many players might have missed out on playing her in the previous game. Unlike her fellow T7 DLC debut, Leroy Smith, however, she was not included in T8’s base roster and is being sold to players again as the second DLC fighter in Season One’s lineup, leading to a mixed reaction from the community. While a good chunk of the playerbase is excited to see Lidia return with a new look and non-nerfed moveset, others are upset that a T7 fighter is dropping as DLC—and the implications it has for the rest of this season.
In July 2023, a massive datamine of Tekken 8’s files from a closed beta test led to multiple fighters being leaked for the main roster ahead of release. Certain strings of data also hinted at who we would see as DLC, which included Eddy via listing his fighting style and country of origin, Brazil, in the data. With Lidia now confirmed as the second DLC fighter, it looks like the entire first season has been leaked—since the same country and fighting info was found for her.
Based on this, the next two DLC characters should be Marduk and Fahkumram, in some order, with early signs that Armor King and Anna will be featured in a future season or later on. So, while Lidia isn’t being panned, the potential of a DLC lineup that includes two polarizing characters again is. “Literally recycled DLC. Even got the beach stage again……,” Reddit user DiscoJackster said. “Tekken 8, Biggest Budget, Smallest Ambition.”
Along with Lidia’s release at some point this Summer, we will also get a free story expansion for T8 that brings Eddy into the spotlight and looks to take place after the main story’s ending. It’s rare to see additions to a fighting game’s story mode added post-launch. This has excited the community about what Bandai has planned next, as long as it isn’t more content like the Tekken store.
Additional free updates include an April 30 “Spring Battle Balance” patch that should address concerns players have with the meta, a new Seaside Resort stage and photo mode, and the story expansion. An online practice mode and Ghost vs. Ghost AI battle feature were also mentioned as coming in the future—though dates for those updates and the next characters have not been specified yet.
