Our Dream ‘Tekken 7’ Roster: These 6 Characters Need To Be Added Now

Can you believe that Tekken 7 has been a staple in the fighting game community since 2015? It’s pretty wild to fathom the 4-year run that Bandai Namco’s 3D fighter has been on these past few years. The game’s famed director, Katsuhiro Harada, has worked diligently with the rest of the development team behind Tekken 7 to refine it into one of the best installments in the beloved series that has been around since the mid-1990s.

After numerous gameplay revisions, a major console launch and the addition of beloved characters and shocking special guests, Tekken 7 has managed to keep the attention of fans for a surprisingly long time. One of the most important aspects of any fighting game is its roster. No one’s going to give your fighter the time of day if the playable personalities within it are painfully boring. Tekken 7 has this area covered, which is why its fanbase is the happiest it’s ever been.

Besides the massive launch roster selection in 2015, post-launch updates have added familiar names and guest characters into the combat equation. Armor King, Craig Marduk, Lei Wulong, Anna Williams and Julia Chang have thankfully resurfaced. But the most outlandish roster additions have come in the form of Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis Lucis Caelum, Fatal Fury’s Geese Howard and even The Walking Dead’s Negan.

At this point, no one is off limits as far as additional DLC characters are concerned. A third season pass full of worthwhile content in the form of new playable combatants sounds entirely possible. Season 2 introduced six characters, so let’s list six more entrants who’d be great for a proposed Season 3.

Tekken’s love-struck sumo fighter has a fighting style all his own. While he may not be as popular as his franchise contemporaries, Ganryu stands apart from them all due to his unique approach to combat. Tekken 7 features some of the best heavy hitters and grapplers in fighting games. Getting the chance to exert Ganryu’s powerful offense with the help of wall bounces sounds like a fun proposition. Ganryu would fit right in with the rest of the grapple heavy side of the Tekken 7 roster.

So Tekken 7 looked as if it was going to do away with several alternate characters. This decision could be seen in the way in which new characters adopted their familiar movesets. It turns out that design philosophy didn’t stick around too long. As evidenced by the DLC character additions, old faces made their return and featured enough differences in their playstyle to make them feel fresh. While the game already has a dedicated kickboxer in Josie Rizal, it wouldn’t hurt to add another. Luckily, Bruce Irvin is ready-made for that position. It would be pretty easy to switch up a few of his kickboxing techniques and still keep his fanbase happy. The best part about Bruce, though? He doesn’t sob every time he nabs a hard-fought victory.

Take a look at the comments section underneath any article concerning Tekken 7 DLC and you’ll see one name regularly being brought up: Zafina. Tekken 6’s Egyptian assassin turned out to be one of the more creative characters the series has ever seen. Her “Ancient Assassin Arts” mastery afforded her the ability to use a series of unpredictable maneuvers that made her a fan favorite. Her absence from Tekken 7 could be understood from a storyline standpoint at first. But we all know that the game’s DLC doesn’t give a damn about impacting the plot in any major way. So it’s about time that Zafina made her way into Tekken 7 to add another unique style of play that fans have been clamoring for.

Ninjas are indeed cooler than pirates. Don’t @ me! Tekken 7 definitely stands by that fact since it happens to include two of the best ones: Yoshimitsu and Master Raven. But one person is missing from that whole ninja contingent: the Manji Ninjutsu master, Kunimitsu. Her appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 really afforded her the chance to differentiate herself from her rival. Kunimitsu is an endlessly cool Tekken character that needs a current-gen revival. The possibilities for her Rage Art are endless.

All bets are now off whenever guest characters for Tekken 7 come to mind. Harada has made a habit of shocking the world by dropping trailers for characters we never thought we’d see in a Tekken game. These guest character partnerships have been made in conjunction with Capcom, SNK, Square Enix and The Walking Dead TV show.

Bandai Namco needs to reach out to another fellow Japanese game publisher/developer for its next guest character consideration: Sega. And we all know who’d be the perfect candidate for inclusion in Tekken 7: Yakuza’s mainline protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. His street brawler style gives him endless possibilities to lift a fighting game playstyle from. Even some of his iconic Heat Actions could be transformed into a Power Crush or a devastating Rage Art. Kazuma utilized a ton of wild moves from his time spent in the Yakuza series, and all of them would undoubtedly make him a formidable fighter in Tekken 7.

If Tekken 7 wants to go out with a bang on the next season pass, they need to go even bigger with their guest characters. This fantasy Bandai Namco and Sega deal should be as fruitful as possible. And the best way to do that is by adding a second guest entrant to the game that has strong connections to Sega’s history. For a long time, Virtua Fighter stood tall as Tekken’s undisputed rival. When a few of their characters popped up in Dead or Alive 5, fans rejoiced at their inclusion. 

Dead or Alive 6 has chosen to exclude Virtua Fighter’s best in favor of guest characters from The King of Fighters, which leaves the door wide open for Tekken to show Sega’s 3D fighter some love. Akira Yuki, Virtua Fighter’s mascot and user of Bajiquan martial arts, would be a dream come true for 3D fighting game fans. The image of him and Julia Chang testing their skills against each other should have everyone frothing at the mouth. We may never get a full-fledged Tekken vs. Virtua Fighter game, but the arrival of Akira in Tekken 7 is the closest we’ll ever get to that far-off dream.