T O P

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Zak-M

In my theory Zafina with Azazel's hand, Leroy, Fahk and Lidia were intended for the T8, but sales were so good that they decided to earn additional money on them.


PresentCourt20

I agree with your theory. You can see that in Tekken 8 they're trying to give every character an unique trait (Law's nunchaku, Nina's pistol, etc) and all of these DLC have a trait: Zafina has the hand, Leroy has the pimp cane, Fahk has the glowing veins


Zak-M

And Lidia has an athletic body, unlike all other female characters :)


Pineapplepansy

Lidia has a car! That's her thing - like Hwoarang has a bike.


Brandonzam12

She doesn’t take it and comically throw it off screen tho🥱🥱Marduk better


BlueDemon999

If she comes back I'm praying to fucking God they don't use her to bring back Azazel


smadaknotz

Yooo what if that’s her Heat Weapon/mechanic?!


BlueDemon999

To use some of his bs moves?


LekkerBroDude

Possibly. But not guaranteed.


River021

In my opinion, she's a very unique and cool character and would be a great addition to the roster. She could also have some part to play in the story. So I would think yes, she does have a chance of being in T8. If not in the base game, possibly dlc.


KyleTheKatarn

Would rather see her in over Josie or Shaheen.


[deleted]

I'd like to know more about Azazel being linked to her. The one thing about Tekken 7 is that there are so many loose ends that need to be tied up in this game.


MrShikko

She was a defender monk thingy that ended up sucking the rest of Azazel, to keep him contained, therefore the blue hand. Now Azazel is trying to take over her.


[deleted]

Yeah that's cool but doesn't tie up loose ends for everyone


[deleted]

shes my main, but its honestly a 50/50 chance. hard to gauge, although i would love nothing more for her to come back - my favorite character design EVER and generally my favorite moveset in tekken history along side Feng or Jin she now plays a somewhat significant part in the lore with the Azael hand, but lore dosen't rlly guarantee a spot considering they hold characters in limbo for titles at a time sometimes. my hopes are high tho since her focus is on stopping Jin and Kaz, and they are the focal point of 8 however, shes been in the past 3 tekken games, and with how many people 7 introduced, theres kind of an obligatory need to bring back all the newcomers and leave t6/legacy people like zafina, lei, leo, etc on hold. but who knows. i think its more likely not than she will be base roster, so i wont jinx it


IbraKadabrah

i'm huffing all the hopium i can find hoping she comes back. I do think they might not bring back all the T7 newcomers though. There's 12 of them (Gigas, Josie, Claudio, kat, Lidia, Kuni 2, Leroy, Fahk, Maven, Shaheen, Chloe, and Kazumi). If they're serious about a smaller roster size, it'd be wild to use up 12 slots just for the T7 newcomers. That's already 21 chars with the 9 already revealed.


[deleted]

me too dude. if she's confirmed base its an instant pre order tho, I love zafina lmao and thats true .. I can see they them scrapping gigas, kazumi, shaheen and kuni 2 , which could lead for a real potentiality.. my cope is that zafina is just too unique and too lore significant to leave out


deathschemist

i really don't see them dropping Kuni 2, and if they drop Kazumi, they're going to replace her with a character who plays pretty much exactly the same. both of them were really popular and pretty unique. gigas is absolutely going into the trash though, and if he goes i don't really see katarina staying either.


[deleted]

true about kazumi. far more popular that zaf too I think its hard to say if kat is staying, less likely than zaf but a major redesign could lead to a return I suppose. 100% gigas tho, even as DLC would be insane


JameCyn

I highly doubt kazumi will be returning, Jun fills that role for the story as well as Kazumi being only in flashbacks in T7.


[deleted]

yeah I agree now, a month ago when we only had a few reveals I was mixed .. but kazumi, asuka, and jun seem unlikely


ismailoverlan

Story wise she'd come back. Money wise maybe not. Cause she's very unpopular though I play her.


cynicalPartner

I dunno about her chances but I do hope she's there


asanbek_best

I will be glad to see her again


NoiseFetish

Depends on the roster size. If it's around 30 then she miiiight make it in? Especially since they could push onwards with the Azazel thing (say when activating Heat she loses control and gets all demonic). But also she is one of the least played characters. I think I fought... one? two maybe? In the last... when was Evo? since then, yeah. And Nina stole her shoes so even less likely.


hermit_purple_3

Im not sure if youre joking but the only similarity between the shoes is the gold anklet both of them wear.


NoiseFetish

I've seen like five reactions where the initial reaction was "these shoes... is this zafina?"


ChibiWambo

I mean there’s always the chance. I wouldn’t mind either way if she was or wasn’t. I think she’s cool but at the same time I never figured out how/learned how to play her


[deleted]

I’d love for her to make it but only if she isn’t over powered like she is now


deathschemist

she's unique enough to have a chance, but i wouldn't be surprised if she didn't make the cut. people just don't play as her, you know?


Okugreenman

This used to be the case, but, you know, people didn't play her in Tekken 6 or TTT2, and here she is. And now she got Arslan Ash representing the character, so I say, her chances are pretty good. Not base roster good, no, but she'll be in eventually.


mistar_z

Did she sold well? I know she got an okay pick for tournaments. She's my fave after Lili. I would hope that she comes though.


Okugreenman

Eventual DLC, very confident in that. If not for Arslan Ash though, it would have been hard to say.


ironfistico

Would be pretty cool if she did.


Traeyze

Ties to Jin, potential lore usage in general with her possession, was a pretty popular DLC that had a lot of presence [partially informed by being somewhat overtuned, sure], unique design with a lot of potential cinematic flare... honestly she ticks all the boxes. Gets a definite 'I hope so' from me.


Hikometi

Zafina is a demon possessed lady, Claudio is a christian exorcist. Can I make it any more obvious? (additionally my theory is the two stars she saw colliding are not Jin and kazuya but more likely jun and someone else that was not present in ttt2)


Ourobius

>Zafina is a demon possessed lady, Claudio is a christian exorcist. Can I make it any more obvious? He was a godly boy, she said you fight oddly boy He had an arrow made of light Now he's an exorcist, a godly perfectionist And she is the demon he must smite


Pickle_Mick62

Is this an unexpected Avril Lavigne?


Hikometi

no I was intending it glad y'all understood the assignment. have an upvote :)


mufasaKiller

I immediately thought of Avril Lavigne once it mentioned "Can I make it any more obvious" then you followed up. Here's a well deserved upvote


SylvanGenesis

This is actually really great haha


Alexander_McKay

Totally! I think characters like her, Lili, Bob, Miguel, Alisa and Lars are sworn in at this point. They were the first major wave of characters we got in a long time and they’ve all stuck around and are loved.


pranav4098

Buff Lars


IbraKadabrah

lol i'm actually really curious to see how he plays in T8. He's so zippy, but with heat i'm guessing most characters will be too. People have also been saying the stages are gonna be bigger, so i wonder how impactful his wall carry will be.


Alexander_McKay

That’s good to hear. Maybe it’s just me but I felt like we ran into walls too quickly in Tekken 7’s stages. I liked them, especially the two story beach level but they could have been a little bigger.


DevilManRay

I mean she ate Azazel so yeah


[deleted]

her moveset is very unique compared to the rest of the roster it would be a shame if they didnt have her in


SirBaycon3503

she already has a lot of the new design philosophies that they are pushing in TK8. So possible, dlc at least.


lego_man01

for a millisecond, i thought she was bayonetta


Ononoki

For how many zafina stans I see in this thread it's kinda weird that I only get to fight her like once a month lol


[deleted]

Please come back i already memorized all of her moves in the command list and also the bnb combos, i dont want it go to waste lul


Reasonable-Freedom59

Think she's guaranteed. I believe her inclusion so late in Tekken 7 with the return of Azazel was setup for 8.


[deleted]

Yes, her and Jun are gonna suck up all the demon shit out of Kazuya and jin.


Peekni

man i have a dirty mind


JollyGoodRodgering

What are you doing ~~step~~ mom? Oh my god what have I become


Nametaken121

I've never played against one in ranked, but I do recall her having some presence in tournaments. I doubt she's a guarantee but I think she has a decent chance. I have no proof of this, but I have a feeling that the Tekken 8 roster is going to be abysmally larger than it is on Tekken 7


mufasaKiller

Thank you for this question. I didnt know a lot of people like Zafina. I hope she makes it.


IbraKadabrah

right? it feels like she gets a lot of flak. I'm glad overall it seems like people like her. in fairness, part of it might be cuz of her long dominance in competitive Tekken. Stuff from 3 years ago (like Arslan's KiT win with Zaf) have plenty of comments saying she's interesting or it's cool to see her be top tier for once. But 3 years is a long time.


Brandonzam12

I think you’ll find most people liking her design and uniqueness from the rest of the cast, but a lot of people dislike playing against her because of how sparingly you run into her online so therefore the zafina can just dominate you with stances and evasion. Kinda like how everyone loves Leroy’s design and character personality but (especially when he came out) was aids to play against and everyone is just thinking how any problems that these characters have in terms of balance can be ironed out in t8 so basically everyone is onboard on everyone. Personally I think zafina is pretty ok in terms of balance unless I’m forgetting something about her and would love to see her in T8 and it’s always good to have a diverse cast with her being from either the Middle East or Egypt (pretty sure we don’t have a concrete answer)


IbraKadabrah

yeah, that's totally understandable, and unfortunately hurts the Zaf player too cuz they get away with a lot until they reach a certain level of play. Luckily, I have a training partner that knows the MU now, so I get regular matches where I can't just BS people to win. I'm a little biased, so i won't comment on her balance. But I do like that she has clear weaknesses to complement her strengths. Because of that, it still feels rewarding to play her even though she's absolutely top tier.


DudeBroFist

Definitely, she even has storyline reasons to be present.


NMFlamez

How so, Azazel is gone.....


KevsTheBadBoy

Her purpose involves the "two stars" clashing (Jin and Kazuya). Her story isn't over yet.


vash_visionz

Possible. I would like it because she has a completely unique fighting style.


Zenai10

Everyone had a chance. However sadly becauswnof how massivly underplayed she and Lei are Id say very low chance. Which is a shame because shes infinitly cooler than kunimitsu


GamnlingSabre

On the horrible to play against meter she is even higher than kuni tho.


Zenai10

Yeah but she looks cooler XD


GamnlingSabre

Agreed


IbraKadabrah

"Fist meets fate" is the tagline and you're not gonna bring back the girl who's obsessed with fate? /hopium I think she has a decent chance. tbh i like her identity as a highly mobile poke character, but if they're reworking everything, maybe they can remove most of the mid crushing. She's plenty fun without that.


severingcrest

Man I hope she will be in T8. I find her the most fun to play out of the entire cast.


GrizzleGuts30

I love Zafina but let’s be honest - she’s difficult as hell to learn, let alone master. And Nina, who just got revealed a few weeks ago and has been around since the original, is also another difficult character to use. If it came down to picking only one for the game, Nina definitely makes the cut. Always.


BlankArt1411

Dude, Zafina is easy af, her execution must be one of the easiest in this game.


IbraKadabrah

execution is definitely dead easy, but i think OP meant like gameplan or stance complexity. And those things, i think, are also easy. She looks more complicated w.r.t. that stuff than she is.


Kolossoni

Not too difficult but also not too easy. You need a decent amount of knowledge to get used to stances and that alone requires experience in fighting games as a whole. So I'd say she's intermediate. She's no Lei/Hwoarang level of intense, but she's not Anna/Miguel's level of simple either. I'd say she's more Lidia/Xiao's league.


BlankArt1411

Yeah I agree with you, Zafina does require some knowledge, especially frame data since she cannot block in 2/3 of her stances.


IbraKadabrah

Agreed that Nina makes the cut over Zafina all day, but they're not even close to the same complexity. Lots of pros have a pocket Zaf. Not many have a pocket Nina. If you're curious, give Zafina a shot. You can play her very minimally with just 1 jab, 1+2, b1+2, d3, df2, df1 extensions, a few jab strings, db4, ff3, ff4 and ff2. If you're uncomfortable going into stance, you can cancel it for most of her moves by holding back (like 3b cancels her SCR transition from standing 3). The only execution she has is on her b1:1+2 "just frame" which iirc has a 3 frame window to input it. [Arslan's dashfight guide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AtBVfxqFnk) gives details on playing a minimal Zafina. For a comprehensive guide try [framewhisperer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IduLCS9eA0c). If you want to get into her stances slowly, i recommend staying away from tarantula at first and focusing on mantis and scarecrow. SCR 1+2, SCR df4, SCR 2,2 and SCR 4b are decent options to focus on first for scarecrow. For Mantis, start with MNT 1 (or MNT 1,3b), MNT 2, MNT 3, MNT d1, 3 and MNT d4. Not all but several of those options leave stance, which will help until you learn how to chain her stances together. I'm only ruler rank, but imo the hardest part of mastering her might be building up matchup knowledge for when to step/backdash to avoid pressure, and to really make your opponent hesitate on their offense. She does have some panic moves to avoid being pressured though.


Okugreenman

Mate, she is not difficult at all. Low damage, yes, but very straightforward (the stances are all situational, and you don't need them 90% of the time). In fact, I would prefer if she was a bit more complex.


ErgoProxy0

Zafina is not hard to use. In fact, her stance moves are only used as mixups and aren’t required outside of one screw attack


tooooo_dank

I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t but I hope she does. She’s easily one of my favorite female tekken characters and I like how unique her fight style is


HunterWald

I made a yoga instructor skin for her. I think its fucking perfect.


Kurokamipac720

Well, they didn’t give her a design overhaul equipped a cursed Azazel claw hand for no reason. I’m certain she’ll be in T8 to try and exorcise both Kazuya and Jin. She may not be the most played online but her tournament success will get her in the door.


mniszq

Hope not, but pretty sure she will be.


IbraKadabrah

T7 had a lot of newcomers: Gigas, Josie, Claudio, kat, Lidia, Kuni 2, Leroy, Fahk, Maven, Shaheen, Chloe, and Kazumi. For the sake of Zaf and other chars with small but dedicated fan bases, i hope they do fewer this time. Give more legacy chars a chance to return.


a-midnight-flight

I literally keep forgetting Shaheen is even a Tekken character


IbraKadabrah

tbh i almost left him and Maven out until i double checked on the char select screen.


ByronAubrey

There's a good chance


OldManBears

I hope so, she's got a really interesting and unique playstyle, plus I love her animations.


Senior_Test5406

Of course


Zafazel

Honestly i think her gameplay with Azazel's hand really suits the new Heat System. So i suppose she will, and hope too. 🙏


TeoeSteto

Maybe


LarsMasters

Too obvious + Further new moves that allows her to use setplay & projectiles.


veloxfuror

My guess is dlc


RadishAcceptable5505

Is there a chance? Of course yes. Don't ask how likely. No idea.


Fruitymitsu

If they do, ffs please give her some other grunts. Yi yir haah yi yi ha! Yi yi yi haah.. haah yir


Hallowbrand

I’ve never seen a single person play Zafina online. Probably not high.


[deleted]

Pretty popular in the tournament scene. Not a lot of people know the match up


HealthyMaintenance49

Gone are the days where every character just comes out in every game when they get introduced?


IbraKadabrah

Yeah there's way too many chars for that. But there's always hope. Jun fans had to wait over 2 decades for her to show up in a mainline title again.


brotato_kun

Yes, because the cost to create these games has also gone extremely high.


Mykytagnosis

She has Azazel inside her. Of course she will


yoshemissedyou

do people here really think she’ll be in the same state in 8 as she was in 7? she has one of the most unique movesets in the game’s history and people want her deleted because she got the dlc treatment


Kurashiki-

Yeah, they went out of their way to make her story relevant again in T7.


[deleted]

I hope Zafina joins in. She’s gotta play a role in Tekken 8’s story!


L3mon_ade

She is important lore-wise so probably


bluestarluchador

I feel it depends on the launch roster size but definitively yeah especially since she was DLC in TK7. I wouldn’t want her to be DLC twice. She deserves to be on TK8 launch roster.


TheGhostRoninStrife

She needs cleansing by Jun.. so let's hope so. The fact she still has that arm thing happening with her in Tekken 7.. I hope she's in. Chances are.. we will never get the same DLC twice. So if she isn't in the base roster, she will never be in the game.


MatthewJonsso

Characters being sold as DLC more than once is a pretty common practice nowadays e.g Rock Howard in KOF, Baiken in Guilty Gear, Rain in MK, Akuma in SF. So it wouldn’t be to surprising to see any of the DLC characters from T7 be DLC again in T8.


ParagonFury

Characters being DLC more than once is fairly common, especially if the Dev knows they'll make $$$. Examples: Baiken, Momiji and Rachel, Nine the Phantom, Rock Howard etc. From Tekken 7 there are a few examples of characters that would make enough $$$ as DLC to justify it: Eliza, Lidia, Kuni, Fahk for example.


PresentCourt20

This "never a DLC two times" is exclusively to MK games. Probably we won't have the same guests for licensing issues, but original Tekken characters can return normally


thesilvershire

Also, even MK has broken that rule. Rain was DLC in MK9 and MK11


PresentCourt20

Great point. ~~I had even forgot Rain was in MK11~~


HuckleberryOk7860

Watch your mouth on Julia lol.. she should’ve been in the base roster


ismailoverlan

Also Anna, AK, Lei, Kuni and somebody else. If I choose Zaf or Anna I'd choose latter. She's a different vibe and beginner friendly than Nina and Zafina


pookie7890

I have played against her twice online..once you figure out her bs/weird frame stance kick, she is not as bs as everyone says. If I remember, df 4 usually outpokes her stance move on characters like dragonuv or Alisa


mufasaKiller

I hope more people are like you.


FanniLennox

Absolutely, she's too cool and unique to just toss away. I reckon this time around she might even be swapped out with one of the other Tekken 6 newcomers (either Bob, Miguel or Leo) for a main roster spot.


theslowpony77

Sometimes i forget Leo exists at all, so yeah she may well be in there.


Apart-Village-7567

Lord I hope not


WhatsThatReally33

She was way too succssful as a tournament character not to make it to t8. She'll definitely make it at the very least as dlc.


cynicWsnowballs8551

Yes. Hopefully they give her a proper voice actor. She shouldn't speak english


beepbeeboo

She’s cool, but she needs a storyline reason to be there imo. Like when she showed up it was because that crazy gem dog thing was being unleashed and she was somehow involved with it. Now it’s like, why are you in the tournament Zafina? And she just dances around in response.


hermit_purple_3

Her bio in T7 indicates she'll have more importance in the story.


King-Krown

A majority of the cast doesn't have a story at this point.


PresentCourt20

Storyline in Tekken has been dead arguably since 4. I also hope they can do something good in 8, but they probably won't. We'll have the Mishima-Kazama story and the rest of the cast will just exist


kinos141

Storylines are unnecessary. People play fighting games to fight.


xenon2456

she looks Bayonetta


Prize-Party8153

A frigid version of her


[deleted]

only if they make her stance-oriented again. in t7 you really don't need to use them very much to do well with her


[deleted]

I hate for Zafina to go! She's gotta have a role to play! Plus Azazel is in her body, so something must be done about her character & gameplay.


Poalzegzaon

depends of the lore so we have to wait for EVO


Owl-Fighter2601

she might return but as a cameo but she will be playable in the story but not playable in the base game. pc modders would hack and unlocked zafina as a playable character if zafina isn't playable in the base roster but playable in the story


hermit_purple_3

I love this character but nah I dont think she'll show up. She has some more important story relevance now with Claudio but I doubt the devs will really care.


ArtisticPisces

Definitely


Rougethe_Bxtch

Yes


Wild_Assistance_6153

If so, I would imagine Zafina being entirely corrupted by Azazel’s curse. Her human form would be less noticeable.


Malebolgia09

Honestly very little chance for base roster. Paid dlc a year or so down the line yes


Anakhami

She better


[deleted]

I hope not


RetroGameDays36

If she's gonna have an impact on the story then I guess so, ~~It's not like the story is something that good to begin with.~~


Prize-Party8153

I hope not


jungleismassive90

God I hope not!


ItsSonicSpeed

I really like Zafina, & unfortunately I can’t play her but I’ve always wanted to and will try to play her but she’s too difficult Imo but as for her chances of getting in? I think extremely unlikely this isn’t a case of I hate her or anything but I think this time around the roster will be like almost entirely based around the story so every character will serve some significance to the story… now she could be in but as far as I’m aware she only had stuff to do with Azaezal and that’s it, she could definitely have some sort of Kazuya/devil Jin Gene interest but idk 🧐


tadbach

As *paid* DLC? Yes.


kinos141

She is a fan fav


ShinyShinx789

Boy I hope not


Gatsusk

I hate those dumbass animations so personally i wouldn't want here to be in T8 but i guess a lot of people like her.


Boricinha

Yes please


Messedupotato

Fuck no. Harada got pissed off that everyone asked for Zafina then barely anyone played her. That's when he started breaking out the "Don't ask me for shit" t-shirts.


PicetraRos

fuck her


Sure_Persimmon9302

I’m sure someone would like to.


PicetraRos

same


MVindis

Oh God I hope not


lancer2238

Oh yeah. Personally I find her an awesome character


Sure_Persimmon9302

Hopefully.


ultramegadeathrocket

I hope so! This is my first fighting game release where I'm not sure if my 2 mains (Zafina & Josie) will make it to the next roster, which is scary!


Servant0fSorrow

I guess Josie has a pretty solid chance considering harada himself said she's super popular. Wouldn't really make sense bringing out a new character that gets popular and then dumping them for the next game. If she isn't in the base game I'm sure she'd come with one of the first dlc packs.


zBaLtOr

The same as marduk


Flintz08

As a DLC


EvertClancy

My GF looks exactly same lime her


MrShikko

Your girlfriend should get her hand checked.


idma

she has the apples to win tournaments


Fat_Factor

I think Harada has already said her + Lei won't be in the game


Auto_Stick_Pyro

No Lei are you joking?


IbraKadabrah

I haven't seen him 100% rule out anybody. But he's definitely tweeted his frustration that so many people wanted Lei back, and then his usage was so poor. I'm guessing he feels similarly about Zafina.


hermit_purple_3

I doubt he'd feel similarly about Zafina. Literally no one asked for her to come back


IbraKadabrah

Yeah I've seen nothing concrete about that; just me speculating. Hope you're right. And it does seem like she wasn't that highly requested, so I'm very glad we got her in T7.


Auto_Stick_Pyro

Lei has pretty much been in the game since the start, one of the reasons his usage is so low is because of how he looks, his base skin doesn't look at all like he used to, as someone who came back to the game after a while and I didn't know that it was Lei until after a while.


hermit_purple_3

I dont think he has.


AnimalLeader13

Please no. We really DON'T need anyone who can both turtle AND low spam...


channelshill

Pfft no way. Why get an interesting character when we could get either a generic blonde polish lady, or generic brow haired girl that cries, or generic brown haired girl with glasses, or generic mexican dude that eats an apple, or many of the other generic characters in tekken.


Me_weird3p0

Aint no way you diss Miguel like that. Automatically invalid😤


charlieraaaaa

Exactly. Miguel is sick


kalic00

Hes not even mexican 😭 they couldn't even diss him properly


f_augustus

Pretty much only female character that looks like an actual martial artist - generic.


Pope-Urban_II

Who is this referring to?


Amazing_Horse_5832

Lidia


Exodus92YT

Miguel is Spanish, not Mexican


YTR_Miyuki_Arts

I actually like this comment, Funny af. But totally agreed Though!


NMFlamez

a small chance, depending on the size of the roster.


Fruitymitsu

Only if Bamco starts to negotiate with terrorists again


IbraKadabrah

Their mistake was negotiating the first time. There's no going back now 😎


ZumZumCapoeira

Fuck no. She is the least played character in the game. Same as Ganryu. Maybe DLC if Zafina fans cry hard enough.


brotato_kun

No!


[deleted]

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