Lei Wulong, one of the characters I personally associate most heavily with Tekken, originally joined the series back in Tekken 2 which appeared in arcades in 1995, and since then he hadn't missed any proper Tekken title until Tekken 7. As earlier mentioned, she has only missed one game before - this puts her attendance record on equal footing with Kazuya Mishima, Lee Chaolan and a certain jolly fighter we'll be detailing futher below. Her reveal really blew the roof off the building - Namco Bandai hit it out of the park, to put it bluntly.Īnna's return in Tekken 7 is due to her great popularity within the series, which is in no small part because of her long-time attendance. Her new costume is another in a long run of homeruns we've seen, at least in my opinion, for new designs of classic characters in Tekken 7, and I'm awestruck at both it, and the fact thta she brings out a bazooka in her Rage Art.
Perhaps the best part about her gorgeous new outfit is the contrast with Nina, who wears a white bridal gown in her new design, whereas Anna's new threads seem to represent the theme of a "black widow", further mirroring the stark opposition between the two.
Much like the other characters in the Tekken 7 roster, who got new costumes with the Fated Retribution update in arcades in 2016, Anna comes with a brand new design, and some really fashionable clothing. Storywise in Tekken 7, it's hard to say what role Anna will play, though it's likely she will be on Kazuya's side in the upcoming conflict between him and the rest of his bloodline, as she has typically worked for Kazuya both in Tekken 2 and Tekken 6. If you're not too familiar with Tekken, it might be easier to understand by likening it to other rivals such as Ryu and Ken from the Street Fighter series, where the two characters have a similar origin point but continuously keep diverging. While the two sisters are intricately tied in fighting style and story, the key difference from the very beginning between the two was this split in fighting approach, though Anna also has some assassination-style moves at her disposal.Īlthough there wree always differences gameplay-wise between the two characters, they've become more and more separated from each other in fighting style for every game they've appeared in. With perhaps the most enduring rivalry between two female characters in fighting game history, it's never felt entirely okay to have Nina present without Anna there, since they're such a meaningful part of each other's backstories and personal motivations.Īnna fights largely with Aikido-based techniques, which she learned from her mother, in contrast to Nina's more assassination-based fighting style that was taught to her by their father. The younger sister of other series mainstay, Nina Williams, Anna has a vindictive grudge against her sibling, which is reciprocated, as both of them blame each other for their father's death. She doesn't have perfect attendance, having missed the heavily-revamped roster and direction of Tekken 4 back in 2001, but besides that, she's been around for every title. The fact that Tekken 7 is getting some non-guest characters for the first time since prior to its console release is big enough, but why are people so excited about Anna Williams and Lei Wulong? Let's delve into these characters and find out why.Īnna Williams is one of the most classic characters in the Tekken series, originating way back in the very first game in the series. The two characters we saw prior to Negan's surprising appearance are two true Tekken classics that people have wanted the return of for quite some time, Anna Williams and Lei Wulong, both sporting new looks, in a similar vein to how the rest of the classic cast got updated clothing and design in the updated arcade version called Tekken 7: Fatal Retribution, which turned heads when it was announced that it would include Street Fighter's Akuma back in 2015.
The big headline that hit everyone with shock was that Negan from the popular TV shows and comic book The Walking Dead would be joining the playable roster, but before his reveal, there were two other characters shown. Since the release of Noctis, we'd heard some rumblings about additional content coming our way, but nothing had been showed yet, until EVO 2018 last weekend. These two fighters were guests from other franchises, namely Geese Howard of Fatal Fury and King of Fighters fame, and Noctis Lucis Caelum from the latest entry in Square-Enix's most prestigious RPG franchise, Final Fantasy 15.