After a three-week hiatus, Bandai Namco has seemingly resumed its regular trickling of Tekken 8 character trailers. Previously, Bandai Namco revealed both Asuka Kazama and Leroy Smith on the same day. But just yesterday, Bandai Namco stuck to only one Tekken 8 trailer as usual, with this one showcasing the return of Lili. A fighter from Monaco who basks in wealth and prestige, Lili made her initial debut in the updated version of Tekken 5, titled Dark Resurrection. Since then, she has become one of the big fan favorites of the series, reappearing in every installment since. Lili continues her streak in Tekken 8, ready to overpower her opponents with style and grace once again.
Whereas some of the other returning characters have undergone substantial redesigns, Lili arrives in Tekken 8 with only some slight changes to her default “rich girl” outfit. She also retains her longtime rivalry with Asuka Kazama, which the middle of the trailer shows off in a brief interaction. She does, however, have a new cat named Salt, one who is just as adorable as one would expect. Interestingly, Salt shares a similarity with Leroy Smith’s dog Sugar in that they are both named after food condiments. Coincidence?
What about Lili’s gameplay?
The series has traditionally labeled Lili’s fighting style as both “street fighting” and “gymnastics.” In practice, this means that Lili incorporates a lot of dance-like movements into her attacks, lending her fighting style a sense of elegance and fluidity. All of this fundamentally remains the same in Tekken 8, although she does gain a new Rage Art where she performs a combination ending in a flower petal-emitting kick.
For the truly obsessive Tekken fanatics out there, the trailer shows that Lili finally has new mid-gameplay voice clips in Tekken 8 to accompany her French voice acting in the cutscenes. Even when she spoke French in past titles, they still recycled her mid-battle voice clips from when she spoke English in Dark Resurrection. It seems like such a minor detail to mention, but it shows Tekken 8’s willingness to improve on the presentational aspects that may have been lacking in previous games.
