Bandai Namco has confirmed that Hwoarang, one of the most popular Tekken characters ever since he debuted in Tekken 3, will be part of Tekken 8's launch roster.
Over the past few months, Bandai Namco has slowly been confirming some of the characters that are going to be featured on the Tekken 8 launch roster, including Jin, Jun, Nina, Lili, King, Paul Phoenix, Marshall Law, Leroy Smith, and a few others. The roster is getting pretty stacked as it is, but it turns out that Bandai Namco is nowhere near stopping, as it's just confirmed yet another fan-favourite fighter that's returning - Hwoarang.
As has been the case for every other reveal so far, Hwoarang was confirmed for the game with a detailed gameplay trailer that shows us his expanded moveset, which will be familiar to anyone who has played as him in previous Tekken games. Before that, though, we see him drive in on a bike and perform an Akira slide, which instantly means that he has the best intro in the game, sorry.
Like the rest of the cast, Hwoarang also has a new look for Tekken 8, one that's a lot more simplistic and harkens back to his more simplistic fighting attire in games like Tekken 3, rather than the unique sleeveless green leather jacket that he wore in Tekken 5 - 7. His hair's also grown a bit longer than it was there and is now kept tied back, which puts him closer to his looks in Tekken 3 and 4.
If Hwoarang's design looks familiar to you, there might be a reason for that. As pointed out by YouTuber KeyRogue, it appears that Hwoarang's outfit takes influence from his master Baek, who has appeared in most Tekken games but was left out of Tekken 7 for some reason, as well as taking some clear influences from SNK's Buriki One.
Onto what really matters - his moveset. You probably won't be too surprised to hear that, just like in every Tekken game, Hwoarang's moveset is mostly focused on his kicking. We see him start out with a few basic combos, before using a quick counter that allows him to instantly kick the opponent away. We also see a range of kick combos, and a brief glimpse at some of the Heat moves that Hwoarang has at his disposal, which mostly let him, you guessed it, kick more.
In fact, it's probably easier to count the times that Hwoarang doesn't kick his opponent, as that's basically all he does throughout the gameplay trailer. We wouldn't have it any other way.