![[EXCLUSIVE] Beyond the Base Game: Cygames on What Endless Ragnarok Means for Granblue Fantasy: Relink](https://cdn.gamerbraves.com/2026/06/GBF-Relink-Endless-Ragnarok-Exclusive_Interview_FI-360x180.jpg)
![[EXCLUSIVE] LiSA on Malaysia, Milestones, and the Meaning Behind Lace Up](https://cdn.gamerbraves.com/2026/06/LiSA_Interview_FI-1-360x180.jpg)
There’s something about a ninja that never gets old. When Bandai Namco officially unveiled the Season 3 lineup for TEKKEN 8, one name immediately stood out to the fighting game community: Kunimitsu. The second-generation kunoichi, who made her debut in TEKKEN 7, is making her return with a fresh look, new moves, and a deeper connection to Japanese lore than ever before.
We had the chance to interview with Michael Murray, Producer on the TEKKEN Project, to talk about everything from how the team picked her for Season 3, to the design philosophy behind her new look, and what players can expect on the gameplay side.
Why Kunimitsu, and Why Now
For anyone wondering how a character earns their spot in a Season Pass, Murray broke it down plainly. It’s not a single deciding factor but a mix of several things the team weighs together. “There are several factors that go into it,” Murray explained.
“Is there a play style or martial art that we haven’t represented yet with the current cast? We also look at the play data to see how popular a character is that maybe hasn’t been released yet, and not just how popular they are but what kind of group are they popular with.”
Kunimitsu checked a lot of those boxes. She was among the most-used characters online in TEKKEN 7, partly because of her accessibility, partly because top players like Arslan Ash put her on the map in tournaments, and partly because she just felt good to play. “She’s pretty accessible and a very quick character with a very satisfying move set,” Murray said.
But popularity alone doesn’t automatically get a character into the next game. The team also considers whether there’s a fresh angle to take with a returning fighter. “Not many fans are going to enjoy if we just take the character pretty much like they were in TEKKEN 7 and make it pretty looking and put it in TEKKEN 8,” Murray noted.
He also pointed out that popularity takes different forms. “One character might be very popular with people who draw fan art, or a lot of people like to cosplay as them. But we really want people to also actually pick up the character,” he said.
Balancing Her Strengths Without Breaking the Game
One of the bigger concerns fans had coming into Season 3 was whether Kunimitsu would be overpowered. She had a reputation in TEKKEN 7 for strong spacing control, and with TEKKEN 8 leaning into a more aggressive, offense-forward style, many worried she’d be even more dominant.
Murray acknowledged those concerns directly. The team designed her with the same philosophy applied to other recent DLC characters like Fahkumram and Armor King: clear strengths paired with clear weaknesses. “You can notice in the gameplay she’s very quick and her moves are simple but her reach is quite short in many instances,” he said.
“Like the other aforementioned DLC characters she’s got very glaring weaknesses to certain side steps, and the combo damage is not anything excessive compared to the rest of the cast.”
In terms of what makes her tick competitively, Murray described her as a character who rewards reading situations correctly. Her stance-based gameplay, centered around Katon and her back-turned position called Setsunagake, offers a lot of tricky mixups, but using those stances at the wrong time will get her punished. “To effectively use her stance, she must make accurate situational judgments, otherwise she will be countered,” he said.
“In developing the character, we have clearly defined her strengths and weaknesses and made adjustments accordingly,” Murray added, reassuring players that the balance concerns were taken seriously from the start.
Her playstyle is built around seizing control of a match by using her quick movements and unique stances to surprise opponents, but that edge only holds up when used at the right moment.
New Moves, Heat Mode, and That Fire Breath
TEKKEN 8’s Heat system gave the team a natural vehicle for expanding what Kunimitsu can do without straying too far from her identity. In Heat mode, she gains access to linked dual swords and gains a visual flair of flames wrapping around her neck like a scarf, making her reach considerably longer and her wall pressure much more threatening. “She can easily pressure her opponents by utilizing her long reach,” Murray said.
“With these added effects and techniques, we believe she has become a character that truly embodies the ninja spirit, not only visually but also in terms of gameplay.”
The fire-breathing move, which caught a lot of attention in her reveal, was designed with a specific purpose in mind. “If they’re even slightly stepped away from you it’s not going to hit, it’s going to go directly over their head,” Murray explained.
“It’s really a move to keep your opponent on their toes when they’re really up close in your face.”
That said, he hinted that character specialists on the balance team have found some creative wall setups using the move’s upward trajectory, and players willing to dig deep into her tool kit will likely discover more applications on their own. Murray also teased a small detail for those paying close attention: there’s a dagger she throws upward that might have some hidden applications. “That’s one thing I’ll give you,” he said with a knowing tone.
Designing a Ninja That Feels Authentic
Getting Kunimitsu to feel like a proper ninja, not just a character wearing a mask and carrying a knife, was something the team put serious effort into. One of Murray’s favorite examples was a subtle animation detail most players won’t notice at normal speed. “When you do slow motion of the animation where she disappears from the sky, she uses a technique called Utsusemi no Jutsu, where she replaces herself with a log. Like Hattori Hanzo way back in Samurai Shodown had the same kind of thing,” he said.
“You can’t tell at first but if you slow it down she has that too and it drops off to the side. These little touches that really make her feel like an authentic ninja.”
Beyond the moves themselves, the team leaned into Japanese mythology for her overall design. Kunimitsu’s connection to the Kitsune, a supernatural fox spirit from Japanese folklore said to have nine tails, became a central design theme. “Kind of really linking into that spirit fox element of her lore was something that we did with the design this time,” Murray said. Murray described the Kitsune as a spirit fox with nine tails rooted in Japanese folklore, and said that mythology directly shaped the character’s visual design.
“That proved a little bit difficult on how to translate to a non-Japanese audience, because maybe they’re not familiar with this style of Japanese lore, but it’s one thing that the team is really excited about.”
You can spot the nine-tails motif woven throughout her costume if you look closely. “That kind of dictated like the swords and the nine tails and all of that stuff,” he said.
From Sketch to Screen: The Design Process
Building Kunimitsu’s look from scratch for TEKKEN 8 came with its own set of challenges, especially since the team never reuses models from previous games. Getting her face right, in particular, took significant time. “So many people have in their memory what they think the character looks like, and then what it actually looked like, and to try to make a model that satisfies everyone is very difficult, especially for the female characters,” Murray said. “We knew we wanted to do more focus heavily on the ninja theme, and so what kind of traditional Japanese aesthetics lend themselves well to the costume.”
The second-generation Kunimitsu is a student at Mishima National College of Technology, and the design reflects that younger, more vibrant energy. “We based the key colors on red and white, using particularly vibrant colors within a Japanese aesthetic, so we think you’ll notice at a glance that Kunimitsu’s costume has been completely revamped,” Murray said.
The base colors of red and white were chosen to feel distinctly Japanese while remaining visually striking. The team also blended traditional aesthetics with more contemporary elements, including sneaker-style footwear, something the TEKKEN franchise has experimented with through past collaborations. “To blend those sneakers and stuff like that to traditional Japanese aesthetic was something that took a few tries to kind of get the right balance,” he admitted.
Costume 3, which drew attention for its more mechanical, futuristic look, leans into the idea of Kunimitsu as a tech-savvy student who likely built her own gear, essentially a bold reimagining of the Mishima National College of Technology uniform concept.
One element the team considered essential to keep intact across every design was the mask. “Her costume can change quite a bit and still be recognizable as long as she has the mask and the hair,” Murray explained. But unlike her predecessor, the second-generation Kunimitsu does reveal her face, and the team made sure that model lived up to the character’s youthful identity.
Her Story in TEKKEN 8
On the lore side, Kunimitsu’s motivations remain rooted in family. The first-generation Kunimitsu fell ill, and her daughter entered the tournament carrying on the family’s secret techniques in hopes of finding something that can help her mother recover. “The first Kunimitsu was ill, and the second Kunimitsu, hoping for her ailing mother’s recovery, took part in TEKKEN 8, armed with the secret techniques she had mastered,” Murray explained. That goal, specifically retrieving the cursed sword Yoshimitsu, continues in TEKKEN 8.
Murray confirmed that in TEKKEN 8, the second-generation Kunimitsu is once again after the cursed sword Yoshimitsu for her mother’s sake. “Yoshimitsu has special lines of dialogue during his appearance and victory scenes, so please be sure to check them out in the game,” he said.
Her time at Mishima National College of Technology also puts her in close proximity to Reina, and Murray hinted that the two share a tense, complicated dynamic. “The second generation Kunimitsu seems to be going about her school life pretending to be best friends with Reina while secretly observing each other’s actions,” he said. “The precarious nature of their relationship can also be seen in their entrance animations when they become opponents.”
Fans also asking about a possible connection to Victor Chevalier got a clear answer: Kunimitsu’s father and Victor are different people. The two were old friends, and Raven trained under Kunimitsu’s father, which explains the mention of him in her trailer.
Revealing the Full Season at Once
Season 3 also marked the first time Bandai Namco revealed all the characters in the pass at the same time rather than spacing them out one by one. Murray reflected honestly on the pros and cons of that decision. “The more vocal people online have shown very positive reaction to being able to see all the characters at once, because they have a better idea if they want to buy the pass or individual characters,” he said.
But he also acknowledged something is lost in that approach. “One of the reasons we didn’t do that initially is we always saw the fan base just having a lot of fun trying to figure out what the characters were,” Murray said. “We didn’t want to take that away from them.” The speculation threads, the guessing games on Reddit, the discourse over whether it would be Wang Jinrei or Ancient Ogre or someone else entirely, all of that energy becomes a different kind of engagement when the answer is already on the table. “Also it depends on where you’re showing it,” Murray added.
“If you’re showing it at Combo Breaker or Evo, people are gonna explode. The crowd that you’re showing it to, you need to kind of tell it to that.”
In the end, Kunimitsu’s return to TEKKEN 8 is shaped by a lot of moving parts: fan demand, design opportunity, lore, and a genuine effort to make her feel like a complete, well-rounded character rather than a copy-paste from the previous game. Whether you’re drawn in by the ninja aesthetic, the fox spirit mythology, or just the satisfaction of landing her tighter combo routes, there’s a lot waiting to be discovered when she arrives in TEKKEN 8.
