We did it, boys: We stopped Tekken 8 from making all female characters look the same (sort of)

At Evo 2025, the next Tekken 8 DLC fighter was announced: Miary Zo, the first fighting character from Madagascar.

Apparently, Tekken developers even went to Madagascar to learn more about the culture, the people, and the customs. After all that research, however, they just made another female character with the same exact face and body shape as every other character already on the roster.

Gamers immediately noticed, calling out Tekken for making another “flash in the pan” and “uninspired” female character. Typical of most games to ever exist, the men all look different — some are even animals, some are extremely buff, all of their faces and bodies fluctuate depending on their personality and race — while the women are all just safely skinny with big boobs and an anime face. It’s like games are scared to make women of different sizes and races and want to appease the weirdos online who will start crying if a female character isn’t conventionally hot in the most basic, dull manner.

But Tekken 8 has taken a small step in the right direction after hearing the frustration from its playerbase.

Miary Zo Gets Makeover, Still Looks Sexy Though

Good news for gooners that want to have a woman with a slightly different face to make NSFW art of: Miary Zo now has updated eyes, eyebrows, lips, cheeks, and a beauty mark to set her apart from previous female characters. I personally think she looks gorgeous, but not really that much different from before.

Prepare to have your mind blown:

But don’t go thinking that Tekken developers were purposefully making all their female characters look like hot clones. No, they’d never do that! Game Director Katsuhiro Harada stated on X that there’s actually a bug in the game that makes all of the characters have the “same values” when it comes to character proportions. Don’t worry boys, this seems to have somehow not impacted the male characters.

Either way, Harada said this will be sorted out by the next patch, so expect all of the female characters to have slightly different eye shapes and different-sized lips by then. Thank goodness. (Don’t be alarmed: The breasts will all be the same.)

In response to the update from Harada, one player saluted him for not listening to those “woke” people who want varying female designs. He said: “Thanks for not giving into political pressure and making games beautiful.”

This may be a hot take, but I’d love if Miary Zo looked like she was from Madagascar. Crazy concept, I know.

In reality, I’m not upset with Tekken 8’s roster — all of the characters look fun and gorgeous. But I can’t help but think how cool it’d be if all of the women looked a bit more unique, whether it be racially-inspired features or some having a bit more muscle or some being curvier (don’t worry, I didn’t say obese!). I just think this would be more entertaining when most games just keep cranking out the same female design over and over.

At least Miary Zo is on the right track and resembles her concept art a bit more. It will be interesting to see what her final design will be. Hopefully.