Bandai Namco has revealed a new character coming to fighting game Tekken 8 later in the year, and she's already causing controversy. Miary Zo is said to hail from Madagascar and to practice a combat style that blends the island's traditional martial art of Moraingy with other African fighting disciplines.
But some fans are wondering why the final character design looks not unlike other female characters in the game when the original concept art was quite different. A game artist has proposed a reimagined version that's closer to the original concept, and fans are now calling for a rethink (for your own game design, see our guides to the best game development software and the best places to get free video game assets).
We got our first glimpse of Miary Zo in the final moments of the Armor King gameplay trailer at EVO 2025 (see above). Bandai Namco has revealed that she will have a distinct fighting style developed by observing animals in the wild and emulating their movements. Game director Kohei Ikeda has also stressed that the team travelled widely in Madagascar, studied the island's history and co-designed the character with the local gaming community.
But the game artist Del Walker was surprised to see that the original concept art shows a very different Miary Zo with darker skin, thicker eyebrows, a larger forehead, lower nose bridge, much fuller lips and with wave in her hair. He's translated that into an alternative vision of how the character could look in the game.
There's still time to make her look a little more like the very successful concept @TEKKEN @nkt_dreamer 🙏🏾 https://t.co/0ci6c3ppmM pic.twitter.com/6fLPICf4b7August 4, 2025
A lot of fans seem to prefer Del's version. "I just don’t understand out of all the women that come up in reference to Madagascar how they wound up with a Azucena and Josie reject?" one person wrote on X. "This is an upgrade, & not like a Christie/Rosie love child," another person wrote of Del's version. Others suggest that Tekken has a "very bad case of female same face syndrome."
I’m happy that Miary Zo, which we created together with the community in Madagascar, is being featured in the news and receiving such positive feedback.🇲🇬 https://t.co/nCieYcgiXMAugust 5, 2025
Kohei has continued to stress that Miary was designed with input from fans in Madagascar, where people have a mix of Asian, Indonesian and African roots. He also highlighted that the character has been welcomed by media and players in the country. Although he reposted a tweet from the Tekken Madagascar account that also suggests that the design "needs is a little tweaking to make the face look a bit closer to the concept art, with stronger defining features".
Miary is due to appear in Tekken 8 in October, so there's not a lot of time. We'll see if the feedback is taken on board.
For your own work, see our video game character design tips and our more general roundup of character design tips from the experts.
