I hate to admit that I’ve missed the train for fighting games in the 90s because I was too intimidated to go to arcades where all the scary older kids from school seemed to hang out. Still to this day, I don’t have any meaningful knowledge about fighting games, but I’ll casually watch a fighting game tournament any day for that visceral and intuitive spectator experience.

Whether you’re a fighting game aficionado or a filthy casual like me, it’s a great time for the genre. Not only have we seen a slew of recent and upcoming releases like Injustice 2, ARMS, Tekken 7, and King of Fighters IX, developers are making these titles more accessible to new players while maintaining depth for veteran players.

To commemorate the launch of Tekken 7 on consoles and PC, I’ve asked my colleagues who their main characters in the game are. Besides, it’s one of the most-asked questions, and people all have their own reasons for feeling attached to a certain character, regardless of their skill level.

Beckor

For someone uninitiated as I am in fighting games, I was surprised to find so many Tekken characters that instantly seem to click with me. For example, I was immediately drawn to Lei Wulong, thanks to his unorthodox yet effective fighting style. I mean, who can resist someone who plays dead in the middle of a fight?

That said, I must say my heart still belongs to Bob, whose plump figure and freestyle karate moves strangely complement one another. If you’re not familiar with who he is, he’s an American martial arts prodigy who intentionally gained weight to become a better fighter (apparently, he used to be a handsome lad). 

Given his appearance, you may be quick to cast him aside as joke character, but that would be a mistake because he’s actually one of the good guys. His pure love of fighting brought him to the Iron Fist Tournament, and he tries to see justice done to the world like Ryu and Chun-li do for Street Fighter.

Speaking of Street Fighter, Bob shares a certain resemblance to Rufus, specifically his nationality, weight, and comically in-your-face type of fighting style. Similarities seem to end there since Bob is more genuine and calm whereas Rufus is more obnoxious and loud. I also should mention that I dabbled in Birdie from SFV and found him to be slower than I would’ve liked.

That’s why I’ll see myself sticking with the chubby American karate master when the game launches. He looks and feels perfect, probably because he just doesn’t care what other people think of him.

My only concern is that I don’t know if his moves are easy enough for a novice like me to execute. It’s also the reason I stuck with Birdie because of his easy commands and relatively simple combos. Whatever the case may be, I’ll be ready to switch to Lei when things don’t work out. Oh, wait… 

Wony

It may not resonate with the most of you, but the first time I experienced the Tekken series was during my mandatory military service in Korea. After a long guard duty at a GOP (stands for general guard outpost, which are generally located near the military demarcation line dividing North and South Korea), I was stationed back at my company, only to find new Tekken Tag Tournament 2 arcade cabinets installed in the camp. For someone whose only life pleasure in the GOP was intermittently calling loved ones back home, TTT2 felt like a cultural phenomenon.

As I was spending my hard-earned coins on the machine every day when I was off-duty, that’s when I fell in love with Lili. She was flashy, sassy, and, most importantly, easy to play. Like any other person who comes into fighting games, I used to just mash kick buttons. What’s neat was that it still looked like I was doing some quasi-combos with Lili despite my skill (or lack thereof).

After I was discharged from the army, I found some shortcomings as I seriously tried to learn her. Since she’s more of an out-fighter who uses slower long-range kicks and backflips, things like her punish and close-range prowess fall behind the competition. Still, I count myself as a hardcore Lili player for her snappy sidestep, handsome damage output, and heavy nostalgia goggles. After all, your heart decides who the best character in a fighting game is.

Pratt

Since his inception, Jin has been a leading protagonist of the franchise. In both Tekken 3 and Tag Tournament, he was notorious for being overpowered, which somewhat pigeonholed players to play him. And that’s how I felt about him as well.

Coming into Tekken 4, Jin’s fighting style completely changed, and he played differently from previous installments. Understandably, many Jin mains switched characters, saying that he was no longer the character they know and love. I, on the other hand, totally digged Jin’s new style and have stuck with him ever since. It also didn’t hurt that he was pretty competitive back then.

Tekken 5 and 6 are when I seriously got back into the series. During that time, Jin wasn’t a very strong character, but I stood by him, probably because of my hipster tendencies telling me to steer away from top tier characters. If anything, I took pride in beating other popular characters with Jin.

I was especially fond of Jin’s parry, which is an advanced technique to whiff enemy attacks and to counterattack unlike other characters reversals. For quite some time, I was obsessed with getting the timing right with parry and tried to get a read on the opponent’s every attack. I often failed, but even succeeding once in a blue moon allowed me to pull some sick plays and proved to be reason enough to keep coming back to Jin.

For the sake of old times, I think I’ll try to reach the highest personal rank with him unless I fall victim to a general case of hipsterism again - I’ve heard he’s quite strong in 7.

Laffa

I’ve been playing a little bit of every character in Tekken, but my go-to has always been Xiaoyu. I won’t lie and say her twintails had nothing to do with my character choice, but it mostly has to do with her Chinese martial arts style, with its breezy movement, rapid combos, and evasive plays.

For one thing, I have a certain admiration for Wushu, which is also derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. Some may point out that Feng draws from Chinese roots as well, but I still prefer Xiaoyu’s swanky interpretation than Feng’s reserved one.

Tony

With all the interesting characters of the Tekken series, Paul Phoenix has been my favorite Tekken fighter ever since Tekken 3, the first game of the series I played. His simple yet sublime combination of moves and skills, which made him one of the most powerful characters in the history of Tekken, were irresistible. I was also fond of his unique appearance as a muscular American with a tall flat-top styled hair.

Although his look was reminiscent of Ken Masters, one of the main protagonists in the famous Street Fighter series, this controversial issue is not addressed any longer as the series continued releasing. Although he is considered something of a joke character nowadays and is rivaled against animals like Kuma, he used to have a decent storyline associated with Kazuya Mishima.

Because of the easy controls, he was often one of the characters that beginners sought after. Not only does he have Death Fist and Burning Fist, which can decimate the health bar of the opponent with one shot, he also possesses many other moves with high-scaled damage along with an easy combination of movements that can easily devastate opponents.

Of course, he is not an invincible in-fighter; he does have weaknesses. The simple controls make his movements easy to predict, so he is thus considered a character with limits that are difficult to overcome. Nevertheless, the attraction of his raw power, macho appearance, and comical personality is almost irrefutable.

Even though he may have shown a couple of apprehensive moments that turned him to an aggressive and raucous character, he is still considered one of the main characters that represent the true value and history of the Tekken series. The easy controls make him one of the most approachable and cost-effective characters for beginners, and if Bandai Namco maintains his uniqueness, he will always remain and be remembered in the game as the beloved Caucasian in-fighter with brutal force.

So, who are you playing right now? Did we cover most valid choices or did we miss some? Please let us know in the comment section below.