Less than a week after her EVO 2025 reveal, Tekken 8’s Miary Zo has received a facial redesign, addressing fan concerns and matching her concept art.
Less than a week after her grand reveal, Miary Zo is already undergoing corrective surgery to update her face model.
The upcoming DLC character was teased at EVO 2025, but inconsistencies between her facial features in the official concept art and the in-game model drew criticism.
Miary Zo is a brand new character to the Tekken 8 franchise, and is Madagascan. News of an African character being added to Tekken 8 was exceptionally well received, especially given how underrepresented the region is on the roster. Out of the active 32 character roster, Egyptian Zafina is the only canonically African character in Tekken 8.
Fan reaction & concept art comparison
After the character Miary Zo was teased at EVO 2025, Bandai Namco directly shared concept art for both her and Armor King on stage. Tekken 8 fans were quick to notice a drastic difference in Miary Zo, with many fans commenting her facial features were far more generic in-game than the seemingly African-inspired concept art.
Additionally, a lack of familiarity with the mixed ethnicity of the Madagascan population, led to confusion over whether Miary Zo's look matched her origins.
Developer response
Tekken 8 Game Director Katsuhiro Harada took to X/Twitter shortly after her appearance became the topic of heated discussion, to explain how extensive the team's research was.
"We actually studied the local roots and history on-site, traveled from big cities to rural towns (not just the World Heritage sites), co-designed characters with the gaming community in Madagascar, had those designs reviewed and refined by the local community, and even cast voice actors from Madagascar," said Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken 8's Game Director on X on Aug.4.
"So I understand there are things that people who haven’t been there simply wouldn’t know (I trust that people realize there’s a world beyond what you can learn from personal experience or just searching online)"
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Miary Zo - Changes made to the model
That said, it seems the Bandai Namco dev team have taken on some of the feedback. On Aug. 8, five days after her reveal, Harada shared pictures of an updated look for Miary Zo.
In the tweaked version shared on Twitter by Harada, Miary Zo gives off less of the generic anime girl vibe the Tekken 8 community was originally frustrated with. Miary Zo's nose bridge is slimmer and her nose tip refined, her face is less angular and her skin tone appears slightly darker. Her hair strands are also more defined, closer to the original concept art.
Miary Zo's appearance could still undergo further changes before her release.
The 18-year old Madagascan fighter will be the fourth and final DLC character in Tekken 8 Season 2. She will be the fourth new character in Tekken 8 to make their debut alongside Reina, Victor and Azucena.
We've yet to see any combat trailer for MIary Zo. However, with fan theories circling about a possible connection to Ogre, she could well surprise us.
