Tekken Developers Offer Detailed Breakdown of Miary Zo Design Process

Miary Zo's release is almost here, should be less than a day away at this moment, if you count the "early access." Ahead of this occasion, the Tekken series executive game director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada sat down with Tekken 8 game director Kohei "Nakatsu" Ikeda to discuss every aspect of her design, from initial concept to her stage and gameplay.

To start things off, the two wanted to explain where this idea even came from. As Harada points out, in the early days of Tekken, they would simply add any character that came to mind, but as times went on, they kept getting lots of different character requests from the community who wanted to see their country represented in The Iron Fist Tournament.

After putting together a map that showed where Tekken characters come from, they realized that Africa was one massive omission. This realization pushed them to consider what would their African character be like, and where exactly would they come from?

Madagascar stood out as an interesting option, a mysterious island that not much is known about. That's when they noticed that Tekken is surprisingly popular in Madagascar, with over 20 Dojo tournaments held in 2024 alone. With their curiosity piqued, there was no choice but to go there in person and learn about the land and the people. With momentum built up, the pieces started falling into place, and they decided to make a character who'd come from Madagascar.

They first teased the character just as the reveal for Armor King at Evo was wrapping up. Harada noticed that while many were wondering who this character is, veterans of the series immediately picked up on the Ogre connection through just her armlets. There was a general wave of enthusiasm around a new original character, something that's not all that common for a series that prefers to reintroduce legacy characters. People in Madagascar seemed especially excited about seeing their country represented within such a popular series.

Going back to Miary Zo, her name is actually a great display of how thoroughly the Tekken team researches their new characters. In this case, Miary Zo is actually just one third of the character's full name, her given name, specifically. Following the Malagasy naming conventions, she also carries her father's name, Nomenjanahary, and her supplemental name, Andrianavalona. So, the character's full name is actually Nomenjanahary Miary Zo Andrianavalona, quite a mouthful! Even Ikeda and Harada amusingly struggle with her complicated full name.

As for the meaning, Nomenjanahary roughly translates to "a gift from god," while Andrianavalona is meant to represent Malagasy royal traditions. In a way, both of these choices could be connected to Miary Zo's connection with the ogre, who both gifted her the powers and as a "fighting god" would have a relatively regal status.

Meanwhile, her background is about as basic as it is with the majority of Tekken's cast. Miary's grandmother initially predicted that her granddaughter will be born with crimson eyes. As a child, she spent a lot of time hanging out with animals, which got her interested in martial arts. Through martial arts and respectful attitude, she connected with lots of new people who would become her "BFFs." The rumors of her strength started to spread and attract fighters who wanted to challenge her. Then, one day, glowing patterns appeared on her body, accompanied by a severe fever that made her pass out. After waking up, she found that fighting god's power now resides in her body. Naturally, as one does, she proceeded to find a pair of ring-tailed lemures (mother and child). She called them Vanilla and Cacao, and appointed them as messengers of the fighting god.

One has to wonder if Bandai Namco used their Elden Ring connection to George R.R. Martin to come up with this incredible story...

The whole Ogre connection is something that many people have been confused about. Harada partially clarified one of the details on his Twitter, but in this video they expanded the explanation. For starters, the original concept was to have one Ogre per continent or region. The one found in Mexico was simply the first one to awaken. However, until now, this idea was only known internally and was not communicated through the actual games.

Now, there's a lot of extra room for all sorts of different Ogres, and the one found on Madagascar does appear to be pretty special. Unlike the cold-blooded killer that we found in Tekken 3, the Madagascar Ogre "hasn't really harmed humans" and was instead worshiped as a guardian deity, with Nakatsu chiming in to say that he's almost like a "creator" god for Madagascar.

Even though he shares the snake arm with True Ogre, the rest of him is fairly different, sporting a unicorn like-tail, bird wings, and a lemur tail. All of these traits are passed onto Miary Zo to some extent, but you will mainly see them come through once she activates heat.

Harada and Ikeda also shared the surprisingly arduous process of finding a voice actress for Miary Zo. When they asked around, it turned out that there aren't really any voice actors in Madagascar. There are some who do dubs for movies and TV shows, but nobody who has done anime or game style voice acting.

They started pulling all the strings until eventually coming up with 3 candidates, none of whom had any real voice acting experience. Out of those 3, shockingly, the best one turned out to be a 14-year-old girl, for whom it was the first voice acting experience. Ikeda described the process as tough, and they had to do some coaching to get the needed level of performance, but in the end he seems happy with the way character shaped up, and the growth that the budding VA exhibited.

They then wrap up the first video by discussing the three of the four preset outfits available for Miary Zo, and go over the influences that went into it. Much of it has to do with the keywords they gathered from local communities. There were many suggestions for colors, patterns, and accessories. One of the prominent features is also one that defines Madagascar – the vibrant flowers of the jacaranda trees, which made their way into her design both as part of the patterns and as earrings.

The second part of the interview is far more concerned with Miary Zo's gameplay and fighting style. Developers describe her style as a mix of three different elements. The first one is Moraingy, which is a traditional martial art originating from Madagascar. The second one is Dambe, which is credited to the Hausa ethnic group from Nigeria. The remaining third is Miary Zo's original combat style based on mimicking animals. As is usually the case with more obscure martial arts, there isn't really one defined style to adhere to, so they instead chose to mix bits and pieces of various African martial arts.

Overall, though, Miary Zo is defined by her incredible agility and the connection to the Ogre. As such, one of her signature abilities includes summoning a spear that she then clings to before launching an attack or simply moving around akin to a lemur. Heat expands this even further, giving her access to a rebound attack without requiring a wall, and another attack that resembles True Ogre's fire breathing attack. There seems to be a major focus on her Heat actions, even more so than with many other characters.

Despite the abundance of unique elements, Ikeda reassures new players that she will be fairly easy to pick up and play, and veterans should find some familiar, fundamental Tekken moves that give them a recognisable basis when switching to the character.

Alongside the character comes her special stage. Visually, it's one big gallery of references to what developers observed on their trip to Madagascar: lemurs, baobabs, people carrying heavy things on their heads, large stacks of red clay bricks, zebu cattle, paddy-fields, and chameleons. One element that they had to omit was people drying their clothes on rocks and sunny hills. Harada and Ikeda enjoyed the unusual and colorful look it created, but they wanted to avoid making the place too lived in, because they still wanted to include an element that was entirely made up – Ogre's temple. Some distance away in the background, you'll see rock formations with these temple-like buildings sprinkled on top. Even though it fits naturally into the scene, it's entirely an invention on the designer's part.

As a reminder, Miary Zo should be available to those who purchased the Season Pass starting December 2nd, and if you purchased the individual DLC, she will become available on December 5th.