Xiaoyu

Story

At just 16 years old, Xiaoyu was already a formidable martial artist, but fighting was the last thing on her mind. Instead, she dreamed of building her own amusement park. Having learned of sheer wealth in possession of Mishima Estate, she devised a plan. During a family trip to Hong Kong, she boarded a yacht bearing the name of Mashima Financial Enterprises. While Heihachi wasn't on board, dozens of his henchmen were, and when they tried to get her off the ship, Xiaoyu went wild and beat up every single one of them. Later, Heihachi would shop up on the yacht, greeted by Xiaoyu and the bodies of his men lying all over the deck. Xiaoyu threatens to beat him up as well if he doesn't assist with her plan. Amused by what occurred, Heihachi laughed it off and offered to build the amusement park of Xiaoyu's dreams if she managed to win the third King of Iron Fist tournament.

Despite failing to do so, Xiaoyu's relationship with Mishima Zaibatsu wasn't over, as she was enlisted in Mishima High School after the tournament. One day she gets an anonymous e-mail warning her that her life is in danger and that Heihachi is planning something evil. Not sure what to make of it, Xiaoyu assumes that the letter was sent by Jin Kazama, and joins the fourth King of Iron First tournament in hopes to meet him and uncover what's going on.

Before this plan could be completed, Heihachi is presumed to be dead. Despite the warnings, Xiaoyu is distraught over his death, wishing she could turn back time. In a bizarre twist of fate, she encounters an old scientist who claims to have developed a time machine but lacks the funds to finish it. Xiaoyu joins the fifth King of Iron Fist tournament to earn the money needed to complete the time machine and fix the past.

Before following through with this crazy plan, Xiaoyu learned that Heihachi was alive. However, this is followed by Jin stating his intention to kill Heihachi. Xiaoyu wanted to persuade him to stop, but approaching Jin was no easy task. To get another opportunity to meet him, she joins the sixth King of Iron Fist tournament. This proved to be futile. After the tournament, Jin disappears, and Xiaoyu once again sets out to find where he is and what has happened.

Personality

Of all the fighters to enter the King of Iron Fist tournaments, Xiaoyu is easily one of the most cheerful and lighthearted. When she isn't pulled into the heat of battle, Xiaoyu lives out the life of an ordinary high school girl — playing with her friends, studying, and fawning over her crush. Despite not being enthusiastic about conflict and fighting, Xiaoyu is well aware of her strength and eagerly resorts to it to help others.

Appearance

Xiaoyu is a small teenage girl with black hair tied into pigtails. Her classic outfit consists of an orange or red qipao style dress, black sports shorts, transparent bracelets on her arms, and ballet slippers. In Tekken 7, she underwent a slight redesign, now wearing a long dress with feathers adorning sleeve cutouts and the hem. Under it, she wears leather tights with a high waist.

Playstyle

Xiaoyu is perhaps the trickiest character, next to Yoshimitsu and Lei Wulong. One of her most apparent strengths is evasion. Her Art of Phoenix stance allows her to go low enough to avoid an astounding number of mid attacks, while many of her pokes cause Xiaoyu to dip down and evade high attacks. Her mobility is also well above average, with a set of unique movement options through her stances. 

The payoff for that is that Xiaoyu's damage output is on the lower side, with few intimidating options. Because of this, Xiaoyu relies on chipping away at her opponents or taking risks to score a launch. Her biggest strength comes into play once she gets a knockdown, as Xiaoyu has bar none the most threatening okizeme in Tekken 7. It's vital for Xiaoyu players to learn various okizeme setups and options to increase their odds of winning. Once the opponent is down, she has several moves that can keep them locked down and deal damage if they're unaware of the match-up. For more knowledgable opponents, Xiaoyu still has a variety of tricky setups, with crossups and traps that can lead into another combo and another wakeup mixup.