Pun Intended: Josie Rizal Enters The Tekken Fray

 Social media exploded over the weekend with the announcement of Tekken 7's latest character. Why wouldn't it when a character from the Philippines joins the roster? And a Filipina at that?

Meet Josie. Josie Rizal. The fighting pride of the Philippines (stand aside PacMan!) Setting aside the hilarously bad pun for a name, Josie Rizal is the latest fighter in the upcoming popular arcade and console fighting game Tekken 7 (fast fact: it's the 9th game in the series). 

According to Katsuhiro Harada, creator of the Tekken series, Josie's fighting style is a mix of Eskrima (a.k.a. Arnis or Kali) and Kick Boxing. (Fast Fact: Yep, Eskrima has an empty hand fighting style. Demo of an actual eskrima hand to hand combat here). 

Here's a quick demo of Josie in action. Make sure to watch this on 720p60 by clicking the gear on the lower right:

Judging by her fighting style, she should be perfect for players who prefer high impact strikes, and a bit of grappling. That would be awesome for mixups. 

This isn't the first time a Filipina character made it into a fighting game. Talim from the Soul Calibur franchise (developed by Namco as well) also originates from the Philippines. 

Tekken 7 has initially been released for the arcade February 2015 in Japan and has yet to land here in the Philippines. I'm pretty sure it will be soon considering this announcement. As for the console release, there's no confirmed release date yet.