is a fictional character of Bandai Namco's Tekken fighting game series, serving as its main antagonist. Introduced as the boss character from the first Tekken video game from 1994, Heihachi appears as the leader of a military firm known as the Mishima Zaibatsu. He was the protagonist of Tekken 2 and Tekken 7 whereas he was a boss character in two additional installments. He is opposed by many of his relatives who wish for his death out of revenge and to take over the Zaibatsu. This happens across the series and one of the creators of Tekken Katsuhiro Harada has called it a "family feud". Heihachi wants to defeat his son and grandson, Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama respectively. Heihachi's backstory and motives are revealed in Tekken 7, suggested to be his final appearance in the series. Outside of Tekken spin-off titles, Heihachi also appears as a playable character in other games such as Soul Calibur II, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Street Fighter X Tekken, and the Project X Zone games. He is also featured in the printed, animated and live-action adaptations of the Tekken series. In contrast to the main Tekken games, Heihachi also appeared in many games with a younger appearance. Harada referred to Heihachi as one of his favorite characters from the series. Critical reception to Heihachi has been positive with journalists praising his moves and characterization. However, critics joked about his design and expressed a lack of interest in his role in Tekken 7, where he is one of the most important characters. Nevertheless, his popularity has led him to become one of Namco's and Tekken'''s mascots. Conception and creationTekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has stated that Heihachi is his favorite character in the series overall and the character he most frequently selects when playing. He further described Heihachi as a "very human character", stating that while focus has been placed on his appearance, he found the character's philosophy more interesting, and that in the series he was a "perfect portrayal of the evil that lurks in men's hearts", an evil "far more hideous than any made-up monster". In response to claims that the story of Tekken was complicated, Harada denied as he saw it as a "simple" struggle between members from the Mishima family. Despite promotion from Tekken 5 claiming that the character has died in the intro, Namco Bandai denied this statement in interviews.