The final entry to Tekken 8’s season 2 roster is finally here. Well, almost! The quirky fighter from Madagascar with a hidden power, Miary Zo, is set to join the King of the Iron Fist Tournament starting December 2, and we’ve gotten an early look.

Cheery, vibrant, and fascinated by animals, Tekken 8’s Miary Zo incorporates moves she learned from observing wildlife in Madagascar and fuses them with the Malagasy martial art, Moraingy, into her fighting kit. You could say her technique is a hybrid of African martial arts, featuring unconventional moves that take advantage of walls and her superior physical ability.

Not only that, but a fighting deity similar to Ogre from previous Tekken games dwells within her, allowing her to conjure spectral body parts like the tail, horn, and the serpent arm of the fighting god to be used in battle. Miary Zo is defined by pressure and unpredictability, with multiple stances to employ in battle against other Tekken 8 fighters.

Tekken 8 Miary Zo – Gameplay Overview

Miary Zo uses Moraingy mixed with moves she picked up from observing animals as her primary method of fighting. Her Tekken 8 kit includes a plethora of moves to pressure opponents and a variety of counter-hit moves that can punish your opponent for trying to mash their way out of that pressure. Her stances provide additional ease into mixing up the opponent once they start to get overwhelmed by Miary Zo’s barrage of attacks.

Her three stances – Morengy Miroso, Baobab Mihira, and Tromba – are one of her defining gameplay features as she can transition between one stance to the other freely. Morengy Miroso is her stance that is easiest to activate, as you only need to press Forward + X (think PS5 buttons). It is usually accessible after using safe or advantageous moves in the neutral. This stance is also the safest one out of the three, letting you mix up your opponent while not risking severe punishment for a bad guess.

Baobab Mihira is your all-or-nothing stance, your high-risk, high-reward option that summons a spear to serve as a pillar for dynamic attacks. Activated by pressing X+O (PS buttons), this stance contains Miary Zo’s most explosive low move and one of her biggest combo starters. It does let you play it safe with a not-so-punishing mid option that is just as rewarding.

Tromba, activated by pressing Back + XO (PS buttons), is more of a gimmick stance that relies on unpredictability and confusion, aiming to catch enemies off guard. Without heat, you can use it when you’re close to a wall to latch onto it, and you can choose between launching towards your opponent for a devastating hit or transitioning into Baobab Mihira to keep your opponent on their toes.

When heat mode is activated, you can freely enter this stance anywhere, but it does deplete your remaining heat gauge.

While she could easily be defined as a Tekken 8 stance character, she does have a variety of good options that let her take control over the neutral with her explosive long-range moves to keep you out or big moves that can initiate her offense from a good distance. The drawback, however, is that many of her strong moves are linear and can easily be avoided by sidestepping. Not only that, but her low-attacks aren’t the best and are quite risky to use.

She does find strength against characters who can’t avoid her barrage of big attacks. Characters who have slower and sluggish movement, mostly big-bodied characters, might have a difficult time squaring up against Miary Zo. The opposite is also true because characters with good movement and fast counters, like Lili and Yoshimitsu, may have an easier time dealing with her.

Her combos are pretty fun to execute, and while it might get confusing at first, chaining together stance transitions to extend your combos and bring your opponents closer to the wall is something that never gets old.

The way her combos are structured also leaves plenty of room for creativity. Having a move that lets you control the direction of your hit to slam the opponent towards the closest wall accurately is a dream for combo video enthusiasts as well as an effective tool for players with high situational awareness.

Tekken 8 players planning to pick up Miary Zo might get intimidated by her stances and transitions. Still, the mechanics flow smoothly and intuitively, making it easy to develop the muscle memory to pilot her. Enjoyers of characters like Victor, Azucena, or even Lili might enjoy picking up the character, as Miary Zo doesn’t stray too far from those characters’ archetypes.

Miary Zo is a solid addition to the Tekken 8 roster. While not completely reinventing the wheel, she offers a fresh take on stances and gimmicks that look and feel great to play. Legacy and new players alike will definitely find something in the reincarnated fighting god they’ll enjoy.

Miary Zo will be available on December 2 for players who have the Tekken 8 Character Pass and on December 5 for everyone else.