How to unlock Tekken 8's endings in The Dark Awakens story mode

Tekken 8 has gone all out on its story mode, The Dark Awakens. It's considerably bigger budget than its predecessor—static graphics and stale narration are out in favour of larger-than-life cutscenes, the return of a Tekken Force-esque segment and, in a surprise twist, multiple endings.

If you're anything like me, you'll have wrapped up story mode only to notice a tidy two-cutscene gap in your gallery for Chapter 15, which is The Dark Awakens' final chapter. That's because Tekken 8's story mode has two endings, and it's thankfully rather simple to unlock whichever one you're missing. 

Of course, be warned that there are massive spoilers for Tekken 8's story mode below. Read at your own risk.

How to unlock both of Tekken 8's endings 

If you haven't already guessed, Tekken 8 technically has a good ending (Hope) and a bad ending (Despair). Whichever one you unlock depends on who comes out victorious at the end of Chapter 15's final battle. 

Chapter 15 sees Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima going toe-to-toe for one final huge punch-up… well, it's more like six final punch-ups. The only fight that matters in this chapter is the very last one—you'll know you're there when a QTE saying "I will not deny my existence" pops up. 

If you're trying to get the Hope ending (the canon one), you'll want to make sure you emerge victorious as Jin Kazama. Unlike the previous fights in this chapter, if you lose you do not get a retry, so you'll need to assure victory this time around. If you successfully defeat Kazuya, the following cutscene will show the two trading one final blow before Kazuya slumps to the ground. 

For the Despair ending, you'll want the exact opposite to happen. You'll need to lose against Kazuya by letting him repeatedly attack you until you lose all your health. The easiest way to do this is to continue walking forward so you're not blocking any of his attacks. If you're feeling confident enough to win the previous battles you can crank the difficulty up to Hard to get it over with quicker.

If you've done it correctly, the final trading blow should instead see Jin slumping to the ground, and subsequent cutscenes playing out Kazuya's victory.