Kazuya Mishima

Kazuya Mishima is a video game character from the Tekken series by Namco Bandai. Although originally appearing as the main protagonist of the first game, he becomes one of the series' leading villains from Tekken 2 and onward. Kazuya Mishima is one of the major characters in the Tekken series along with his father, brother, step-brother and son. His first appearance is as the main character in the first Tekken game, following on to be in all Tekken games barring Tekken 3 (in which he has a small cameo in Eddy Gordo's ending) and Tekken Advance (Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2002 ). Kazuya is unique in the series as the only one to have a mutual partnership with "The Devil" as opposed to Devil Jin and Jinpachi who's powers result from uncontrollable transformation and a possession unrelated to the Devil Gene respectively.

Character Description
In the original entry to the franchise, Kazuya was considered to be the primary protagonist, and for all intents and purposes, there was no reason to believe differently. According to differing sources (such as Tekken: The Motion Picture and a brief scene in Ling Xiaoyu's Tekken 5 ending), Kazuya was actually quite frail and timid as a boy and was the victim of years of abuse at the hands of Heihachi. Indeed, Kazuya originally entered the first King of Iron Fist Tournament in order to face off against his father, who was played up to be a corrupt corporate tyrant. Kazuya's clothing of choice, simple white pants and red gloves and footpads, even helped to draw parallels to another "mysterious loner" hero, Street Fighter's Ryu. So most people (both within the game and in real life) simply wrote Kazuya off as the cliché fighting game hero.

There was only one clue as to Kazuya's true intents and nature: his secret PS One palette swap, which turned out to be Devil.

Tekken 2 saw Kazuya's true nature revealed in full. After killing his father (or so he thought), instead of bringing justice and honor to the Mishima Zaibatsu and righting the wrongs of his father, Kazuya repeated the corrupt practices of his father and turned it into an even much more ruthless and evil organization. While Heihachi was merely ruthless (though he had some standards), Kazuya was absolutely without conscience or any compassion at all. He hired assassins to eliminate innocent people for the sake of his own pleasure (such as the father of Eddy Gordo), he attempted to extort money from several businesses and many organizations, and he even went so far as to smuggle endangered animal species, and conducted genetic experiments on them (Alex and Roger). Of course, the reason for his evil deeds was because he had sold his soul to the Devil all those years ago, and had allowed the evil within him to fully consume him.

However, Kazuya still had some sense of goodness within his heart, which gained more and more strength after he first met Jun Kazama, resulting in Angel, who constantly battled his evil side, though this would turn out to be his downfall. Heihachi managed to take advantage of his son's confusion caused by this internal war and defeated him in the second King of Iron First Tournament. Kazuya was then thrown into a volcano and killed, while the Devil in his body escaped and eventually made contact with Kazuya's son, who succeeded his father as the series' new protagonist.

Of course, G Corporation eventually located Kazuya's remains and at this point, they regenerated his body and made a deal with him to remain hidden within G Corporation's labs and be tested on. Kazuya had learned from his mistakes; the next time he faced Heihachi, he wanted to be in full control of his Devil powers. Of course, this plan did not go as Kazuya intended; Heihachi ruined it by invading G Corporation and stealing their research.

Since his original appearance, Kazuya's character has gone through many transformations: From hero to villain, from villain to anti-hero. Whatever was left of his good side appears to be totally suppressed by his Devil persona. Kazuya no longer fights against his darker side, and the two seem to have come to mutual terms, as Kazuya can call upon Devil whenever he likes now (such as in his Tekken 5 introduction).

Background
Kazuya Mishima was born to Heihachi and Kazume Mishima. His mother was a kind nurturer, but his father was the cruel-minded CEO of Mishima Zaibatsu. Kazume presumably perished in childbirth or shortly after and Kazuya would grow up to be kind-hearted. As a 10-year old child, Kazuya was thrown down a cliff by his father Heihachi who considered him too weak to take over the family business. Kazuya only survived the fall due to a pact with the Devil that would ensure the power to defeat his father in exchange for his soul. As a result, Kazuya became more ruthless and cold-hearted. He trained in the family style of Karate and won countless tournaments across the world over the years, drawing with soon to be rival Paul Phoenix. Over the years, Devil slowly corrupted Kazuya's mind and body to suit itself.

Namco X Capcom
Kazuya makes an appearance as a boss in Namco X Capcom.

Project X Zone
Kazuya makes an appearance in Project X Zone 2. He is a playable character with his partner Jin Kazama.