9 Fighting Video Game Characters With The Craziest Backstories

2. Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)

The driving force behind each and every Tekken game to date is the wildly dysfunctional family known as the Mishima clan. The whole series can pretty much be summed up as four generations of this utterly sadistic family trying to kill each other at every turn.

The primary impetus for all of this attempted, interfamilial murder is Heihachi Mishima, who hosts the majority of the King of Iron Fist Tournaments that Tekken focuses on. Long before these tournaments, however, Heichachi overthrew his father, Jinpachi, for control of his company. And when Jinny attempted to regain his rightful place at the head of the executive table, Heihachi locked him up in the basement of his company headquarters and let him starve to death.

And it gets worse. Proving that he's an equally terrible father, Heihachi decides to teach his son, Kazuya, how to be strong. By hurling him off a cliff. By his logic, this would motivate him to never give up... even when all of his limbs are broken and his throat has been punctured by a sharp rock.

Amazingly, Kazuya survived the fall and, even more amazingly, goes back to live with his father. But the motivation train wasn't stopping there. Heihachi then adopted a Chinese orphan, Lee, whom he heaped love upon while neglecting his own biological son.

This all happened before the very first Tekken game. And the batsh--t insanity has only been amplified over the course the other nine instalments of the game.