lemme get this out upfront: i LOVE leo and they're one of my favorite tekken characters, both design-wise and playstyle-wise. but i was also shocked to see them revealed so early for tekken 8.
leo is roughly the 31st most played character in tekken 7 (https://www.reddit.com/r/Tekken/comments/xlyvki/tekken_7_season_4_pc_ranked_leaderboard/), which puts them in the bottom 50%, only a few spots above gigas!! they were also consistently going down in popularity, and only jumped up after the last patch gave them buffs.
while i love leo's design and especially their new outfit, i can't help but think about how it's objectively bad character design. as the sole german representative, does leo represent their country well? does their background of being a spelunker reflect in the way they dress? does their personality and fighting style weigh in how they carry themselves?
this doesn't seem like it matters much, but i still think it factors a lot into popularity. kazuya might be a hateable villain, but he pushes that role very strongly and that shows in his moveset, which has made him a very popular character. paul's popularity took a nosedive in the tekken 8 beta, which some expect to be due to his new redesign.
and similarly, leo's design doesn't make any sense!!! the tekken 6 design was great and has a good balance between cool and practical, but why does their tekken 7 design have dangly metal chains while their plot revolves around espionage?? it feels like they're pushing this anime look -- and the anime look is great, and probably the main reason most people like leo -- but it doesn't make SENSE for a german spelunker who uses a chinese fighting style???? it only maybe works for leo's personality, which is kind of protagonisty, but it ignores so many things in favor of that.
their moveset was also unexpected for me because i remember reading that it's good for beginners in t6, but it's actually very unintuitive. one of their best approaching moves is b+1, 4 which is a backwards input and transitions straight into a stance! leo's a great fundies character, but i don't know any casuals that enjoy playing them lol
sorry if this seems ranty, again i really really like leo but i haven't seen anyone talking about this, so i wanted to put my thoughts out. it's not a big deal, but i want them to do leo justice!! it'd be nice to see more people playing leo, especially when they have so much potential to be a more popular character.