Tekken 8 was one of the big talks of the Tokyo Game Show this past week. Mainly due to how the title wasn’t just announced but showed off a beautiful reveal trailer that highlighted the heavily enhanced models and graphics. Needless to say, people are excited about it. But for the game’s director, he wasn’t just talking about his own franchise; oh no, he talked about another one that Tekken has been tied to. Because in an interview, the one and only Katsuhiro Harada were asked about the Super Smash Bros franchise, of which Kazuya Mishima was a part of via the second fighter pack in Ultimate.
When asked what it was like to work with fellow legendary director Masahiro Sakurai in order to bring Kazuya to the game, he noted something very important. Mainly that Sakurai didn’t really need a lot of help in order to bring the character into the game. Harada expected Sakurai to “lean on the team” in order to nail the feel of Kazuya and ensure it “felt” like the franchise he was from. But instead, Sakurai was already ready for him and had his own “thoughts” on things, and the team was blown away by how good it was in the end. This led to him and his team stating:
“It made us think that he has all these characters from other different franchises and games in Smash Brothers, so to know so much to a deep extent about all of these different IPs to be able to do that… he’s probably the only one that could properly make that game.”
That might be a bold claim in the minds of some, but Harada went on to note that Sakurai actually inspired them to try and do more with Tekken. Stating that the team could learn from other products like Smash Bros in order to grow the franchise that they love. That’s saying something right there when you’re citing a person outside your team for inspiration to do something inside your group. Clearly, Masahiro Sakurai is a great man and game developer.
Now, as for the statement about Sakurai being the “only one” who can make Smash Bros, he might not be wrong there, either. During the development of the last game, Sakurai admitted that they tried to give it off to another team, but it was a disaster, so he retook the reigns. With the success of Ultimate, many have wondered if Sakurai will do another. He has not committed to anything as of yet, but you can believe for sure that if he was to do it again, he’s going to take his time with it and try to make it just as grand as before, if not a bit smaller in roster size. Heck, maybe we’ll see a Tekken 8 character in the next one!
Source: IGN