With Tekken 8 released, fans have already begun making requests for DLC. As of right now, it’s not known if there will ever be any guest characters in Tekken 8 like how they were present in Tekken 7, but there’s already been some discussions about the type of guests that are wanted.
Recently, Katsuhiro Harada acknowledged that Final Fantasy 7’s Tifa Lockhart is hot, but noted that fans shouldn’t expect her joining Tekken 8’s roster anytime soon. Regardless, a fan recently asked Harada what the secret was to unlock Tifa in Tekken 8 in which he surprisingly provided an answer.
“Let me tell you how to unlock,” responded Harada. Was Tifa actually already in the game, but as a secret unlockable? That’s not quite what Harada went into with what he said next.
“First, you need to become friends with Shinji Hashimoto-san, then if you can convince Tetsuya Nomura-san, then you can unlock,” stated Harada.
Shinji Hashimoto and Tetsuya Nomura are game producers at Square Enix. Essentially, Harada is saying, in a hilarious manner, that the permission from these game producers at Square Enix would be necessary for such a collaboration to happen.
It sounds like Harada himself actually isn’t opposed to having Tifa Lockhart in Tekken 8. She’d actually fit in the game quite well. However, Bandai Namco would obviously have to work with Square Enix to get her in.
Let me tell you how to Unlock.
First, you need to become friends with Shinji Hashimoto-san, then if you can convince Tetsuya Nomura-san, then you can Unlock. https://t.co/P7fdhDryeu— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) February 18, 2024
By responding in this way, it seems that this led to other requests. Harada would then proceed to respond in a similar manner to some of the fans that wanted specific characters in Tekken 8.
One fan then inquired about how to unlock Segata Sanshiro, a character created by Sega to advertise the Sega Saturn. Segata Sanshiro was created as a parody of Sugata Sanshirō from the film “Sanshiro Sugata.”
“1. First you join SEGA. 2. You get promoted in SEGA (every means necessary),” responded Harada. “3. If you don’t submit this character to Tekken, we will destroy you and declare a front to Bandai Namco. 4. Bandai Namco will contact you. 5. Offer a settlement offer saying, ‘Actually, we have such a good deal’ (that’s your request).”
Of course, Harada doesn’t think that SEGA themselves would be too pleased with the person that followed these directions considering what he says would happen next. “Then what do you think, you will be fired from SEGA,” concluded Harada.
Okay then
I send you some advice.(1)First you join SEGA
(2)You get promoted in SEGA (every means necessary)
(3) If you don’t submit this character to TEKKEN, we will destroy you! and declare a front to Bandai Namco.
(4)Bandai Namco will contact you.
(5)Offer a settlement… https://t.co/Ib02XvEaDh
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) February 18, 2024
Funnily enough, one person seemingly wondered about how to get Dominic “Dom” Toretto, the character played by Vin Diesel in the Fast & Furious franchise, into Tekken 8. Rather than giving a funny response on how to unlock him, Harada recounted an interesting story that seems to suggest that Mr. Diesel is a fan of the Tekken series.
As it turns out, Bandai Namco was apparently contacted by Diesel’s manager during the development period of Tekken 6. Vin Diesel was visiting Japan at the time and was hoping for an opportunity to try Tekken 6 out. Due to certain circumstances, this wasn’t possible, but it’s certainly interesting to consider what might’ve resulted from this exchange.
It was quite a long time ago…while we were developing TEKKEN 6, his manager contacted NAMCO. He was just visiting Japan and wanted to play the latest TEKKEN.
However, at the time, it was still only running on an incredibly huge development machine, so we couldn’t bring it to… https://t.co/8vtGhOS1Mw— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) February 18, 2024
Harada was also asked if he’d be willing to put himself as a playable character if the internet can get a petition with one million signatures requesting as much. We’ve previously seen that Bandai Namco has created a model for Katsuhiro Harada in Tekken 7 as it was used to advertise Negan from the Walking Dead as a guest character during a trailer.
Though he says that he’s willing to put himself in Tekken 8 if a petition for such a thing were to reach a million signatures, he explains why this won’t actually happen. Throughout Tekken 7’s lifespan, the game sold around 11 million units. This means that one out of every 11 players would actually have to participate in this sort of discussion for it to happen.
Yes. If you can.
But it is impossible. To use TEKKEN7 as an example, 11 million units were actually sold, which means that one out of every 10 people in the role would have to sign the petition. That cannot happen. https://t.co/Yc7YdFkhdL— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) February 18, 2024
Of course, Harada then made a serious effort to mention that petitions are not the most effective way to make these sort of requests of developers. Instead, it’s the handwritten notes that get hand delivered to developers that really stick with them.
Let me tell you what is actually most effective for these requests.
First of all, as explained earlier, online petitions are not very effective. Compared to that, a large number of documents hand-delivered by fans with handwritten signatures is still more effective.
But in any… https://t.co/q3EDhAOhZ4— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) February 18, 2024