Guest characters in fighting games aren’t a new idea at all, but the concept has certainly risen in popularity in recent years. Developers like Bandai Namco and NetherRealm Studios have been adding outsiders into their main game rosters for years now, and the prospect has become so lucrative that even Capcom has finally bit the bullet and is adding its first two guests into a mainline Street Fighter title with Mai and Terry in Street Fighter 6 Season 2.
While having guests characters in fighting games can certainly be fun, it is no surprise that the process of actually getting them into a game isn’t quite as pleasant. In a recent interview with IGN, Tekken 8 Director Katsuhiro Harada spoke on the subject of adding guests into the franchise and revealed some of the obstacles that come along with that that fans don’t often think about.
IGN caught up with Harada, as well as Tekken 8 Producer Michael Murray and Development Producer and Game Director Kohei Ikeda at Evo 2024 this year to discuss the latest offering from the long-running fighting game series. The subject of guest characters came up, and when the interviewer asked the team if there were obstacles relative to the process that fans don’t really consider, Harada had this to say.
“There are some things that are behind the scenes that most people won’t notice; there’s got to be a variety of conditions that align,” Harada began via Murray’s translation. “We want that particular character in our game is the start. Does that IP owner want their property in our game?
“Maybe both say, ‘Yeah, that’s awesome!’ But then there’s timing. For our franchise, when do we want that character to appear?” Harada noted.
He goes on to explain that timing for the guest’s IP owners is also a thing. Sometimes the other party involved might have plans and can’t work with them on a guest character until later or their current plans make it so that they can only do it if development starts immediately.
“And then the fans. The fans want to see that in the game,” Harada continued. “So there’s a variety of conditions that have to occur before all of this can work out to be in the game.”
Harada goes on to say that even if all of this criteria is met, which is the hardest part of adding a guest character into a game, that still another major hurdle exists.
“And then if you’re using a famous character that has a well known actor attached to it, and their schedule is insane, you have to be able to find time to get them into the studio to record voice lines and things like that,” Harada said. “There are so many obstacles that have to be overcome for that to happen, so it is quite a challenge.”
Tekken 8 hasn’t seen any guest characters added to it just yet, but the game is still only in its first year of DLC. Back in Tekken 7, however, we saw guests such as Street Fighter’s Akuma, Fatal Fury / King of Fighters’ Geese Howard, and even Negan from The Walking Dead join the playable roster.
Also in this interview, Harada spoke about the more joke-y characters in the Tekken series and their likelihood of returning in this day and age. If you’re a fan of fighters like Gon, Mokujin, Roger, and Alex, then you’ll definitely want to check out what he had to say on the matter.