Maybe just for Virtua Fighter but that door may be opening now
Bandai Namco was quick to jump on the guest character train for Tekken 7 by including Street Fighter’s Akuma on the base roster by the time it launched on consoles before taking those ventures even further, but things are certainly not proceeding the same way with the new game.
Tekken 8 doesn’t have any crossover characters yet whether in the original cast or Season 1 DLC though maybe that’ll change soon thanks to Sega.
This past week Sega surprisingly just dropped the news on the world that they are indeed developing a brand new Virtua Fighter out of basically nowhere in the middle of an interview.
While there had been rumors and some musings about where to take the fighting game franchise next, that marked the first official confirmation that a new project is indeed in the works, and one of the people most happy about that may be part of their biggest competition.
Longtime Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada recently discussed how he was sad that his series was the only 3D fighting game still around while others like Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive have mostly disappeared — but it seems they won’t be alone any longer.
There is something else he said earlier this year, however, that has fans buzzing again.
After Heihachi was announced as the third DLC character for Tekken 8, one player requested they add Akira Yuki as the last fighter of the season.
Harada actually responded at the time saying, “First they should announce VF6, then we can talk.”
First they should announce VF6, then we can talk. https://t.co/Vn3sxbKNYY
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) July 29, 2024
Well, here we are. It may not be confirmed to be Virtua Fighter 6 specifically, but let’s talk.
A Virtua Fighter representative would probably make the most sense at this point for Tekken 8 since they already went with Street Fighter and SNK’s Fatal Fury in the past with Geese Howard.
It could also benefit Sega greatly by helping reintroduce some of their signature characters to the newer fighting game crowd before the next Virtua Fighter drops for added exposure.
Sure there was Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown from a few years ago, but that was a PlayStation exclusive that was still built on the foundation of a game from 18 years ago.
Plus there was already the Tekken crossover DLC pack for VF5 Ultimate Showdown building that bridge officially before.
Akira would be the safe pick as the poster boy, but he’d also probably be one of the least interesting to make the conversion in our opinion.
Right now, we’d probably go with Pai Chan, Sarah or Jacky Bryant, but maybe since Tekken 7 focused mostly on villains for their crossovers besides Final Fantasy’s Noctis, perhaps Bamco would try and choose someone like Goh Hinogami instead.
And although Harada said that this Summer, he already likely knew something was coming considering his industry connections and friendship with some of the current Virtua Fighter development staff (so maybe this was all part of his plan).
Bamco still hasn’t announced that last Tekken 8 DLC character for the first year, so there is a chance it could be a VF rep or perhaps someone else.
The most highly requested crossover fighter for Tekken is likely still Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7.
Harada did respond to fans asking for Tifa around the time Tekken 8 released saying they had not decided anything about guests yet but acknowledged she is indeed attractive.
He also briefly discussed the possibility of Mortal Kombat characters in Tekken a few months back, but Harada doesn’t think that’ll happen easily though it would be wonderful.
There of course have been ongoing discussions about guest characters becoming an oversaturated practice in fighting games with even Street Fighter 6 hopping on board now, however, that doesn’t mean they’ll be going away any time soon with the amount of interest they can still generate.
We’d be very surprised if Bandai Namco stayed away from guest characters for Tekken much longer, so it’ll come down to who and when at this point.
Keep an eye on The Game Awards 2024 next month since that’s seemingly the most likely place the new Virtua Fighter could be debuted in the near future.
And there’s also the Tekken World Tour Finals in December as well where Bamco will presumably announce the final Season 1 DLC character and maybe a tease of who is coming afterwards.