Bandai Namco announced Tekken 8 earlier this week, and we recently had the opportunity to sit down with the main producer, Katsuhiro Harada, to talk about the long-awaited sequel in an extensive interview. These are the five things we learned from talking with Harada.
Yes, Tekken 8 will use Unreal Engine 5
After some questions from the fans, Harada confirmed that Tekken 8 will be developed in Unreal Engine 5. The change brings with it a number of benefits, such as the ability for sweat and rain to roll down a character’s face during combat. In fact, it is being rebuilt from the ground up to take advantage of new technology.
“We’ve been working closely with Epic to figure out how to streamline some of those input processes. So we’re just starting and it’s going to continue from now onHarada says.
Collaborating with Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai “was quite a shock”
Last year, Tekken’s Kazuya Mishima came to Super Smash Bros. courtesy of Sakurai and Harada. The experience was “quite a shock“Harada says.
“He already had his own ideas about what makes ‘Tekken Tekken’. So it was surprising, but also refreshing, to see him come in and not ask questions, but say, ‘I’ve played a lot of Tekken and studied it, and this is what I think is important to the game,’ right off the bat.Harada says.
It left him feeling that Sakurai might be the only one who can.”do correctly“ a game like Super Smash Bros.
No, the Tekken 8 team is not ready to talk about Rollback Netcode.
Rollback Netcode is a very popular topic within the fighting game community as it has the potential to greatly impact a game’s multiplayer. Will Tekken 8 have it? According to the Tekken 8 development team, it’s still early to tellSo fans will have to wait.
Announce first on console is “pretty remarkable”
Tekken is one of the biggest arcade franchises as Namco Bandai has always pushed stand-up versions of the fighting series before releasing upgraded console versions later on. Harada is not willing to talk about an arcade version, but yes describes as “quite remarkable” that it is announced first on console.
“What we can say is that this is the first time in the history of the series that we have announced a console version first. So that in itself is quite remarkable. And that’s all we can say right now“, says Harada.
Harada would consider adding guest characters again
Guest characters were a notable part of Tekken 7, with Noctis, Geese Howard, Akuma, and Negan from The Walking Dead. It was a change for the series, but what Harada considers positive.
“I mentioned that working with SNK’s Yasuyuki Oda and how we had him on our Comic-Con panel for a year and that building those relationships is also a very interesting part of working with other companies. Obviously, it’s something we like to do, and if the fans enjoy it, it’s something we’d consider again. That’s how far we can goHarada says.
Tekken 8 is in development for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5. It doesn’t have a release date yet.
