In a room high above downtown Tokyo, Bandai Namco Entertainment general manager Katsuhiro Harada is getting ready to show off Tekken 8. He’s exchanged his customary sunglasses for a face mask as the game’s debut trailer plays on a television next to him.
Describing the trailer as it plays on loop, Harada explains how the scene – which depicts series mainstays Kazuya and Jin battling amid rain, lightning, and crashing waves – sets the mood for another climactic moment in the long-running series.
“Tekken 7 kind of showcased a showdown of the two Mishimas, but it was Heihachi Mishima and his son Kazuya. Now we've kind of progressed down the timeline so that you're seeing the face-off again between father and son, but different characters: Jin Kazama against his father, Kazuya Mishima,” Harada says.
Announced earlier this week, Tekken 8 picks up one of gaming’s longest running soap operas for a new generation of consoles. Fans are speculating on the nature of the imagery peppered throughout the trailer, and Harada is happy to provide some answers while withholding others.
“You can see the chain effect where it then breaks and then forms into Tekken 8 – 8 portion for the logo. We didn't just do that because it looks cool, but there's actually very strong story elements that are tied to that,” Harada explains “This kind of chain motif has been seen in the past with Devil Jin, for example. This is because Jin's not only really conflicted because of his Mishima roots in the bloodline, but also Devil Gene within him and how it kind of takes control over his life. So showing the chains break away is kind of showing Jin becoming free of all these things that are restricting him. He's forced to kind of face those elements of himself, but at the same time to face part of that which is his father in this kind of showdown.”
But it’s Tekken 8’s transition to Unreal Engine 5 that has Harada most excited. To Harada, the entries that have done the most to push a console’s hardware have always been the most successful. He talks at length about how “all the models and everything from Tekken 7 have been totally discarded,” leaving everything to be rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 from the ground up. He points to the rain and sweat rolling down Jin and Kazuya’s faces, and describes how it’s different from its predecessor.
“Tekken 7 had something that appeared similar; that when the character fell down or during the battle, they would appear to be sweating or something. But that was just a parameter in the game in how it was displayed. This is actually the first time that we're taking rain and outside effects and having that effect of rolling down the characters models. And not just that, but when they fall down on the ground, their clothing gets dirty as a result. So you can see the kind of results of the battle on the character models,” Harada says.
Over the course of a 90 minute exclusive interview with IGN, Harada talks about working with Unreal Engine 5; discusses pressing questions about accessibility options and mechanics (though not rollback netcode, which he feels is too early to talk about), and where the story goes from here. He also talks about the state of fighting games in general and why he thinks they’re in a better place than many people think.
Continue onward for the full interview with Harada along with two new exclusive screenshots for Tekken 8.
IGN: You’ve made a lot about Tekken 8 being on next-gen technology. Can you tell me about what it's been like to use Unreal Engine 5 for the first time, getting to grips with it? You were talking about the real time reflections and the rain rolling down and everything, but talk to me about some of the more subtle aspects of working with Unreal Engine 5.
Katsuhiro Harada: It's a very difficult question. From a developer's perspective, not just for us, but developers in general in the industry, it's different from the end users' impression, where kind of like an iPhone 4 was being used up until a certain date and then, "Okay, now the iPhone 5 is out, it's awesome, it's brand new, everything works so much better." That's kind of the impression that your average user has when this new Unreal Engine 5 comes out. But in reality, it's not that case at all. It's like it's a continuing process. Obviously, we didn't just start developing a game on UE5. UE5 was announced quite some time ago, but we haven't seen games for it yet.
So we started on UE4 and gradually started porting certain elements of the game over into UE5 and also confirming the results. Like, “Okay, oh wow, the graphic level on this particular area improved greatly.” And then other areas as well – the things that are important for a fighting game: the response time…those kind of things are stuff that we've been porting out into the game and then figuring out what to expect in that area as well. And we’ve been working closely with Epic to figure out how to optimize some of those processes for input. So we're just starting and it's going to continue from now on.
IGN: Can you talk to me about the early planning phases of Tekken 8? What were the discussions in the room with the team?
Katsuhiro Harada: Yeah. I mean, obviously, as you can see in the trailer, the graphics are something that we really focused on. And I know that sounds kind of trite, but if you look back at the franchise and see where it did well – like Tekken 3 on the PlayStation 1, maybe Tekken Tag Tournament on PS2 – there was the variety of modes and the gameplay that people liked, but an important aspect has always been the kind of graphics people can expect on new hardware. And not just from a certain segment of the community or audience, but from PlayStation fans in general, from casual players to hardcore fighting game enthusiasts. Everything was about the graphics at first.
During the PlayStation 1 days, just to have a game at that time be in polygons and make it look like a showpiece of technology, was something that really drove the audience for the game. And we felt that after all these years, that's something that hasn't changed. So we really decided what we wanted to do with the graphic benchmark of the game, what the tone of manner was going to look like visually. All of that stuff was one of the first things I think we discussed at the beginning of the project.
IGN: As we head into Tekken 8, I'm wondering if you can share your perspective on where Jin and Kazuya are right now as characters?
Katsuhiro Harada: Tekken’s story has always been about the Mishimas and their blood feud, and Tekken 7 showcased Heihachi Mishima and Kazuya and the showdown that took place there. And that finished with that installment. So now we're showing everyone a pinnacle of the story from the start of the campaign, but this is showing the remaining Mishimas, the two of them, the only ones left, and then you've got Jin Kazama and what he's trying to achieve.
So whoever wins this is going to have a huge impact on the fate of Mishima bloodline, which is a turning point for the franchise if you look at it that way. We've always up until now had all these different characters in the Mishima clan fighting each other in many storylines, and it's always been unclear how it would play out. But with Tekken 7 you saw some conclusion to some of those pieces, and now you're left with this main showcase between [Jin and Kazuma]. So we feel that it's going to really create a turning point in the series for people who witness it.
IGN: Team Kazuya here.
Katsuhiro Harada: [laughing] It's interesting how even the fan base is quite... It's divisive, whether you're in Camp Kazuya or Camp Jin. A lot of people throughout the series, they love those villains that Tekken does quite well, so are big fans of Kazuya. But at the same time, Jin has his loyal supporters. I got a lot of feedback from the fans that they weren't happy about Jin almost being a villain in Tekken 6. So people feel strongly one way or the other about these two.
IGN: How did you feel about the reaction to the Rage system in Tekken 7? And will Rage Arts and Rage Drive be returning for this entry?
So regarding rage arts or rage in general, we first added the Rage system, and then like you're saying, Rage arts, et cetera, were added for Tekken 7. So initially when we added Rage, there was a lot of backlash because people thought 3D fighters have combat mechanics built in where if you're getting damaged, you get some kind of meter that builds and allows you to do more attacks. Where before Rage was implemented, Tekken didn't have anything like that, so people thought that 3D fighters should not have that kind of stuff – that the only way to win was by being better than your opponent. And what was seen as a comeback mechanic was not very popular at first when people found out about it.