In a lengthy interview with Tekken boss, Katsuhiro Harada, one of our very own in Adam "Griz" Mathew" got to ask the chief about a number of things for the upcoming Tekken 8. Among the take-aways expect new character models, new hairstyles and a renewed focus on what makes the fighting game genre so great.

Here's a snippet:

What's been the biggest challenge in designing so far, in terms of game design or working in Unreal Engine 5?

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KH: So, Tekken 7 sold 10 million. Right up until that point, the previous milestone was eight point something with Tekken 3. With a huge success like that, normally you're less inclined to try something drastically new, right? Because you don't want to veer away from what you know everyone obviously likes so much. But at the same time, you can't just do a Tekken 7.5. It has to be a big, big change that lives up to a Tekken 8.

Though we didn't have to, we chose to redo all the models in the game, to just scrap everything and start from scratch. We wanted to remake the characters in a way that looked evolved and new, but at the same time keep that design philosophy there to keep them recognisable. Doing that was very difficult.

Another interesting hurdle has been the discussion around the cost of development, which is something maybe many companies face. Games have evolved so much in such a short time, so the cost of creating them has increased exponentially.

Companies outside of Japan, especially ones that only make videogames, like Ubisoft or similar, are more attuned to how much [development] normally costs. As you know, many of their board members come from backgrounds in development, whereas with Bandai Namco Entertainment, it's called “entertainment” for a reason. They make toys, they make anime and all kinds of things, So the board members who don't have a background [in videogames] can sometimes ask, “Why is [Tekken 8] costing so much money compared to, like, a plastic model or a toy? You know, a product whose cost of creation hasn't changed so exponentially over the years...

Catch the full Tekken 8 interview here.