Tekken 8’s Katsuhiro Harada Calls Player Reaction So Far ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ | Comic Con 2023

At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we had the chance to chat with Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada and producer Michael Murray and learn the latest details on the much-anticipated next entry of the legendary fighting franchise.

During the interview, we touched on a wide variety of topics, including how the team is dealing with player feedback, how that feedback is making them a bit nervous as it’s been “overwhelmingly positive,” who the best-dressed fighter in the Tekken universe is, which move would hurt the most in real life, and much more.

Tekken 8 currently has no release date, but a PlayStation 5-only closed network test is currently taking place through today, July 24, and all platforms (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC) will have one from July 28 to 31. Unfortunately, sign-ups have already closed for these tests.

In our Tekken 8 hands-on preview, we said, “Tekken 8 looks phenomenal, its hits feel as impactful as ever, and its iconic cast of characters are even more uniquely defined thanks to the new Heat system. There’s still a lot we have yet to see, but as far first impressions go, Tekken 8 is a knockout.”

You can learn a ton more about Tekken 8 below, and be sure to also check out the details on crossplay and rollback netcode, as well as our exclusive first interview with Harada about the game.

IGN: What’s up everyone? Stella Chung here. I’m outside of the Tekken 8 area and I’m so excited, because we’re going to be talking to the developers, Katsuhiro Harada and Michael Murray. Let’s go inside and see what they can tell us. So, with there now being unique intro dialogue between specific characters before a match begins, do you have any specific favorite pairings or quips between two characters?

Katsuhiro Harada/Michael Murray: It’s something we’ve done in past entries, like Tag or sometimes Tekken 5. So it depends on the character pairing and what they say. So if they have some special relationship, whether good or bad, then it changes. And Harada said his favorite is Jun and Kazuya.

How will the new special control type help bring new characters and new players, not only to Tekken, but to fighting games as a whole?

KH/MM: The system that you mentioned is brand new for Tekken 8. We had something similar as a predecessor in Tekken 7, where you push a button and you can do certain commands simply. But this is even more evolved this time around. But one of the interesting things is, obviously, like you said, it’s good for bringing in new players, which you’ve noticed they like. But also, even if you’re a veteran player, if you’re trying to pick up a new character you’re not used to, it’s much easier if you’re using the special control systems. So, it’s actually beneficial for a large variety of different players. And so far, it’s been a great response to it.

What feedback have you been getting on the game over the last month since we talked during Summer of Gaming?

KH/MM: First off, we’ve had many different people playing the game. We have it hands on here and other places as well. We’ve announced it and then people have seen it and had time to play it for a bit now. So we were expecting, at some point, people to get used to it and then give us a variety of feedback. Some of it may be not positive. That’s how it works. And then we fix it and everything’s good. For us, it makes us a bit nervous that the reaction is so overwhelmingly positive. And last time that we talked to IGN, we were just showing the game at an earlier stage, but right now we have the closed network test going on in the background and we were able to get even more feedback from people. Obviously they’re loving the new gameplay mechanics, but also the net code and the online experience so far is the first time they’re trying that.

You have 16 playable characters here at San Diego Comic Con.

KH/MM: Yay, right?

Yes. So who has been the most popular character so far?

KH/MM: We have 16 characters in the playable build. We haven’t had a chance to review the play data, so we can’t speak from an empirical standpoint, but just being able to see everyone play the game. Kazuya, a lot of people are picking up, King as well. So those are probably the two popular ones so far.

Could you go into detail about some of the changes that you have made for this closed test, what people are experiencing right now?

KH/MM: Well, it’s not that long since we last talked, so there hasn’t been any drastic changes to the gameplay, just fine-tuning, et cetera. The biggest difference is probably just the online play since everyone’s seen that for the first time. Although we’ve been saying it, not many people notice it, there is cross play in the game and people can try that out. Not this week, but when we open it up to the other platforms as well. So that’s there and then people are able to just see the matching and see some of the other elements of the game as well.

Tekken contains some of the most eccentric and stylish characters in modern fighting games. Out of the current roster shown, who’s the best dressed, in your opinion?

KH/MM: It’s tough, because all the characters are so unique this time around as well. But, especially Lili, because there’s a certain designer that he had kept an eye on for quite some time, and this is the first time that we actually worked with her. Her name’s Jasmine, I believe, from New Zealand. And we actually asked her to design Lili this time around. And so that’s a brand new costume for her, based on the artist that he’d been wanting to work with for quite some time. So, that’s probably his favorite one.

Earlier today, you were on a panel which I watched and you guys were fantastic. You were discussing real life moves and how they’re represented in Tekken. So, out of every move in the game, which one do you think hurts the most?

KH/MM: That’s really tough question, but maybe King’s. All of his throws are pretty dangerous if you were actually going to do them real life. But one thing that’s maybe doesn’t stand out at first, is low kicks on the shins or other areas of low kicks. This is because it hurts quite a bit for people who aren’t used to it. Someone like me who does Muay Thai, you get used to it because your shins get harder, but he said that it must really sting if you get a low kick and you’re not used to it.

Those are good answers. For me, I’m just like, “I’m good. I won’t take any of them.” Well, thank you so much. This was so fun. Thank you so much for taking us time.

KH/MM: Our pleasure.

Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she’s previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn’t streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.