Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
Tekken has always had a ton of characters, and apparently, we may see quite a few of them in action when Tekken 8 first comes out. Franchise director Katsuhiro Harada took to Twitter to answer questions about Tekken 8 over the weekend, and when asked about the roster, Harada claimed that he believes it will be larger than Capcom’s game, heavily implied to be Street Fighter 6.
Harada answered said question during a somewhat impromptu AMA from his personal Twitter on April 9, 2023. It was there that Harada was asked by one Twitter user, “how many characters should we expect for Tekken 8 at launch?” To this Harada responded that he expects Tekken 8’s roster will likely outnumber that of the Street Fighter 6 starting roster.
“I think it's a lot more than Capcom-san,” Harada wrote. “Of course, character modeling, rigging, and costume design are all new assets, so it's hard work. That's why we're trying to increase the number of launches.”
Street Fighter 6’s starting roster is complete as of the reveal of Zangief, Cammy, and Lily, rounding out the roster with about 18 characters for launch in June 2023. Meanwhile, Tekken 8 has 12 characters revealed already. It’s also worth noting that Tekken 7 released with around 36 playable characters when it first came to home consoles in 2017. That said, it’s not the first time Harada has brought up how hard it is to prepare characters for the game. During our previous interview with Harada-san and lead producer Michael Murray, the duo shared that Tekken 8 has particular difficulties attached to it since the team is building the game from the ground up in the new Unreal Engine 5.
Nonetheless, Tekken 8 also has the benefit of a 2024 release window. With the game already having felt incredibly good in our recent preview, we’ll look forward to seeing more characters fill out the cast as Bandai Namco reveals them. Look for more updates on Tekken 8 here as they happen.