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Tekken 8's Harada and Ikeda talk Heihachi's return and whether more story DLC awaits

Prior to Sunday's DLC reveal, Shacknews asked Katsuhiro Harada and Kohei Ikeda about Heihachi's return and whether more story DLC is on its way.

Ozzie Mejia

July 21, 2024 6:45 PM

Bandai Namco

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Bandai Namco made headlines on Sunday with the reveal of Tekken 8's upcoming batch of DLC. With Lidia on her way this week, the focus turns to what's next, which will include new story DLC. This DLC will herald the return of omnipresent antagonist Heihachi Mishima, who was presumed dead following the events of Tekken 7. With Sunday's reveal still in mind, it was fair to ask, was Heihachi's return always something that the team had in mind? We made sure to ask Tekken Series Director Katsuhiro Harada about it prior to Sunday's reveal, as well as whether more stories await.

(Warning: Light spoilers for Tekken 8's story lie ahead.)

"There wasn't really any discussion to have Heihachi in the main installment of the game for several reasons," Harada said via translator to Shacknews. "First, he was dead from [Tekken] 7, but also, Reina... she's got a lot of ties to Heihachi. That was really the focal point of [Tekken] 8 was her and her story. It was more about, after release, what exciting stuff could we do and that's how that discussion came about."

Beyond Reina, Harada and Game Director Kohei Ikeda noted that Tekken 8's story needed to focus on the ongoing conflict between Kazuya and Jin. Their personal grudge could only move forward if Heihachi was, at least for the moment, out of the picture.

"We had already decided at [Tekken] 7 that [Tekken] 8 was going to focus on Jin and Kazuya," Ikeda added via translator. "We didn't want to add too many elements into that story mix."

What's most fascinating about Heihachi's return is that it also represents some uncharted territory for the Tekken Project team. This is the first time in series history that a Tekken game will feature story DLC, adding on to the main game's The Dark Awakens narrative. This new DLC will include Season 1's DLC characters to this point (Eddy Gordo, Lidia Sobieska, and Heihachi), so we had to ask whether additional story DLC would come in the future and include unrevealed DLC fighters. While it's an endeavor that Harada, Ikeda, and designer Michael Murray (who provided translations for Harada and Ikeda's answers) would love to undertake, there are some external factors that might put a wrench in that idea.

"It's really expensive to make this story mode," Harada confesses with a slight smile. "All the CG and all that stuff, right? But, as a side note, there is this issue that we're progressing the story in a way within Tekken 8. Normally you start a story and that's it. There are some fans we might foresee that say they don't want to see it progress too far inside of [Tekken] 8. They would rather a Tekken 9 and see the story in a wider scope. It's a difficult balance. It's hard to say currently if that's something we'll continue or not."

Heihachi Mishima, Tekken 8's third DLC fighter, and the accompanying story DLC that tells the tale of his return is expected to release this fall. More immediately, Lidia will be available as the game's next DLC fighter later this week. Be sure to follow our EVO 2024 topic page and check out any news, features, and guides that you might have missed from this weekend.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?