Interview: Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion

Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada talks to us in detail about the latest addition to the series, first details on the console versions, Tekken versus other fighting games, leaving PlayStation exclusivity, and the future of Tekken.

Page: 1  2  3 

Page 2

Kikizo: I appreciate this may be difficult to answer, but I've asked some of the other fighting game creators and they answered! But where do you think Tekken is in terms of popularity these days, versus Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive?

Harada: Well regarding Dead or Alive, it's kind of hard to comment on that since that is a title that is not currently in arcades any more. And it's typically got a lot of female characters who are kind of 'sexy' I guess. I think it has its own different fan base, different from ours. Regarding Virtua Fighter, the game is very stoic, and it's got a very competitive nature to it, so it's kind of different to our game. And regarding Tekken, we've got so many characters from around the world, and we have a very large installed fan base - it's sold 32 million copies world wide - it's probably the leading series in the genre. But as a result, all the fans have different requests for the game, and they all have their own way of viewing it as well - the way you view Tekken is different, depending on who you ask. Since it has such a large and varied fan base it kind of makes it stand out on its own.

Kikizo: All of these fighting series have attempted to have other spin of games in other genres, typically action adventure, including you guys - you had a Nina Williams game. Is that something you want to explore again at some point?

Harada: Well you know, the Nina title, it was developed by a team other than the Tekken team, and even Devil Within, the one player mode in Tekken 5, was developed by a team other than the actual core Tekken one. So the core Tekken team has never created a Tekken spin off game themselves. I have a separate project I've also been working on - an action related title. It's something I have interest in, but since we're always busy with Tekken and always creating new instalments on both arcade and console, it's kind of hard to go through with it. A lot of fans would be like, if you have time to make an action game, we want you to make the next Tekken as quickly as possible!

Kikizo: Can you talk us through some of the new features in this version?

Harada: Up until now you've just fought on a flat plane. But now you can smash your opponent into the ground, thus breaking it and then revealing a new sub-level. And because of the size of the sub stage, the strategy is quite different; it may be more compact for example. On some stages, not only is the floor destructible but so is the wall, so you can open up the stage and make it larger, so your strategies may change again.

There's also the rage system. When the life gauge has been depleted, it flashes red. When that happens and the system kicks in, your attack powers increase at the tail end of the match. Up until now in fighting games it can be pretty one-sided if one player is much better than the other, or if you're losing it's much harder to come back - so that kind of evens the odds, and keeps more advanced players on their toes until the end of the match. Also it adds a new strategic element, where the player has a plan about how far to decrease the opponent's life gauge, keeping them from having their rage system kick in, and then finish them off, so that's a new strategy.

Kikizo: Do you feel character customising is important to include?

Harada: Yes, the depth of the customisation on the characters is totally different now. This time, the character model and the clothing is separate, which allows for various layers of the clothing and tops and bottoms or other parts of the costume to be mixed and matched freely. And the hairstyle is separated into different sections, and you can customise those individually, to come up with a new hairstyle. There's also item techniques. By putting certain items on the character you have various new techniques available, for example a gun or some projectile weapon, you can actually use them, but rather than doing damage, these are just for fun. Other examples are that you can call out a chicken to follow you around or have like a penguin come and attack your opponent. You can also call magic on your opponent and turn their head into a stuffed animal [laughter]. So just little touches like that with item techniques, that help increase the entertainment in the gameplay.

Page: 1  2  3 

NEXT PAGE >>