Tekken 8 is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and judging by the reviews, it rules. I’m stoked to play the game this weekend, particularly to take the French swordsman Victor Chevalier to the training lab. The roster is quite eclectic, with some familiar faces and new blood vying to be the King of the Iron Fist. Fans, though, don’t seem totally satisfied with what’s in front of them. Instead, folks are begging for Final Fantasy VII’s Tifa Lockhart to be added to the game, and game producer Katsuhiro Harada has responded.
Over on X/Twitter, the words “Tifa” and “Tekken” were trending on January 26, Tekken 8’s launch day. This is the internet, and wherever there’s a popular character on the internet, there’s Rule 34, so scroll through those topics at your own peril. Suffice it to say, as the game’s servers turned on, stans bombarded the former Bird App with posts, pleading with Bandai Namco to pwetty pwease add Tifa to the game.
While this is a request that goes back nearly a decade, it isn’t an unfounded one. Tekken has had guest characters since 1997’s Tekken 3. These fighters tend to come from other franchises, such as Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis and The Walking Dead’s Negan, both of which appeared as DLC in Tekken 7. Considering this is a series all about kicking and punching your opponent to a pulp, and Final Fantasy VII’s raven-haired heroine is all about kicking and punching, it makes perfect sense for her to join Tekken 8’s roster if such a thing were to happen. Unfortunately, it’s not. Katsuhiro Harada, after probably getting fed up with all the online simping, has finally opened up about Bandai Namco’s current position on guest characters.
“We all know she is attractive and I understand that,” Harada said to a fan begging for Tifa. “But as yet we have not decided anything about guest characters etc.”
As the saying goes, never say never. Street Fighter’s Akuma was one of Tekken 7’s most popular crossover fighters, appearing in a bunch of tournaments throughout 2023. With Harada and the team presently undecided on guest characters for the newest fighter, there’s always the possibility that combatants from other games will show up. Just don’t expect guest characters to come first, as Harada said in 2023.
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