Summary
Tekkendirector, Katsuhiro Harada, has claimed that he “didn’t mean to lie” about Heihachi Mishima dying inTekken7, as the conclusion to that game really seemed to show his demise.
EVO 2024 was chock-full of surprises,from Samurai Jack and Beetlejuice being revealed for MultiVersus Season 2to Capcom suddenlyshadow-dropping SVC: Chaos out of nowhere for every console but Xbox. The biggest surprise of all, though, came during the Tekken 8 tournament,which ended with the surprise reveal of the next DLC fighter.
Althoughmost fans were expecting to see Marduk thanks to leaks that were correct up until that point, everyone was pleasantly surprised tofind out that Heihachi Mishima didn’t die after the events of Tekken 7and was coming back for the series' eighth entry. This came as quite a shock considering series director Katsuhiro Harda had claimed several times that Heihachi’s fate was final.
In a recent interview with IGN at EVO 2024, Harada responded to all of the claims that he lied about Heihachi’s death and attempted to defend himself a little. Harada says that he didn’t mean to lie about Heihachi’s fate, noting that Tekken 7 focused on the conflict between Kazuya and the Mishima patriarch, which seemed to conclude with him dying.
Harada went on to say that after Tekken 8 released, the team put “a lot of effort into the story” and felt that players were starting to miss Heihachi, something that certainly seems to be the case considering the reactions to his return. The Tekken director says that the team missed him just as much as players did, which resulted in them choosing to bring him back.
“So, it wasn’t a lie. And then, also, the timing is right since it’s the 30th anniversary of the franchise. And so, we need all three of the Mishimas. This is the most iconic in the series. Right?”
Of course, while it’s true that Tekken 7 did seem to show Heihachi dying,it’s also true that Harada has claimed many times since then that he wouldn’t be coming back for Tekken 8, which ended up being incorrect. Whether that’s a lie or not is up to your definition, but I’m personally not going to get too hung up on it considering it means the return of one of Tekken’s most iconic characters.
Although a lot of Tekken fans are just happy to see Heihachi return,it’s fair to say that others are a bit mixed after believing he was dead for so long.
