• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Harada Wants Fan Feedback on a New Character Design for Tekken 7

Imru’ al-Qays;124576964 said:
Yeah, it's just my anecdotal experience so take it with a grain of salt but I'm pretty sure there's something there. Gaming cafés in the Middle East seem to almost universally have one of the Mishimas on their signage, I've had conversations with multiple young men I've smoked hookah with on the streets of Cairo about video games that turned into them excitedly asking me who my favorite Tekken character is, and the only games my cousins in Jordan own for their beat up old PS2 slim are pirated copies of Tekken 5 and FIFA.

Tekken is incredibly popular there ,yes.

Unfortunately mostly pirated during PS1 and PS2 though.I'd wager Namco missed out on a good 5 millions(maybe even more) copies during that time due to pirating.
 
It's funny, as the series progresses, I think it's the characters that aren't evolving past their initial designs that look out of place. A few characters are in definite need of a style upgrade.

Woah woah woah woah... I hope you're not saying that about both of the characters nded was talking about. Law's had a ton of change. They gave him a big mustache and everything!
 
Tekken only started doing anything even remotely resembling "real martial arts" in 4, and even still most of the characters just have "things that sort of resemble real martial arts moves." While a good chunk don't even have that. Shit, Mortal Kombat actually mo-capped martial artists for their various martial arts styles in the Gen 6 games. Also:



Seriously Tekken has never been realistic

Except MK plays off that by adding special moves that are arguably more important. When we talk of movesets, it's the special moves that stand out.

I'm no martial arts expert, and I'm not saying that Tekken is the go-to for martial arts realism. But a few characters each game (Jack, Gon, Roger) that are unrealistic doesn't void the main point that the moves of most are based off realistic moves or mishmashes of those.

Unrealistic is what SF and MK are. I'm not sure you can label Tekken completely unrealistic.
 
Woah woah woah woah... I hope you're not saying that about both of the characters nded was talking about. Law's had a ton of change. They gave him a big mustache and everything!
Between Forest and Marshall, one of them needs a makeover. IDK who, just make them look more like father and son, and not twins.

Some other characters that could use a boost: Ganryu, Bruce, Paul. (I know Paul's hair is iconic, but he needs some Terry Bogardesque tweaks.)
 
If Bob was in Tekken 7, would you want blue jeans and suspenders or the jump suit?

Either way I want his leather jacket/floral shirt Tekken 6 costume back
tekken_6_-_e3-ps3___xbox_360screenshots24406bob2p01.jpg

A lot of the Tekken 6 alts were really good stuff. Then again, just about anything was better than what we got in Tag Tournament 2.

Between Forest and Marshall, one of them needs a makeover. IDK who, just make them look more like father and son, and not twins.

At the very least, they should let us put Marshall's mustache back on in customization again. Baffling that it wasn't available in Tag Tournament 2. I think I'd prefer that they go back to the character specific customizations of 6 in 7.
 
Between Forest and Marshall, one of them needs a makeover. IDK who, just make them look more like father and son, and not twins.

Some other characters that could use a boost: Ganryu, Bruce, Paul. (I know Paul's hair is iconic, but he needs some Terry Bogardesque tweaks.)

You can't tell me this isn't a patronly mustache, sir. I refuse to agree:


Forrest certainly doesn't have that!


Except MK plays off that by adding special moves that are arguably more important. When we talk of movesets, it's the special moves that stand out.

I'm no martial arts expert, and I'm not saying that Tekken is the go-to for martial arts realism. But a few characters each game (Jack, Gon, Roger) that are unrealistic doesn't void the main point that the moves of most are based off realistic moves or mishmashes of those.

Tekken has had eye lasers, arm rockets, and short range energy balls since the first game. And again, they only started using martial arts moves in the fourth game, and most of the cast don't have actual martial arts.
 
You can't tell me this isn't a patronly mustache, sir. I refuse to agree:
They took away his mustache though! He doesn't have it anymore in TTT2.

If they wanna go the old school kung-fu hero/70s pornstar route with Marshall, I'm totally down with that. But in that case, then Forest needs a bit more of his own identity. I think they should give him a buzz cut, and make him more modern street punk fashion inspired.
 
They took away his mustache though! He doesn't have it anymore in TTT2.

LALALALALALALA! I can't hear your nonsense about a game featuring a re-mustacheless Law and a young again Heihachi.

If they wanna go the old school kung-fu hero/70s pornstar route with Marshall, I'm totally down with that. But in that case, then Forest needs a bit more of his own identity. I think they should give him a buzz cut, and make him more modern street punk fashion inspired.

Honestly I couldn't care less about what they do with Forest. Never did much care for that boy.

(Seriously though, Heihachi should never be not balding again. His hair looks really stupid without bald head between each spike).
 
LALALALALALALA! I can't hear your nonsense about a game featuring a re-mustacheless Law and a young again Heihachi.
Oh yeah, young Heihachi. I kinda like him, he's cute. :3

Honestly I couldn't care less about what they do with Forest. Never did much care for that boy.
More reason to give him a makeover. He was just a Marshall substitute in the beginning anyway, so he never really gets a chance to be his own character. He's always supposedly getting into trouble, so they should embrace his rebel attitude and show it through his design.
 
Tekken has had eye lasers, arm rockets, and short range energy balls since the first game. And again, they only started using martial arts moves in the fourth game, and most of the cast don't have actual martial arts.

Say what? Nina Williams was using legit Aikido moves, Marshall Law was using some of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do moves, and Lei Wu Long was using some Drunken Style and Tiger Style kung fu moves, and Baek was using Taekwondo, all since at least Tekken 2.
 
Tekken has had eye lasers, arm rockets, and short range energy balls since the first game. And again, they only started using martial arts moves in the fourth game, and most of the cast don't have actual martial arts.

Not since the first one (Devil was just a costume for Kazuya). Second one had eye lasers. No arm rockets 'til Alisa in Tekken 6. I'm not sure what energy balls you're talking about though.

LALALALALALALA! I can't hear your nonsense about a game featuring a re-mustacheless Law and a young again Heihachi.

Law lost his mustache back in 07. They only removed the option to give it back in Tag 2.
 
Tekken has always been a mix of bizarre and grounded characters. That's what the series is. I think trying to prove one over the other won't lead to anything productive.

I think the best we can hope for is a balance with the new characters, and considering that Kazumi has supernatural powers, and that the new guy Harada is asking about will almost certainly have a realistic fighting style, I think we are off to a good start.
 
Say what? Nina Williams was using legit Aikido moves, Marshall Law was using some of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do moves, and Lei Wu Long was using some Drunken Style and Tiger Style kung fu moves, and Baek was using Taikwondo, all since at least Tekken 2.

IDK, I played the shit out of some Tekken 2 (was my 3rd fighting game after Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat III, as long as we count all the SF IIs as one game) and the majority of moves were pretty generic save for a bit of flare here and there. Hell, the unlockable characters' movesets were mostly amalgams of regular characters with some unique animations thrown in. I think the 3rd and 4th hits of Law's BnB combo were kind of Jeet Kun Do-ish, but I know the first one was animated like a less enthusiastic Mishima uppercut and the kicks weren't particularly differentiated from anyone else's besides being fast.

Maybe they were trying for actual drunken fist with Tekken 2 Lei, but it really looked to me, given his stance and most of his moves, more like "he's a Jackie Chan homage, throw in some of the things that Jackie Chan did in his films at some point."

I can't comment on Nina, perhaps you are correct.

Not since the first one (Devil was just a costume for Kazuya). Second one had eye lasers. No arm rockets 'til Alisa in Tekken 6. I'm not sure what energy balls you're talking about though.

Wang's palm thrust.
 
I can say that Steve Fox's moveset feels more like a celebration of all things boxing with a Hajime no Ippo flare than a realistic take on the sport. Dude is crazy with his boxing style lol.

I love it though. And while a bit exaggerated, his animations are pretty amazing for a boxing character.
Say what? Nina Williams was using legit Aikido moves, Marshall Law was using some of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do moves, and Lei Wu Long was using some Drunken Style and Tiger Style kung fu moves, and Baek was using Taekwondo, all since at least Tekken 2.
Bruce as well with Muay Thai from what I remember.
 
I can't comment on Nina, perhaps you are correct.

I had a friend who was a fairly experienced Aikido fighter at the time, and he said most of her takedowns and throws were pretty accurate Aikido moves. Can't comment on her whole movelist; obviously for every character some moves are stylized or made up.
 
And if Harada's goal is to include new characters that don't have representation yet, I really hope we get an awesome Canadian character. I'm shocked their isn't one already. (But then again, SF doesn't have one either... :/)

Raven is originally Canadian until he became that special agent and relinquished his nationality. That's what it said in T6's European official site (the site is no longer active now). Even though people usually compare him to Blade, his hairstyle definitely mimics Canadian K1 Muay Thai fighter Micheal McDonald:

000261b.jpg


Its a guy. Don't worry I thought if was a girl for the longest as well.

I personally think her gender changes when removing her shirt:

Leo2.gif
 
Meh. Looks like something that belongs in Soul Calibur.

More physical a looking fighters please. I always find Tekken, Virtual Fighter, and Dead or Alive better with characters that look like their built for fighting with their bare hands and feet.
 
Raven is originally Canadian until he became that special agent and relinquished his nationality. That's what it said in T6's European official site (the site is no longer active now). Even though people usually compare him to Blade, his hairstyle definitely mimics Canadian K1 Muay Thai fighter Micheal McDonald:
Is that actually a thing though, or just a mistake/something Bamco EUR made up? I don't recall it being referenced in any game. (According to the wiki, even in later versions of the site, Raven's origin was listed as unknown.)

And regardless, I'd like someone who is Canadian to actually say they are Canadian, similar to this new guy is embracing the nationality as opposed to Zafina, who's portrayed as intentionally vague.
 
People getting really invested in the feedback. Was reading through the comments on FB and somebody made a whole google docs page, lol. That Tekken 7 thirst.
 
Say what? Nina Williams was using legit Aikido moves, Marshall Law was using some of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kun Do moves, and Lei Wu Long was using some Drunken Style and Tiger Style kung fu moves, and Baek was using Taekwondo, all since at least Tekken 2.

Paul had a Judo background as well.
 
What is the deal with Bob ? Same as Rufus in SF4. Why the huge fat blondie ? Was it a bet ? And why do american main Rufus so much in SF4 ?
 
What happened with fighters looking like fighters? Why do characters in recent Tekken and SC games look like WWF 94 rejects?

Many of newer Tekken designs have that same "cosplay" shit that Final Fantasy characters suffer from, they have a busy design of various bullshit just so that whoever makes that costume has something to do.

Kazuya, Jin, Law, Paul, Heihachi, Lei all had very simple designs in Tekken 1-3+Tag, the only freak character was Yoshimitsu, but that was his whole gimmick.

Now everyone is a WWF wrestler, Popstar, cosplay kawaii desu. It looks like shit
 
^Pretty sure Yoshi, Devil Kaz, and Jack have always been a part of the series, so claiming that the oddball aspects of the series is a recent invention is baffling.


All this talk of Arabs and hot guys and how well they mix with robots and demon fighters aside, I'm just wondering when Namco will make an old (or fat) female fighter without using the typical "the Mishimas misplaced a grape-shaped immortality artifact at a vegan restaurant, she ate it, and can now never age" excuse
 
Characters in the OP looks good, it's great that Harada is doing this for Tekken 7, anyway I'm mostly insterested in a character being there...
Same

But, Slim Bob's design is better than Bob's, even though it's still not, quite good.
nonononononononononoNO.
At least not for me
And if Harada's goal is to include new characters that don't have representation yet, I really hope we get an awesome Canadian character. I'm shocked their isn't one already. (But then again, SF doesn't have one either... :/)


I love Slim Bob. I know he'll probably just stay a joke character, but I would love to see him worked into the main series. Seeing Bob try so hard to get fat again is way funnier than seeing the tubby version fly around like a ninja. (Why can't I stop being so incredibly buff and handsome?!?!)
Obviously you love him.
:p
mmm I think I'll go with suspenders , jeans and red shirt.

Its pretty recognizable at this point.Though they'll probably give a new outfit too.

I actually like Fat Bob better.Speed and weight!
Yes!
Since we're talking Bob I think they should try to match this design rather than the morbidly obese character render.

Add more muscle and just make him a tiny bit slimmer.



I think he looks considerably fatter and less healthy/capable of fighting here.
Bob is perfection!
well, not really, but he looks good.
he's about the only overweight videogame character that's as much of a character as anyone else in the cast.

That's pretty unique in its own right ,but I don't know about his fat version being attractive.At least this render isn't xD

tekken6_bob.jpg

I don't think he is attractive, but that's the intention. He dresses stylishly, has a cool fighting style and personality, and is portrayed as being very popular. (Though he gained most of his popularity before he got heavy.) I just think that's an interesting take on the token "fat guy" trope in fighting games.

Slim Bob is where it's at in terms of hotness. :)

Talk for youself!
:p

highfive.gif
 
What happened with fighters looking like fighters? Why do characters in recent Tekken and SC games look like WWF 94 rejects?

Many of newer Tekken designs have that same "cosplay" shit that Final Fantasy characters suffer from, they have a busy design of various bullshit just so that whoever makes that costume has something to do.

Kazuya, Jin, Law, Paul, Heihachi, Lei all had very simple designs in Tekken 1-3+Tag, the only freak character was Yoshimitsu, but that was his whole gimmick.

Now everyone is a WWF wrestler, Popstar, cosplay kawaii desu. It looks like shit
What about Roger, Alex, Jack, P.Jack, Kuma, Panda, Mokujin, Angel, Devil, Tiger, Dr. B, etc.

This series has always had a mixture of wacky and "normal" characters. It isn't a new thing. Plus, characters like Paul routinely fight space aliens, and Jin and Kazuya turn into actual demons.

All this talk of Arabs and hot guys and how well they mix with robots and demon fighters aside, I'm just wondering when Namco will make an old (or fat) female fighter without using the typical "the Mishimas misplaced a grape-shaped immortality artifact at a vegan restaurant, she ate it, and can now never age" excuse
I'd be totally down with an older female fighter that wasn't magically dunked in the fountain of youth.
 
What happened with fighters looking like fighters? Why do characters in recent Tekken and SC games look like WWF 94 rejects?

Many of newer Tekken designs have that same "cosplay" shit that Final Fantasy characters suffer from, they have a busy design of various bullshit just so that whoever makes that costume has something to do.

Kazuya, Jin, Law, Paul, Heihachi, Lei all had very simple designs in Tekken 1-3+Tag, the only freak character was Yoshimitsu, but that was his whole gimmick.

Now everyone is a WWF wrestler, Popstar, cosplay kawaii desu. It looks like shit

I think this ties into Harada's prototype Arab design. Why does he have to have a "costume"? He looks more suited to Soul Calibur. Why can't the Arab character just be of Arab descent, dressed in modern style, with some signature item that makes him stand out? I'm not Arab, but I would think Harada's current design is almost more insulting to Arabic people -- "hey, let's make him look like Prince of Persia with a bunch of old-fashioned knives and stuff, because you know, everyone will understand he's Arab".

This series has always had a mixture of wacky and "normal" characters. It isn't a new thing.

I think Into was referring specifically to the character's aesthetic design, not about being 'wacky' or 'normal' characters. The newer characters do tend to have more ostentatious and flashy clothing or style than the original roster.

Aside: I hope they introduce a character who uses Wing Chun style in T7. Too many of the more recent characters have undefined or made-up fighting styles.
 
I think Ezio original and innovative new assassin dude looks great.

Seriously though, it's a good design. He looks like he'll fit in with the rest of the cast just fine.

(Also more male characters that aren't animals or robots or whatever means more studly mancandy fodder for my pervy costume designs.)
 
He doesn't look like Ezio at all to me, unless having a hood now automatically makes a character an AC clone.

Anyway, my generic suggestion with character design would be "keep it clean and simple, don't overdo decorations".
And yeah, someone suggested beard/mustaches. It would be an improvement.
 
I think Ezio original and innovative new assassin dude looks great.

Seriously though, it's a good design. He looks like he'll fit in with the rest of the cast just fine.

(Also more male characters that aren't animals or robots or whatever means more studly mancandy fodder for my pervy costume designs.)
I wanna talk about hot dudes again.

Who's your favorite Tekken guy Monocle?
 
What about Roger, Alex, Jack, P.Jack, Kuma, Panda, Mokujin, Angel, Devil, etc.

This series has always had a mixture of wacky and "normal" characters. It isn't a new thing. Plus, characters like Paul routinely fight space aliens, and Jin and Kazuya turn into actual demons.

There was a good balance of both early in the series, just like in every fighting game series. The characters that had more serious narrative and purpose to the the whole tournament mostly looked normal. The "joke" characters were there to offset that. The freak characters like Yoshi and Jack fulfilled their roles.

But the characters they introduced after Tekken Tag mostly fell into the same shitty looking category imo. SF3 got plenty of shit for the new characters from that fanbase but at least Alex and Hugo were both cool as hell designs, one being a Final Fight character, and them doing the whole Hogan vs Andre gimmick was fun. The other characters were a bit too crazy and there were too many of them.

Lars perfectly sums up why modern Tekken designs look like shit. Sergei Dragunov is a guy cosplaying a Russian, he is suppose to be a member of Spetsnaz. Yeah right.

When i play a game, i am not looking for "hot girls" or "hot guys". Final Fantasy is about heroes, they should look like heroes, not popstars, Tekken is about fighters, they should look like fighters and not cosplayers etc. Everything wrong with Japanese developers is seen through their character design.
 
There was a good balance of both early in the series, just like in every fighting game series. The characters that had more serious narrative and purpose to the the whole tournament mostly looked normal. The "joke" characters were there to offset that. The freak characters like Yoshi and Jack fulfilled their roles.

But the characters they introduced after Tekken Tag mostly fell into the same shitty looking category imo.
Eh, I disagree. The Tekken 6 characters especially are some of my very favorite in the series. And they had a mix of bizarre and grounded characters there too.

As I said early in the thread, I'm just hoping that they continue that balance going forward, and we seem to be one-to-one so far, so that's good. This series has so many characters, that I think there's more than enough for everyone to find a few standouts, without having to tear down others.
 
There was a good balance of both early in the series, just like in every fighting game series. The characters that had more serious narrative and purpose to the the whole tournament mostly looked normal. The "joke" characters were there to offset that. The freak characters like Yoshi and Jack fulfilled their roles.

But the characters they introduced after Tekken Tag mostly fell into the same shitty looking category imo. SF3 got plenty of shit for the new characters from that fanbase but at least Alex and Hugo were both cool as hell designs, one being a Final Fight character, and them doing the whole Hogan vs Andre gimmick was fun. The other characters were a bit too crazy and there were too many of them.

Lars perfectly sums up why modern Tekken designs look like shit. Sergei Dragunov is a guy cosplaying a Russian, he is suppose to be a member of Spetsnaz. Yeah right.

When i play a game, i am not looking for "hot girls" or "hot guys". Final Fantasy is about heroes, they should look like heroes, not popstars, Tekken is about fighters, they should look like fighters and not cosplayers etc. Everything wrong with Japanese developers is seen through their character design.

This seems like a shit ton of nostalgia goggles to me.

And Tekken 1-3 characters were "simple" because that was all the PS1 was capable of.
 
I wanna talk about hot dudes again.

Who's your favorite Tekken guy Monocle?
Jin was way hot in the first Tekken Tag Tournament. He had a great body type that Namco totally ruined by roiding him out in later titles.

In the newer games I like Lars. Sadly the anatomy of Tekken characters has never quite matched Soul Calibur's. SC4 Kilik is the ultimate hunk. That muscle definition, hnnnnnng... SC5's models are really good too. Zwei is a tad chunky but still nice. I think I like the custom character model the best because I can modify it.
 
It's funny, as the series progresses, I think it's the characters that aren't evolving past their initial designs that look out of place. A few characters are in definite need of a style upgrade.

I kind of agree.

I think kazuya should just wear a bond villian suit all time as his main outfit.
 
Actually I would be super on board with this character if his story revolved around trying to get back into his own country after being kicked for being too handsome.

^^

I'm curious what the backstory would be. They could make him part of an Arabic resistance movement in a despotic country who enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament in hopes of taking control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, wielding its power and finances to crush the regime and install a democratic government. Or more darkly, a member of ISIS who joins the tournament in hopes of building a new Islamic Empire and announcing himself caliph. I imagine the reality would be something far less controversial though.
 
Actually I would be super on board with this character if his story revolved around trying to get back into his own country after being kicked for being too handsome.
Oh great, now I'll be disappointed if his story is about anything else.
 
I'm curious what the backstory would be. They could make him part of an Arabic resistance movement in a despotic country who enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament in hopes of taking control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, wielding its power and finances to crush the regime and install a democratic government. Or more darkly, a member of ISIS who joins the tournament in hopes of building a new Islamic Empire and announcing himself caliph. I imagine the reality would be something far less controversial though.
 
Top Bottom