Tekken director gives best response after tournament winner asks for character comeback

Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada had the perfect response after European Cup winner ‘Tetsu’ had one request for the rapidly-approaching Tekken 8.

Tekken 8 is on the horizon, set to launch on PC and consoles on January 26, 2024.

The long-awaited game is one of the year’s most highly-anticipated releases within the fighting game community — and although a slew of characters have already been revealed, there’s still a fair few fighters who have been left out of the fray thus far.

Tekken fans whose mains don’t currently appear on the roster are hopeful their favorites might make the cut eventually, one such player had the perfect chance to make his wishes known… and he took it without hesitation.

Bandai Namco

Harada shuts down European Cup winner’s Tekken 8 request

From December 16-17, some of Europe’s finest fighting game players gathered together to test their might at the 2023 European TEKKEN Cup.

The brawling was fierce, but it was German pro Akhil ‘Tetsu’ Kakar who ended up coming out on top. After getting knocked into the Losers’ bracket by the UK’s JoKa, he made his way to the Grand Final, resetting the bracket and securing his victory with a stunning 3-0 win.

After this grand achievement, Tetsu was awarded his trophy by none other than Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada. He took this opportunity to ask the host if he could say one thing into the microphone — and made a major request of Harada.

“Bring back Lidia for Tekken 8!” he said, continuing to plead with Harada as he went back to his spot alongside the other Top 8 players.

Of course, in typical Harada fashion, the sunglasses-wearing fighting game figurehead could only give one reply: “Don’t ask me for shit!”

Lidia was introduced to the Tekken universe in Tekken 7 as a DLC character in Season 4. Although she’s still a newbie to the franchise, it looks like she’s secured a fair few fans during her short stay in the game… but there’s no telling if the powers that be will decide to bring her back for the newest installment.