The Tekken series is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and to mark the occasion, veteran Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada - who has been involved with the series since the very first game - visited Sweden and we recently had the chance to talk to him.
One of the questions we asked was about the spinoff series Tekken Tag Tournament, the last of which was part two thirteen years ago. Has the series been abandoned? The answer didn't necessarily turn out to be no, but we can apparently forget that there's going to be a Tekken Tag Tournament 3 on the same premise as its predecessor. Harada said:
"So it's not like it was planned to have the Tag series appear at a certain 12-year cycle or anything like that. It was just that originally when the first Tag came out, you know, Tekken was a much more simpler franchise back then. Much less characters than we have now on the roster. All the different gameplay systems and all these things that have been added since then have made Tekken, the base game, much more complex. It would be quite difficult to make a new instalment in the Tag series that many people would be able to enjoy, because you know the top tier players who are competing worldwide and who really spend so much time on Tekken are at like the highest level of the player base really love that series, but for people who are more casual it's a much more difficult game to pick up and play."
That doesn't mean Harada has given up on the idea of team-based Tekken titles, though. While there's nothing planned at the moment, if he could come up with a good twist on the format, he's willing to give it another shot:
"It's not something we're currently really thinking of, because the direction we're going into is to try to have as many people enjoy the game as possible. But at the same time, maybe if we were to add a new idea, rather than Tag, it would be something like a team battle, or some other twist on the current format of the game."
How do you feel, is some kind of team-based Tekken something you yourself hope for? You can read our full interview with Harada here on Gamereactor later this week.
