Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada loves a good session on social media, and he’s been busy responding to the feedback following the announcement of Anna Williams earlier this week.
While we love her new design and hair colour – as noted in our article – Harada went to town on one particular fan who’s less convinced by her makeover.
“I don't like the new design,” the poster complained. “Replacing Anna with this new character is the dev’s way of getting back at Anna fans for all those years of supports [and it] makes me feel sad.”
Harada started out quite sympathetic, before taking the fan to task.
“I understand and sympathise that it may not suit your personal taste, but if you prefer the old design, past works already exist,” he pointed out. “I am not taking those away from you.”
He continued: “You refer to yourself as ‘Anna fans’, as if you represent all Anna fans, but you should express your opinion as an individual.
“You threaten to quit if she isn’t brought back. You complain the moment she is brought back. You demand that she be reverted after she has been completely redesigned from scratch, including her model and framework. And if she actually were reverted, you’d just say, ‘That’s recycling!’”
While Harada is exaggerating to make his point, it does feel like game makers can’t win with certain demographics sometimes.
Harada summed it up: “Your method of expressing your opinion and the content of your argument are entirely unconstructive, utterly pointless, and, above all, disrespectful to the other Anna fans who are genuinely looking forward to her.”
[source x.com]
Comments 37
''I don't like the new design and i like the old one better'' - “ Your method of expressing your opinion and the content of your argument are entirely unconstructive'' :
''your comments are disrespectful to the other Anna fans who are genuinely looking forward to her.” - wait, what?
I have a lot of respect for Harada for how involved he is with the Tekken community and I don't envy him at the same time.
@PrincessPeach11 that's not what they said though, is it?
They did start with "I don't like it", which is fine - but then they suggested a redesign is somehow unfair treatment of the entire fanbase.
Social media's so often a cesspool that I'd recommend never taking it seriously, but I also get Harada's frustration. The entitlement over video game characters is crazy.
Like he says in another post, you've always got to remind yourself that so much negativity comes from a very vocal minority.
It's kinda weird being obsessed with a virtual character especially those anime characters but hey let's not get into that, Tekken 8 is a great game though.
You can never satisfy everyone 🙄
Imagine bringing Mai Shiranui to a game…but having her with blue hair, in a set of army fatigues and carrying a bazooka. No, not THOSE bazookas, I mean an actual bazooka.
I think I’d be a little miffed and can understand the fan’s position, as well as the maker’s opinion.
That said, there’s always an option possible that will make everyone happy: include a model based on the original design as an alternate costume. Problem solved.
The funniest thing is they probably have something more like one of her older looks in the game anyway like they did with Paul and his old/new hair styles.
And even if they don't, the customization in Tekken 8 is robust enough that one could probably just make something that looks like the old style anyway.
Bottom line this just feels like complaining for the sake of complaining.
I'm not a Tekken fan but I think she looks awesome.
Should just add Tifa, thank me later.
@Oram77 I think everyone’s hoping for that!
He nailed it. Everything very well said. No one is obliged to like some changes, but must respect the artists and the people who liked it.
@Oram77 this is the year dreams come true!
What did I just read...😂. How's a new design a way of "getting back at Anna fans"...
I love gaming but people who take things too far like this always makes me feel a bit embarassed to be associated with gaming.
Don mattrick anyone? Lmao
Some fans are obnoxious and doesn't makes any sense, especially the ones who keeps yapping and demanding from twitter.
iirc each Tekken 8 character have like 4-5 different clothes including the classic one. So if this kid doesn't like Anna new design then he can choose other clothes. Heck, just customized Anna with whatever stuff that fits his style.
I kind of understand the bring back the old requests. I personally miss the classic style Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy and Pokemon games.
@PrincessPeach11 and the old design is readily available
I love this. Someone needed to say it cos it's always brought up that devs are lazy and reuse old content while not having a clue how much work has gone in.
I'm actually relieved Tekken 8 is a success cos they really put in a lot of work into getting day 1 not only right but full of all the features that make it a complete game.
I think it's good to push back when there's ridiculous micros or features aren't complete but when someone nails it and charges fairly we should also get that too right?
Maybe he's spending to much time with western developers, rather than "fans" I prefer the term "paying customer" 😕
I don't like the design of Clive in Tekken 8. Doesn't look like Tifa at all.
Yeah I saw this, fans can be really something else. It ain’t that serious.
Self proclaimed fans or "true fans" are toxic. They are typical idiots who will say "I'm a fan, but this is the worse game in the franchise".
They are just stuck in the past in a nostalgia prison.
While Harada is right to call out that's guy's comment. He frustrates me by saying that "past works already exists."
Knowing full well that you can't get most Tekken games on modern systems.
On PS4/5 there's only Tekken 2, 7, 8 and the PSP version of 6.
@AdamNovice reminds me of the famous xbox one quote: 'Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360'
this response needs to be banked and Harada, Ed Boon and any other game creators can set up bots to just automatically spam this response out to anyone whining.
he's bang on as usual
I actually feel bad for that person Harada had a go at.
I looked up "Nijisa channel" and they have been making Tekken videos for 8 straight years and have 10000's of views; and quite a few video centred actually on Anna and gameplay & combo tips.
What's worse is that I checked the guys social feed, and all the "examples" Harada gave is just him gas lighting. This "Nijisa channel" person never said any of those things.
This to me just seems like Harada just let rip into a genuine fan of the character and made baseless attacks on them.
Some people need to stay off social media for a bit and go touch grass. Its a meme by now but it actually helps.
"If you prefer the old design, past works already exist"
Sounds something Don Mattrick would say.
The new Anna design is awesome these people need something better to do
So I like the new design. Frankly, Anna is exactly the sort of person who would only ever wear the same outfit twice if it was complete unavoidable so it's entirely in character for her to turn up in a new, cool, stylish outfit.
However, if you've been keeping up with Tekken 8... the classic Anna looks are almost certainly going to be in Tekken 8. They'll turn up in the Tekken Shop, and each cost 400 coins. And no, ofcourse you can't just buy 400 Tekken coins- the smallest amount you can buy is 500 coins.
TLDR- classic Anna costumes coming soon to a microtransaction near you!
Um how is her move set? Fighting games -tekken especially- has costumes for days. A person playing the game for the fighting and not personal touch time material would care about the move set. I still play VF 5 version C because that has the imo best move set for Vanessa Lewis. I still play FS as well. Some dudes are so transparent. Go outside and touch grass.
SF 6 is a whole time skip with almost all the classic characters looking different. I care about the move set (play as a custom character anyway). Capcom changed Birdie’s whole appearance and lampshaded it.
Social media has taught me that everyone thinks they have something interesting or poignant to say, but they don't.
Hey Harada, I preferred Tekken when you just had to play the game to unlock new characters, instead of opening your wallet to developers!
Come at me, bro!
Idgaf about Anna or how she looks
But why in 2025 are they still doing the "mystery character pass" garbage?
Tell us who the other four characters are before asking us to drop money on it.
Damn I hope SNK fixes the new Fatal Fury before launch. I'm so over Tekken 8 and SF6.
The funny thing about the backlash is we all now she's getting her classic outfit anyway as an alt, Tekken isn't an ArcSys game were you're stuck with whatever the new look is, characters always get like 4 different outfits and, unlike Mortal Kombat, the classic is always among them. Pretty sure we went through this exact same reaction when she was revealed for Tekken 7.
@Majin_Deicide I really doubt SNK can fix CotW matchmaking in less than 1.5 months. It will be the same as KoF XV with busted matchmaking for a year or two. If you want to buy CotW then you gonna prepare your discord because the game will become discord fighter.
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