Gaming News He is dead and even the developers of this fighting game can hardly believe it
Warning: if you haven’t finished Tekken 7 and want to discover the story for yourself – yes, there are some who are – we advise you to turn back. On the other hand, if you did the campaign mode of the last episode or you don’t care about the spoiler, you’ve come to the right place.
Heihachi parmentier
It’s a fact : Heihachi Mishima, iconic character of the Tekken saga, is officially dead at the end of the seventh episode’s campaign mode. More specifically, he was killed by his son Kazuya after an absolutely fierce battle in an erupting volcano. Worse, his body was thrown into molten lava – a little family tradition that’s been around for a long time, as fans know so well.
Therefore, since Tekken is a series that has real lore and needs to evolve as well, it has decided to part with one of its biggest emblems. And even for Katsuhiro Harada, it’s not easy to imagine : The famous producer of the saga, who will pilot the next Tekken 8, therefore asked his team to “make sure that the death of Heihachi is really convincing” in Tekken 7 so that we really believe in it. It was designer Michael Murray who revisited this amusing anecdote during an interview with GamesRadar+.
Ouch
Therefore, to write the scenario for Tekken 7, the developers executed and considered what Harada had told them: Yes, Heihachi must be dead and will remain so. No turning back possible. The problem, In fact, the producer himself could hardly believe it, and in an interview after the game’s release years ago, he said “To be surprised how dead Heihachi really was in the story”
“What are you talking about? That’s what you ordered us to do”then rushed to reply to their own development team. “You told us to make sure he was really dead and in the interview you said you were surprised by his death?”she tells Michael Murray, not without a certain irony and amusement.
He continues: “Nakatsu (Kouhei Ikedi, game director) and I laughed our asses off, we were like, ‘What’s wrong with you? Did you hit your head or what?” For his part, Harada, of whom Heihachi is currently his favorite character, then played the denial (and no doubt self-mockery) card. “Maybe I’m getting old and losing my memory so much that I asked Heihachi to be dead. I don’t remember telling anyone about it.”
A family story
Should Heihachi actually be dead in Tekken 8, we imagine the studio will always be able to do a script pirouette to bring him back if need be. For example, Jun Kazama, mother of Jin, who has been presumed dead since Tekken 3, has made a comeback in this eighth installment just 25 years later.
Over and beyond, Since the supernatural is clearly in the background, the possibilities are great to allow certain freedoms: This is exactly how Kazuza came back from the dead after making a pact with the devil after being thrown into a volcano by Heihachi.
Now that the final duel between Heihachi and Kazuya has taken place with the outcome we know, The latter will now face off against his own son Jin in this brand new game. A new muscular confrontation that could well lead to a more or less similar result…
