Update [Thu 12th Aug, 2021 05:45 BST]: Following on from our original story, Harada has now confirmed Sakurai will be appearing on his YouTube channel Harada’s Bar – in a “special talk”. Harada teases it as one of the most exciting videos yet…
Original story [Sun 8th Aug, 2021 08:00 BST]: Tekken director and bar owner, Katsuhiro Harada, recently uploaded a video to his YouTube talk show channel “Harada’s Bar” about people he would like to come and visit his bar.
One of his top picks is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai – especially now that Tekken’s Kazuya has joined the game’s roster as a DLC character. Unfortunately, Harada still thinks it’s a bit of a pipe dream, as Sakurai tends to stick to more official broadcasts.
“Having Sakurai-san here would be the best because of the [Kazuya] announcement. But basically, he doesn’t show up on programs like this.”
Sakurai did make an appearance on a variety show, which was apparently the only “laid back program” he appeared on.
“Basically he only appears in official stuff…I can at least ask”
It’s also difficult to make appearances like this happen depending on the person. Harada also understands in Sakurai’s case how busy he probably is at the moment.
“In that sense, Sakurai-san does have a lot of ties. Because he creates things between those ties. Making [Smash] must be really tough. I got involved and felt so. It’s a collection of…rights holders. It contains a lot of rights not only for Nintendo but also many companies in the game industry. It must be tough. He’s in the middle of all those things so it must be hard for him.”
If it was a more private event, it wouldn’t be a problem – with Harada noting how Sakurai was even at his wedding, But with this he might have to make the invite a more formal process.
“I can easily invite him if it’s a private thing. He even came to my wedding…If it’s Sakurai-san we’d have to call Bandai Namco Studios, I’d be calling my own workplace… [laughs] they’d be confused why I’m calling them [laughs]…I’ll ask him.
Harada has even previously asked fighting game fans on social media what questions they would ask Sakurai if given the opportunity:
Street Fighter and Capcom legend Yoshinori Ono is also someone Harada is keen to have on his bar program but is apparently the “most difficult” to get right now, due to how busy he is with his new duties as the president of mobile gaming company DelightWorks.
“I’ve asked him several times. At first he said, sure, I can come. I’ll come. But once he became [DelightWorks] company president even I said to him, “if you come now it’d be a big problem, right?”
Whether or not Harada will be able to get either fighting game representative to his bar is unknown at this stage, what we do know though is that Sakurai is already hard at work on the final DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
What question would you ask Mr. Sakurai if you could ask him anything? Pass them on in the comments below.
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