Highlights

  • Tekken 8 Director Harada denies dev dislike for Anna Williams, emphasizing her unique character development.
  • Tekken 8 receives positive feedback, with room for returning characters like Anna Williams.
  • Harada shares Anna's background, potential, and appreciation for fan engagement.

Tekken 8 Director Katsuhiro Harada shot down fan discussions claiming that the developers dislike Anna Williams. Incidentally, Anna is not part of the base Tekken 8 roster, which further added to rumors and fan speculations regarding her status with the devs. While part of the reason is that Anna and Nina are somewhat parallel characters, the two are still completely different, which has prompted the community to discuss the unfair treatment of the former.

Tekken 8 has received a lot of positive feedback for taking the premiere and tenured fighting game to new levels in the modern generation. While there has been some criticism regarding the roster inclusions, the consensus is that Harada and the team have built the latest entry into a solid game that will last fans for some time. The current state of Tekken 8 does leave a lot of room open for returning characters and new additions, such as what happened with Tekken 7 having four seasons of DLC. One of the most requested characters that is currently still missing is Anna Williams, which has caused some negative responses from the community.

tekken 8 director addresses dead or alive crossover requests
Related
Tekken 8 Director Addresses Requests for a Dead or Alive Crossover

Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada responds to fans' request to add a guest character from Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja's Dead or Alive series.

Tekken 8's Katsuhiro Harada has responded to fans' claims that the team had a bias against Anna. In a lengthy Twitter post, Harada shared a lot of facts regarding the dynamic between Nina and Anna's relationship, as well as outright shooting down the rumors that Anna was hated by the devs. Harada states that Anna's portrayal in Tekken is "filled with a lot of thoughts and feelings from me and the animation staff." Granted, many players prefer maining Nina Williams, but Anna, as Harada stated, serves as the yang to Nina's yin.

Anna Williams Facts Katsuhiro Harada Shared on Twitter

  • Anna is the best cook in Tekken.
  • Anna's father taught her skills to protect herself from enemies by distracting them with her appearance.
  • Anna's Chinese dress was something her father gave her.
  • Anna has blood-type A
  • Nina assassinated Anna's fiancée in Tekken 7 to protect her.
  • Anna is more familiar with heavy weapons.
  • Anna is much better at darts.

Harada explained that the development team gave saw huge potential in Anna Williams as early as Tekken 1 and Tekken 2. Back then, most mid-bosses were basically parallels to others in the roster. However, by the time Tekken 3 came out, the team wanted to make the character unique. Harada even confirmed that he mainly worked on Anna for that game, even inventing all of Anna's moves list up to Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection. Anna's last appearance was as DLC for Tekken 7, so there's a high possibility for her return in Tekken 8.

Harada has shown his keenness to talk and discuss Tekken and everything related to it. Even simple things like Harada's reactions to community-made memes involving Tekken and other games have shown that the director enjoys responding to the fan base. Many fans appreciate this side of Harada, as it shows how much attention to detail and love he shows for Tekken as a whole.