Tekken 8 Developers Explain How Yujiro Hanma Will Fit Into the Game

With Bob getting added to Tekken 8, we're inching closer to "Strongest Creature on Earth" becoming playable as well. While there's still quite some time until Yujiro Hanma joins the roster, Virginia Glaze of IGN recently had an opportunity to speak with Tekken series producer, Naoya Yasuda, and Yuki Yokoi, the director of promotions for Baki franchise.

You can read the extensive interview over here, but for now we'll focus just one some of the few details we can gleam about Tekken. Marketing still has an iron grasp on the throat of developers trying to talk about their game, so we can't learn all that much.

First of all, the discussions of collaboration between two series likely popped up earlier than you expect. Even though idea must've floated around for even longer, it only really started to materialize around Baki's 30th anniversary in 2021, and it's finally going to come to fruition in early 2027.

Yasuda was reluctant to give too many details, but constantly reassured everyone that as a fan, he really wants to get this right, and to make people feel the thrill of directly controlling Yujiro. Yokoi's comments land some extra credence, as he apparently accepted that some things wouldn't be possible within the framework of a competitive video game, only for the Tekken team to come around and try to fix certain things for the sake of better conveying Yujiro's character.

They're also aware that he's not a character that loses, so they are in the process of figuring out something that would maintain Yujiro's image as "the strongest creature on earth."

As for his kit, Yasuda basically confirmed that some of the panels you see in reveal teaser are hints as to what Yujiro will have in his arsenal. Though in general, they are trying to make sure that as much of his movelist as possible is made up of moves you see in the manga. With Tekken animators hand-crafting each animation and convey his motions in a way that mo-cap simply can't.

If you're curious to hear more about the character, according to the producer, we'll have to wait until Roger's release is much closer.