‘I didn’t have a single ally’: Tekken boss Harada says he left Namco for a year after Tekken 4 was ‘bombarded with criticism’
Harada says he was so stressed that all the hair on one side of his body fell out
Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada says he left Namco for a year after the release of Tekken 4 because of stress due to the game’s reception.
Tekken 4 was released in August 2001 in arcades and was then ported to PS2 the following year, and while reviews weren’t overly negative they were certainly mixed – while IGN gave it a 9/10, for example, Edge magazine gave it a 6.
On Monday one of Harada’s followers on X praised the game, calling it the “most authentic and adult Tekken ever released” and praising the introduction of interactive stages.
Harada replied that while he’s happy to hear praise for Tekken 4 now, at the time he felt that the game had been so poorly received that he lost half his hair due to stress.
“I’m aware of that kind of praise,” Harada replied. “But back then, I was absolutely bombarded with criticism — I didn’t have a single ally. Not one. That’s a well-known story inside the company.
“I was under so much stress at the time that I developed a mysterious condition where all the hair on the right side of my body fell out — just the right side. Even the hair on my arms, eyebrows, and eyelashes disappeared.
“Now, in the present day, the critics have all forgotten their complaints, and only those who want to praise the game remain. That’s the only reason it’s being treated like a masterpiece. For me, whether good or bad, this title remains a constant reminder and lesson to myself.”
Harada added that although Tekken 4 did sell well (“to make things even more confusing for me”), it has the worst Metacritic and User reviews of all the numbered Tekken games.
“Actually, there was a period – just for about a year before development on Tekken 5 began – when I left Namco due to the stress and shock,” Harada recalled. “It’s not a widely known fact, though.”
Further reading
Last month Harada made the headlines for calling out a Tekken fan and “people like them” for complaining about the appearance of returning character Anna Williams.
“You threaten to quit if she isn’t brought back, you complain the moment she is brought back,” he explained. “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’.
“Either way, 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.”
Tekken 8 Season 2 starts on April 3 with Anna as the first DLC character. Players with Early Access will be able to start Season 2 from March 31.
