To better understand and represent the Native Americans, the Tekken 8 director is asking for feedback.
It is getting very close to Tekken’s next installment, Tekken 8, and Namco is dropping its last touches to bring the best experience for players who want to dive deep into the story. While decisions were not well thought out, such as the accessible mode, the series director wants to improve the quality of Tekken 8. Katsurido Harada, who is the director, says he was initially fine with some of the character designs until some people pointed out the stereotypical look of two Native American characters in the game.
Michelle and Julia, two characters with Native American roots, have been in and out of the Tekken series, but they always represent their respective community. Although people did not notice the stereotyping of these characters, nowadays people want to be more accurate with anything, so Harada has to ask people what they would change with these two important female characters.
Although some communities and small regions like to be portrayed as any, Harada states he would try his best to represent the people of Native America. He says the reason why he decided to go for a change is because people pointed out Michelle’s feathered headband and how artificial it looks compared to the character’s background.
It is odd that some people like their culture being featured in certain games, what comes to mind right away is Mexicans and Brazilians and their widely-known culture being included in video games, especially the fighting games.
It reminds us of the time when Nintendo had to change the box art of their then-newly released game, Super Mario Odyssey, to not distress any Mexican people. It was due to the fact that the bottom right had a Mario with a traditional Mexican suit and a Mariachi band, which was very much liked by Mexicans. However, Nintendo ended up removing it despite the efforts of those people wanting it back. Tekken 8, on the other hand, aims to represent the groups and communities as authentically as possible.
Tekken 8 will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on the 26th of January, until then, you can still reach out to Namco for feedback and ask questions about the game. Alternatively, you can check out the demo on every platform to see how the game looks as well.
