Namco may have just teased Kiryu for Tekken 7
“Kazuma Kiryu for Tekken!”. It’s a familiar plea to anyone who has kept up with Bandai Namco’s wildly popular Tekken 7 since day one, yet also one that’s never been answered. It wouldn’t be hard to picture Uncle Kaz, or his brutal fighting style, slotting perfectly into another universe with a feuding yakuza family. Said feud even involves a Kazama family! It’s perfect!
Even with that said, as well Yakuza‘s lead protagonist topping polls across the globe for potential Tekken 7 guest characters, and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio producer Daisuke Sato giving his blessing for Kiryu’s inclusion, Namco has instead added Final Fantasy XV‘s Noctis Lucis Caelum, Fatal Fury‘s Geese Howard, and most curiously of all, Negan from The Walking Dead.
While those three have all been quite well received, only Geese really fit the King of the Iron Fist mold the same way Kiryu would’ve, and as Tekken 7‘s third Season Pass came and went without a single hint towards the Dragon of Dojima, it seemed like all hope was lost.
But a teasing tweet this morning from Bandai Namco general producer, and former Tekken series director, Katsuhiro Harada may have revealed that those cries could finally be heard and rewarded.
While most focused on Alisa Bosconovitch’s, shall we say, “intense” expression, the photo of Lee Chaolan in a never-before-seen locale to the right of her caught the eye of many, including prominent pro player and commentator, UYU|Spag.
This is on top of recent comments from both Namco Bandai as a whole and current series director Michael Murray stating that the team has been hard at work at new content that they had planned to reveal at EVO Online before the event’s cancellation. Other happenings, like mysterious new DLC listings for Tekken 7 on Steam have only added fuel to the fire.
While Harada is well known as a trolling creator type, and this could be little more than a stealthy advertisement for Matsuya, the famous beef bowl chain that also appears prominently in Yakuza, I can’t help but get excited at the mere prospect of one of my all time favorite Sega characters making his way into my all time favorite franchise, period. Between Tekken 7 and SoulCalibur VI, Namco has put a ton of love into their making their guest characters feel both fun to play and true to their home franchises, and I’d expect Kiryu to be handled no differently if he were to join the fray.
Are you excited? If you don’t already play Tekken, is this something that would get you to give it the ol’ college try? Have you stayed awake at night writing mental fanfiction linking Shintaro Kazama to Jun, Asuka, and Jin Kazama? Or do you think this is all just classic Harada trolling? Let us know down below!
