Tekken's Heihachi Is So Dead It Surprised Director Katsuhiro Harada

Heihachi Mishima is dead. He’s actually been dead a few times, but that never seems to stop him from rising from the grave to torment his son, Kazuya Mishima. However, Heihachi fans are going to be disappointed if they expected him to resurrect once again for Tekken 8. This time, he’s really dead.

That should come as little surprise to those who saw his end in Tekken 7. Kazuya basically punched him so hard that his heart stopped and then threw his corpse into an active volcano. That’s a level of dead that even surprised former Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada.

Related: Tekken 8 Preview: Thrilling Fists Of Fury

TheGamer’s Lu-Hai Liang spoke with Harada in a group interview at Bandai Namco’s European HQ in Lyon last week and asked the Tekken 7 Game director if Heihachi is really, truly dead. Harada replied he was actually "surprised at how dead Heihachi was" after Tekken 7, even though he told his team that "Heihachi's been dead so many times" that they have to "make sure it's convincing this time."

This comment actually started a brief row among the panel attendees, including Tekken 8 designer Michael Murray. "Hey, what are you talking about? That was the order you gave us," said Murray. "We were like 'you told us to make sure he's dead!'"

Harada said that he couldn't remember asking for Heihachi to be super-duper dead. After all, Harada may have been the voice of Marshall Law, but Heihachi was always his favorite character. Murray explained that "maybe [Harada's] getting older and losing his memory that he told us to make sure Heihachi is dead. I don't think we've told anyone that."

So we shouldn't expect to see Heihachi in Tekken 8, but we can expect to see Ling Xiaoyu and Jun Kazuma, both of whom got Gameplay trailers just recently showcasing their new looks and moves. Tekken 8 doesn’t have a release date just yet but it’s expected to arrive before March 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

Next: What Have We Learned From Tekken 8’s Nina Williams Reveal?