It’s no secret that Tekken 8’s recent second season has not exactly been a hit with fans.
While there has been an emergency patch to deal with the most pressing issues as well as outright statements from Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada describing the situation as “a disconnect between what the community wants and the tuning results”, there’s still a lingering frustration in the Tekken community at the moment.
With more changes promised to come it’s clear that the team are listening to fans’ concerns but as of right now the reception is still not rosy for Tekken 8 Season 2.
Another example of this lies with the recent Tekken World Tour 2025 trailer. While we already knew in large swathes what was happening with the Tekken World Tour for this year, this trailer was posted yesterday to inform about the events and the tour itself, but basically none of the comments are actually about the events or the Tekken World Tour, but rather the current balance of the game.
Tekken series producer Katushiro Harada already commented on the issues back around the launch of Season 2 but he’s now taken to X once again to talk a little bit about what exactly went wrong which led to the game’s current state.
He begins by addressing a post from legendary Tekken player DRX|Knee who says that the homing attacks in Season 2 along several other issues with the game’s current offensive play.
Harada responds by saying that the balancing team understand his frustrations and are working on improvements, following up with a second post where he explains that the first phase of these changes will be introduced in a May update followed by another update in June which “will be related to the defensive side of the game.”
These two posts will be embedded below.
I have confirmed my perception of this matter with the battle and tuning teams. They seem to understand your frustrations and are working to improve, so please give them a little more time. https://t.co/aVzvcXM2gW
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) May 8, 2025
My post was a bit wordy on this matter, to be precise, the Battle & Tuning team has submitted the first roms of the fix for this, and the first phase of it will be introduced in the May update. Furthermore, after that, there will be another update in June that will be related to… https://t.co/Z8PGUHHVzN
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) May 8, 2025
Responding to a user asking whether the team even knows themselves what they want to do with Tekken 8, Harada begun explaining by saying “[Tekken] 8 was challenging in some aspects[,] with a new team for battle & tuning.” He continued to say “but we have returned the team structure to the members of the past.”
He further mentions that Nakatsu, who is the main man in charge of Tekken’s balancing has shifted his duties to approve changes more closely after the controversy, explaining that he had been kept busy with other duties which led to some lesser oversight than usual.
“As you all know, [Nakatsu] originally comes from the fan community and was a writer for game magazines and strategy articles, and was also in charge of battles and tuning for [Tekken] TAG 2 and [Tekken] 7.” Harada finishes.
You can see his post in full detail below.
8 was challenging in some aspects with a new team for battle & tuning, but we have returned the team structure to the members of the past.
In addition, the director, Nakatsu, who we all know and love, is now able to check and approve all tuning in detail (he was short on time as… https://t.co/8nZpwmXPx6
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) May 8, 2025
Basically, the team who were balancing Tekken 8 has now been restructured as a response to the heavy backlash to Season 2’s adjustments and the team now looks more similar to what it was during the series last two titles.
However, the Tekken World Tour itself is starting this weekend with a bang at Evo Japan 2025, and there’s no telling how long it will take for an entirely different team to get into the depths of rebalancing the game.
Although Harada confirmed two upcoming patches, there’s no telling how many things they will be addressing which means that it’s hard to say when we’ll see any major changes to Tekken 8’s current state.
As Harada often does, though, he will most likely keep us updated to the extent that he is able to on his X account, so stay tuned to what he has to say in the coming weeks and months.