If you were to mention Tekken 4 to fans of the classic fighting game series, you're bound to get a lot of mixed opinions.
Arriving in arcades a few years after the critical and commercial smash that was Tekken 3 and the stopgap that was Tekken Tag Tournament, the game ended up selling extraordinarily well in Japan and was often praised in the international press for its beautiful graphics and excellent story. However, it also ended up dividing its community thanks in part to its darker, more realistic tone and the experimental gameplay changes, such as the introduction of "environmental hazards", causing it to have one of the lowest Metacritic scores of all the mainline entries.
Regardless, over the years, it's become increasingly common to see people defending the game online, as more and more new players have gone back and revisited the title, or been introduced to it for the first time. This is something that isn't lost on Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the long-running series.
Posting on Twitter/X recently, he responded to a fan calling Tekken 4 "the most authentic and adult Tekken ever released" by opening up about the critical reappraisal of the game and highlighting how stressful it was to be involved with the project at the time.
As he states, he "didn't have a single ally" when the backlash to the game started — "not one" — with the stress reportedly getting so bad that he developed "a mysterious condition" that caused the hair on the right side of his body to fall out — something that also affected the hair on his arms, eyebrows, and eyelashes. He even left Namco for a short period of time before the development of Tekken 5 started — something he attributes to "the stress and shock" associated with working on the fourth entry in the classic series.
Here's what he had to say:
"I’m aware of that kind of praise. 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.
To make things even more confusing for me, the game actually ended up selling well... Metacritics and User reviews were the worst in the Numbering series,,, 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. It’s not a widely known fact, though."
Interestingly, back in 2024, Harada selected Tekken 4 as the one Tekken title that had a special place in his heart in an interview with the professional fighting game player Justin Wong. Speaking about the reasons for this, via a translator, he stated it was because he got a lot of hate for the game and it taught him to be careful on how he interprets feedback.
Following the success of Tekken 2, Tekken 3, and Tag, the series exploded in popularity, leading Harada to focus on the negatives that could be improved, with the theory being that this would ultimately lead to a better game. However, it didn't pan out that way, with Harada acknowledging that approach means you miss what people like about the series in the first place.