Fighting game roster reveals have been a big deal since the early days of the genre. With the advent of additional fighters coming through downloadable content, there is more fanfare then even when a new character is confirmed to be joining the battles. While there will always be love for returning fighters, in recent years the stakes have gotten higher with the trend of "guest fighters." With Tekken 7 reigning as the current king of crazy guest characters, it turns out that there was a planned one that didn't make the cut.
Tekken 7's lead designer and franchise producer Katsuhiro Harada provided an interesting fact of a character that nearly joined in on the Mishima family drama. In the tweet, as translated by Nicholas Taylor of EventHubs, Harada confirms that NieR: Automata's 2B was actually meant to be a guest character in Tekken 7.
Harada revealed this new information after numerous tweets examining the continued success of Tekken 7's sales since launching in 2017. When explaining that Tekken 7's sales did not decrease over the years, Harada noted that the title actually doubled its first year sales of three million units over the following two years. Harada pointed out that the only game to match this similar sales trend was Square Enix's NieR: Automata, which is set to hit seven million units sold soon. After tweeting out this info, a twitter user inquired about 2B joining the Tekken roster and Harada explained that it was once in consideration.
While 2B ended up not joining the ranks of Tekken, the NieR: Automata protagonist did enter the fray in another legendary 3D fighting franchise. 2B made her fighting game debut in SoulCalibur 6 back in 2018, serving as the first guest character to come through DLC. While some fans may have preferred the beloved character to be in the immensely popular Tekken 7, many understood that SoulCalibur 6 served her much better, including Harada himself. Harada clarified that during the discussions for the character's implementation, he and the team felt SoulCalibur would suit 2B better than Tekken would.
Although 2B would have definitely been a solid addition to Tekken 7's frankly insane roster, fans are much more interested in another to take the next guest spot. For all the character requests flooding Harada's DMs, Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu is the most requested fighter for Tekken. Despite being in demand since Tekken 7's initial launch back in 2017, little progress has been made in bringing the "Dragon of Dojima" into the fold.
There is still time for Kiryu to swoop in and take the heavily demanded spot in The King of the Iron Fist Tournament. With Tekken 7's Season 4 DLC starting back in November 2020, there is still a spot open for another guest to steal the show.
Tekken 7Â is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: EventHubs