Update [Thu 12th Aug, 2021 05:45 BST]: In a video update, Harada has now confirmed Sakurai will be appearing on his YouTube channel Harada's Bar - in a "special talk" this weekend. It's apparently one of the most exciting videos yet...
Original story [Sun 8th Aug, 2021 08:00 BST]: Tekken director and bar owner, Katsuhiro Harada, recently uploaded a video to his YouTube talk show channel "Harada's Bar" about people he would like to come and visit his bar.
One of his top picks is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai - especially now that Tekken's Kazuya has joined the game's roster as a DLC character. Unfortunately, Harada still thinks it's a bit of a pipe dream, as Sakurai tends to stick to more official broadcasts.
"Having Sakurai-san here would be the best because of the [Kazuya] announcement. But basically, he doesn't show up on programs like this."
Sakurai did make an appearance on a variety show, which was apparently the only "laid back program" he appeared on.
"Basically he only appears in official stuff...I can at least ask"
It's also difficult to make appearances like this happen depending on the person. Harada also understands in Sakurai's case how busy he probably is at the moment.
"In that sense, Sakurai-san does have a lot of ties. Because he creates things between those ties. Making [Smash] must be really tough. I got involved and felt so. It's a collection of...rights holders. It contains a lot of rights not only for Nintendo but also many companies in the game industry. It must be tough. He's in the middle of all those things so it must be hard for him."
If it was a more private event, it wouldn't be a problem - with Harada noting how Sakurai was even at his wedding, But with this he might have to make the invite a more formal process.
"I can easily invite him if it's a private thing. He even came to my wedding...If it's Sakurai-san we'd have to call Bandai Namco Studios, I'd be calling my own workplace... [laughs] they'd be confused why I'm calling them [laughs]...I'll ask him.
Harada has even previously asked fighting game fans on social media what questions they would ask Sakurai if given the opportunity:
Street Fighter and Capcom legend Yoshinori Ono is also someone Harada is keen to have on his bar program but is apparently the "most difficult" to get right now, due to how busy he is with his new duties as the president of mobile gaming company DelightWorks.
"I've asked him several times. At first he said, sure, I can come. I'll come. But once he became [DelightWorks] company president even I said to him, "if you come now it'd be a big problem, right?"
Whether or not Harada will be able to get either fighting game representative to his bar is unknown at this stage, what we do know though is that Sakurai is already hard at work on the final DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
What question would you ask Mr. Sakurai if you could ask him anything? Pass them on in the comments below.
[source youtu.be, via eventhubs.com]
Comments 16
Hopefully we can see the fruits of Harada's labour after the fighter pack is complete! (it's probably already done at this point...)
Hopefully he won't have to pay 'table service'.
Remember when this dude got annoyed of people asking for a tekken rep in smash?
And I thought he wanted him to visit a bar because Sakurai was rich, this was nicer than I originally thought
But I fully expect Sakurai to be working on Smash or in a coma, the guy needs a break.
I would like that as well.
Is this guy just startuck with Sakurai or is it that Sakurai has become some kind of celebrity over there?
I would understand if Sakurai prefers to keep his opinions to himself. He has to put up with so much on a daily basis, and he knows that he can never make everyone happy with his decisions. When I saw him at the E3 2018 Smash Ultimate invitational, he had no desire to interact with the audience. I think that he knows it’s not a bad idea to stay quiet and not vocalize his opinions, because it makes him less political. He wants to respect the wishes of the companies he’s working with for Ultimate over anything else, from what it seems like, so he forgoes his bias in exchange for staying quiet and respecting his game for what it is. Because of all that, I think he has no chance of visiting Harada’s bar.
Speaking of which, today I learned that Harada owns a bar.
Maybe Sakurai doesn't drink alcohol*. Either that or he doesn't want to expose himself with COVID-19 still going on.
*And yes, I'm aware bars don't necessarily serve only alcohol.
@EriXz Sakurai has a LOT of friends in the games industry. The only reason Solid Snake got into Brawl was because Kojima is a really good friend of his and begged him to include the character in Melee, which was too far in development at the time to make that arrangement. He also visited Kojima Productions while they were developing Death Stranding on PS4 and Kojima posted about it on his Twitter
He's also apparently friends with or has talked with one of the Atlus chairmen and they literally conducted an entire video interview of him just talking about the Persona series after Joker was announced at the Game Awards in 2018
Katsuhiro Harada is like the anti-Hideki Kamiya
A stand-up guy who embraces the culture surrounding his games and actually likes conversing with his English fans lol
@Snatcher If by people you mean borderline stalkers and by asking you mean repeatedly demanding, then yes, I remember.
@LinkSword LOL.
Always fun to hear Harada's thoughts. Seeing Sakurai chill, and have a chat sounds like an awesome time. Both Harada, and Sakurai have been in the industry for years.
Q: I always wondered, if they were not in the games industry, what other field did they have their eyes on?
@TheFrenchiestFry I'm happy to say I'm so out of the loop that I have no idea what your comment means! Carry on, sir/madam! LOL
Good for him. Nothing like Sake over a good talk.
Huh Harada sounds much younger than I thought, with that voice he doesn't seem that far off from the average youthful im@s fan haha
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