Tekken 7 will add many new character to the fighting roster. Some have already been announced, some will be announced in the near future. Director of the game, Katsuhiro Harada, hinted on twitter that one of the new entries, Lucky Chloe, could be available only in the European and Asian versions of the game.
Lucky Chloe is a living, moving and fighting big reference to japanese pop-culture and I love every word of that sentence. Tekken is historically a game that takes itself seriously, but it's not short of peculiar and over the top characters like fighting bears or kangaroos, extremely agile obese men or mexican wrestlers. In a so diverse roster, there is definitely space for a fighter like Chloe. That's why many american fans of the franchise are not happy with this decision.
At the same time, some other people don't find that Lucky Chloe would be a valid addition to the game. Of course when you play a fighting game with a huge selection of possible characters like Tekken, you could just pick someone else to fight. But for some people the simple fact that a character they dislike is present is unbearable, arriving to ask Harada to add an option in game to make impossible to meet unwanted characters in arcade mode.
Chloe could not see the light in the USA then. Does that mean that there would be another character exclusive to that region to replace her? Apparently that could be the case. When asked by a fan, Harada stated on twitter that they're gonna release another character hinting to "Looks well-muscled, Skin-head, Very powerful attack".
In any way, more characters are to be announced for Tekken 7. If this rumor turns out to be confirmed, it's legit to expect some of them to be region exclusive as well.
DISCLAIMER: Some people around the internet claimed that Harada's decision to not include Lucky Chloe in the american version of Tekken 7, was caused by a thread on the bulletin board NeoGaf where the users were complaining about the looks of the characters plus some tweets to him carrying the same sentiment. Right at this moment, we have no official word from Harada if that's the case. From what we know, Chloe is was a region exclusive character since her conception. We at TechRaptor don't feel like making this allegation. We have, anyway, reached to Harada via twitter for clarifications on this point. Should there be news, we'll update the article accordingly.
What you think about Lucky Chloe? Are you ok with her not being available in the USA in exchange of another character? Let us know in the comments
EDIT: After readers' feedback, we decided to mark the piece as "rumor" while waiting for any confirmation from the developers or any response from Harada and I edited the piece to reflect that. It should have been the case in the first place and I apologize profusely for my mistake.
UPDATE: Harada didn't release an official statement yet, but from more tweets he published, it seems very possible that the character will not actually be present in the american version of the game.I'm always serious. If you don't need = I don't release them. If you need = I'll release. That's all. RT @jdevilb I hope you are not serious — Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) 8 Dicembre 2014
We reached to Bandai Namco for any official statement on the matter and we'll keep you updated. UPDATE 2: We received word from Bandai Namco. The response itself doesn't clear the situation much, but we thank them nonetheless. The mail doesn't go into the matter itself because, as they state, "I can't speak for Harada-san regarding his plans for Europe and Asia". It's more a bit of additional information to give new possible reading to Harada's tweets. You can find the full mail following:
Hey Rutledge,This is Denny Chiu at Bandai Namco, I work with Grace and can step in to help you hereJI can't speak for Harada-san regarding his plans for Europe and Asia but I think there are a couple of things that we have to consider regarding his recent tweets.To us, it seems unlikely that Harada was referring to the cabinet version of the game since it was never announced to be shipped outside of Japan anyway (as it often happens with arcade cabinets).1: Harada-san should be speaking specifically about Tekken 7 arcade which to my knowledge is currently slated for Japan release only so in essence Lucky Chloe is “exclusive” to Japanese arcades. I bring this up because...
2: I'm not sure if our colleagues at the Bandai Namco Amusement America division (which handles our arcade business) have announced anything regarding Tekken 7 cabinets coming to the states yet.
Let me know if that clears things up a bit. Thanks!
Denny
We reached to Bandai Namco again in hope to receive more information specifically for the console version of the game. Should new info arise, we'll update you
