Harada, just made this long thread detailing his relationship with Itagaki, and it's hilaious.
Itagaki was trying to play 4D Chess, and Harada had no idea what the hell was going on.
<[[ 1. First Contact ]]--
>It was during the 1990s when the first Dead or Alive (DOA) was announced. On the way back from a game show, I happened to run into SEGA’s Virtua Fighter (VF) team (who would later become the heads of SEGA-AM2) at a station. Coincidentally, Mr. Itagaki also appeared.
The key people behind VF, Tekken, and DOA were all there by chance, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and went out for drinks at an izakaya in Shinjuku.
At the izakaya, I and two members of SEGA-AM2 got into an animated discussion about shared technical topics. At the time, Namco shared some animation control techniques with SEGA through engineers we had headhunted from SEGA. Of course, just a few years later, the Tekkenproject independently developed its own animation control technology from scratch.
(The knowledge and foundational technologies developed by the Tekkenproject at that time would become the very origins of Bandai Namco’s human action development technologies today.
Surprisingly, many Bandai Namco employees are unaware of this fact: Tekken is the ancestor of Bandai Namco’s polygon-era animation and action control technologies. Without this foundation, it’s self-evident we wouldn’t have been able to co-develop Super Smash Bros.with Mr. Sakurai).
>Mr. Itagaki listened with great interest as I and the SEGA executives discussed these topics. Later, we all bonded over casual, non-work-related chatter about games.
One moment stands out even after nearly 30 years: Mr. Itagaki said to me, “Mr. Harada, you’re a really approachable and funny person.”
At that time, Mr. Itagaki still addressed me using polite language (and of course, I did the same for him).
In other words, we didn’t know much about each other yet, and our relationship was very professional and gentlemanly at the time.
<[[ 2. What Itagaki Discovered ]]--
>A few months after the VF, Tekken, and DOA drinking session, I happened to run into Mr. Itagaki again at another gaming event.
He approached me and said, “Harada, you’re from Waseda University, aren’t you? I also went to Waseda, and our time there overlapped. That makes you my junior.”
I responded, “I might be your junior, but I don’t think we were there at the same time.” However, he said, “No, I was so busy with mahjong every day that it took me seven years to graduate. I’m sure we were there at the same time. In fact, I remember seeing you during our university days. You were the captain of the yacht racing team, weren’t you?”
Yes, Mr. Itagaki had thoroughly researched my background and discovered that I was his junior. From then on, he started referring to me as his junior and speaking to me in the casual tone of a senior addressing a junior, dropping the polite language entirely.
<[[ 3. The Beginning of Itagaki’s Media Strategy ]]-
>Mr. Itagaki wasn’t just a game designer or director; more than anything, he was starting to show his prowess as a producer.
>This became clear to me after he left Tecmo when he explicitly told me as much. Back then, he began seriously thinking about how to elevate DOA to surpass Tekken in terms of marketing and branding.
Let’s rewind a bit to the past.
>During that time, the arcade gaming market was still thriving. SEGA and Namco were the two giants dominating the Japanese arcade market. Not only did they develop games, but they also operated their own arcade chains domestically and internationally, managing a significant share of game distribution and publishing as well.
>Mr. Itagaki recognized that Tecmo couldn’t compete against this level of marketing and publishing power. As a result, he explored media strategies using not only print magazines but also the emerging internet media of the time.
Despite his outwardly emotional demeanor, Mr. Itagaki had a very cool and calculated eye for analyzing resources and strategy.
>Among his various strategies, one was to deliberately “bite” at Tekken to draw media attention. In doing so, he even called me out by name and criticized Tekken’s game design and other aspects.
Let me emphasize: this was just one of the many strategies he employed, not his only approach.
<[[ 4. An Uneven Relationship ]]--
>Due to the media strategy I just described, the Tekken project team was initially baffled.
In one magazine, for instance, Mr. Itagaki used a two-page spread to openly criticize Tekken and my name, delivering a highly aggressive interview.
In overseas magazines and internet media, especially in Western gaming outlets, the attacks escalated further, with harsher criticism of both Tekken and myself.
Meanwhile, I was ordered by my superiors at Namco to remain completely silent. In other words, I was strictly forbidden to respond in any way to Mr. Itagaki’s attacks.
This dynamic of “Harada remains silent while Itagaki attacks” lasted for about ten years, roughly from the late 1990s until around 2007, after the release of DOA4at the end of 2005.
>Looking back, it’s clear that under these circumstances, there was absolutely no chance for Mr. Itagaki and me to develop a friendly relationship. In fact, during those ten years, I spent much of my time wondering, “Why is Mr. Itagaki so fixated on targeting and attacking me?”
[Expand Post] <[[ 5. The Sudden Summons Incident ]]--
>Let’s rewind to 1998.
Out of the blue, Mr. Itagaki called Namco directly and asked for me by name.
As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Itagaki had already started his media strategy of targeting Tekken and had learned that I was his junior from university. Given the strained relationship I had with him at the time, his call left me deeply confused.
>Cautiously, I picked up the phone. He said, “Could you come to Tecmo’s headquarters? Just you, alone.”
It reminded me of getting summoned by a delinquent upperclassman behind the school building back in middle school. For a moment, I considered declining, but in the end, my curiosity got the better of me.
I agreed to his request and headed to Tecmo’s headquarters the following day, alone.
>When I arrived, Mr. Itagaki himself greeted me and led me into a small room. There, I saw something covered with a cloth that looked like an arcade cabinet.
Like a magician performing a stage act, he dramatically removed the cover with a flourish.
>Underneath was an arcade cabinet and CRT monitor, revealing something for the first time: the development build of DOA2,which had not yet been announced (it would debut in arcades a year later in the fall of 1999).
>“You’re the first outsider to see this screen,” he said.
>More than the game itself, I was bewildered by his magician-like presentation.
>That aside, he had two main purposes for summoning me.
>First, he wanted to sell more DOA2boards to the arcade market.
>At the time, SEGA and Namco were the two largest buyers of arcade boards due to their extensive arcade chains. Normally, he would have approached Namco’s sales team, but he felt that wasn’t enough.
Instead, he sought validation from a developer like me, hoping my endorsement would lead to Namco purchasing more DOA2 boards.
>Second, he wanted to gauge DOA2’sperformance and see how the Tekken project would react.
If I so much as scoffed at DOA2, he would take it as evidence that Tekkenhad superior technology and confidence.
>On the other hand, if I showed any signs of being impressed or unsettled, he would use that as a benchmark to compare Team Ninja’s position to the Tekkenproject.
>After presenting the concept briefly, he said, “Alright, give it a try!”
>When I pressed the start button, he sat down right next to me, as if we were about to face off.
>I chose Kasumi under his unspoken pressure and began playing. Just seconds into the match, after pressing the punch button three times, he asked, “Well? What do you think?”
>I was completely thrown off. What could I possibly judge after only a few seconds? I instinctively replied, “It feels good to play.”
>I expected him to retort with, “How could you know after just a few seconds?” Instead, he responded with:
>“See? I told you, Harada.”
>At that moment, I was genuinely confused. Was he serious? Was this some kind of hidden-camera prank?
>To be fair, DOA2 was already demonstrating impressive technical achievements for its time, even in its unfinished state.
>However, his insistence on immediate feedback and constant explanations while I played left me overwhelmed with information.
>Later, I learned from a former Team Ninja member that after my visit, Itagaki returned to the development floor and declared, “Today, we beat Tekken.”
>While I was merely startled by his approach, he took it as proof that I was overwhelmed by DOA2’sperformance.