Katsuhiro Harada of Bandai Namco was surprised to hear Capcom describe Street Fighter as being 'close to the real world'
The Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable took place about two weeks ago. It was during this event that we learned of the origins as to why Katsuhiro Harada wears sunglasses all the time. He apparently did this to help Capcom promote Street Fighter X Tekken as the "bad guy." Since then, Harada has brilliantly made the sunglasses part of his own image.
During the the roundtable livestream, Takayuki Nakayama of Capcom noted that Street Fighter is fairly close to the real world. Funnily enough, Harada was noticeably surprised when he heard this.
"Street Fighter is fairly close to the real life world, so we try to focus on getting characters from as many different countries as possible since we think fans will really enjoy seeing characters from their own country in the roster," said Nakayama in regards to roster selection for Street Fighter.
"Excuse me, but the thing I was most surprised to hear is you describing Street Fighter as 'close to the real world,'" responded Harada upon hearing this.
Harada certainly wasn't nervous about putting other developers on the spot with questions or comments like these. Some could say that Harada had really stolen the show with his comical antics.
"Well, we do have characters who spit fire, shoot energy and..." noted Nakayama before Harada cut in once more. "Right. I'm not so sure it fits, especially when looking at Brazil," said Harada.
The Bandai Namco director was likely referring to Blanka, a feral man boasting green skin and the ability to conduct electricity. It goes without saying that a character like Blanka does not exist in the real world.
"Yes, yes. That's why we made sure to introduce Brazilian characters who aren't green as well later on," stated Nakayama in reference to Sean and Laura, two Brazilian characters in Street Fighter lore.
Sean first debuted in Street Fighter 3: New Generation. He plays very similar to other Shotos like Ryu and Ken, although his main projectile is a basketball rather than the energy-based Hadoken.
While Laura doesn't have green skin, she's able to conduct electricity in a manner that's very similar to how Blanka does it. Her gameplan tends to revolve heavily around using electric projectiles to approach opponents.
Of course, something could also be said about Dhalsim's ability to teleport, stretch his limbs, and breathe fire. A suspension of disbelief from a player is essentially required to really acknowledge Dhalsim's existence in Street Fighter lore.
A special thanks goes out to Nicholas 'MajinTenshinhan' Taylor for his translations and contributions for this article.
