Shaheen, a Saudia Arabian fighter, is the latest character to join the Tekken 7 roster.
Tekken 7 director Katsuhiro Harada has taken to Twitter to reveal a brand-new character for his upcoming next-gen fighter: Tekken 7. Shaheen is, in Harada’s own words, “inspired by foreign student[s] from Arabic counties and [the] Saudi embassy.” Yes, he’s a sterotype, but remember this is a fighting game, and pretty much every character in every fighting game is a sterotype.
Furthermore, Harada tried to clarify some of the confusion that arose with the “Lucky Chloe” character revealed last year. After a little bit of negative reaction to the character from a single, western message board, Harada said that the character would not be included in the US release, and would be exclusive to Asia and Europe.
“Many spammers/haters attacking us (That was an extreme prejudice and tons of dirty words. Of course I hate this happen), then I said just counter ‘sarcasm/joke'” said Harada in response to the controversy, which, if we can work through the bad English, seems to me like he was just “kidding” about Lucky Chloe being cut from the US release. He added “We promise an experience equal for all players, communities,” which further suggests that Tekken 7 will have the same characters across all regions.
So at this point, we know that Shaheen, the Saudia Arabian stereotype, will be included in the US release of Tekken 7, but we’re still not 100% certain on Lucky Chloe, the “Cat Girl” stereotype. We have reached out to Bandai-Namco for clarification.
