It has been months since Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada was made painfully aware of fans’ grassroots movement to get an official Waffle House stage in the long-running fighting game series. After having received tons of information about the American Southern Diner chain via memes, viral videos, and earnest replies from fans, Harada is still baffled at the “culture” of Waffle House.
I have already received a lot of… no.. tons of information from everyone about this store before, but let me ask one question from a different angle this time.
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) June 3, 2024
Why do fights like this between waitstaff and customers happen so often in the restaurant?
I have never seen plates… https://t.co/RLMnYeszqc
Yesterday, Harada took a different approach to his inquiry into why fans were so adamant about a Waffle House Tekken 8 stage. Instead of asking who and what Waffle House is, as he did at the end of March, Harada asked his X (formerly Twitter) followers why fights happen so often at Waffle House to warrant its unrelated fame as the unofficial American battleground.
"Why do fights like this between waitstaff and customers happen so often in the restaurant? I have never seen plates and chairs flying around like this, especially in Japan (and the composition is not customer vs. customer, but customer vs. waiter),” Harada wrote in a quote retweet of a Waffle House fight video. on X. “I don't think it is simply because it is ‘open 24 hours and there are many drunks.’ What kind of culture is this?"
Harada went on to voice his stream-of-consciousness thoughts on Waffle House as the unofficial American fighting battleground by admitting he wouldn’t be able to grasp its status in America even if he took 70 business trips to the States.
"I need to learn more about American society," Harada wrote.
For more Tekken 8 news, be sure to check out our Tekken 8 review as well as the new gameplay trailer for Lidia Sobiesk, its second DLC character due later this summer.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
