Tekken's Harada calls Masahiro Sakurai "a Saiyan" who talks like Goku

Katsuhiro Harada, the longtime director behind the Tekken series, has described Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai as "a Saiyan" — someone who, in Harada's words, will say something that sounds exactly like Goku.

The comment is light-hearted but speaks to the genuine respect Sakurai commands among his peers. Sakurai's resume backs it up: he created Kirby, directed every Smash Bros. entry through Ultimate, revived Kid Icarus with Uprising, and has spent recent years running one of the most detailed game development YouTube channels around — hundreds of videos breaking down design decisions in plain terms that both developers and fans can follow.

Harada himself is no stranger to long-haul franchise stewardship, having guided Tekken from its 1994 arcade debut through decades of sequels and spin-offs. Two veterans of that caliber trading compliments carries some weight. Sakurai's Goku-like quality — presumably an unshakeable, almost naive drive to keep pushing and improving — is the kind of trait that tends to resonate with people who've spent careers in a notoriously grueling industry.

No further context was given for when or where Harada made the remark, but it's already making the rounds as one of the more entertaining developer-on-developer endorsements in recent memory.