During The Game Awards, we saw a plethora of new games, some interesting award decisions, and a whole lot of appreciation for gaming. One of the best parts of the show for both fighting game fans and Final Fantasy fans was when Clive from Final Fantasy 16 joined the evergrowing cast of Tekken 8.
The Electric Throwers among you may remember that this isn’t the first character from the long-running fantasy series to make it to the 3D fighting franchise. Noctis, from Final Fantasy XV, joined the Tekken 7 cast, along with a lot of other crossovers.
Although fans are stoked to see Clive bringing the fire and brimstone to Tekken 8, there is general disappointment for not getting Tifa in the game, but perhaps that is being saved for the future.
Bandai Namco released a small trailer during the event, and then a detailed video on YouTube that shows some of Clive’s abilities in the versus space.
Clive comes to Tekken 8 with 3 costumes and a new stage from Final Fantasy 16 called Phoenix Gate. He still wields his ice, wind, electricity, and of course, fire powers like in the original game. To add to that, Clive has teleport slashes as well as a counter akin to perfect dodges in FF16 and it functions as a high crush. During his rage art, he summons ifrit and gives his opponent a pounding of a scale never before seen in Tekken.
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For the true sauce, Bandai has given Clive a Odin’s Zantetsuken meter which, once filled, allows him to really show his flashy moves and possibly become a lot more powerful than Noctis was in Tekken 7. If you’re missing your canine companion Torgal, worry not, he is also part of Clive’s moveset.
As for weaknesses, the only obvious omission to his toolkit is that he seems to be quite linear with most of his moves. So side stepping them will be a rewarding option d
As for when you can get your hands on him, early access starts today and tomorrow depending on the region. December 16 PST and December 17 JST at 12 AM. He will remain in early access for 72 hours, after which he will be available to anyone who has the year 1 season pass which also includes Eddy, Lidia, and the ever-resurrected Heihachi. This marks the end of the first year of characters for Tekken 8, and hopefully, we’ll see what 2025 has in store sometime soon.
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