Category: Entertainment & Lifestyle

After the exciting Game Awards reveal of Final Fantasy’s Clive Rosfield for Tekken 8 on Thursday evening, Bandai Namco has wasted no time in unveiling more about the game’s next DLC character.

During their Friday morning discussion in which developers from both Tekken 8 and Final Fantasy XVI sat down to talk Clive, they ended up showing off both the updated Tekken 8 character select screen as well as three alternate costume colors for the newcomer.

Clive’s addition will bring the Tekken 8 roster to a total of 36 and adopts the obvious slot at the end of the second row of character select (those of us who are a little obsessive about symmetry will surely appreciate this update) right below fellow DLC character, Lidia Sobieska.

While we got to see his standard attire in his reveal trailer, developers also show off three additional looks that are pre-loaded for Clive’s initial appearance. While these might technically best fall into the category of alternate colors, some do change Clive’s actual clothing and accessories to a notable degree.

The first is truly just a color swap as Clive’s shirt and pants become white while his black cape turns red, but his second alternate changes a good bit more as we see him don all black armor with shoulder plates and more chain mail.

Alternate three sees Clive maintain the mostly black color theme, but swaps his armor for much a much more tattered and torn version. Here he looks more vicious, as though he just emerged victorious from a scuffle with a wild beast.

You can view all three alternate Clive color/costumes in the images of him on the character select screen in the gallery below. Let us know what you think of his looks in the comments once you’ve had a chance to check them all out.

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We learned Thursday night at the Game Awards that the next DLC character headed to Tekken 8 would be Final Fantasy XVI’s Clive Rosfield.

In a one-two Friday morning follow up, BandaiNamcoAmerica is showcasing more of Clive as developers from both Tekken 8 and Final Fantasy XVI discuss their process for choosing and creating the character as he exists in his first fighting game appearance.

As for the developers in the video, the list includes Tekken 8 Chief Producer and Game Director, Kohei “Nakatsu” Ikeda, Tekken 8 Game Design Director, Yoshinori Takahashi, Final Fantasy XIV Main Director, Hiroshi Takai, Final Fantasy XVI Creative Director and Original Screenplay, Kazutoyo Maehiro, and Final Fantasy XVI Combat Director, Ryota Suzuki.

Clive is the second guest hailing from the Final Fantasy franchise as Noctis, protagonist from Final Fantasy XV, famously joined the Tekken 7 roster back in 2018. Positive reception of Noctis naturally paved the way for the potential and eventual realization of Clive, though Bandai had to prove to the Square Enix crew they understood Clive and Final Fantasy enough to do the crossover justice.

As it turns out, plans for this venture started back when Final Fantasy XVI was freshly out and Tekken 8 was still in development. Ikeda was drawn to Clive visually at first, and when he observed thematic commonalities between the two games, he was sold.

After talking preliminaries, the team starts showing off Clive in Tekken 8. We get to see him on the character select screen, as well as on the game’s main menu as the devs talk about how they curated his visuals to make him a better fit in the muscular world of Tekken.

Finally, they take Clive into battle and show off his in-game model and a few of his moves. You can watch the entire discussion via the video below, then let us know in the comments what you think of this call to bring Clive Rosfield into Tekken 8.

While there was plenty of hype surrounding the release of Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, issues quickly arose as players figured out how to cheese their way through competitive bouts thanks to some develop oversights.

A brand new update patch has been announced for December 12, and though we have to wait until Thursday for it to take effect, the highly qualified Tyrant_UK has come out with a video explaining more specifically how the changes will impact the game.

A major priority for Sparking Zero here in its early months is public perception, which is fueled in no small part by what players routinely say on social media.

Sparking Zero has seen two relatively quick patches since its release back in October, both of which were rolled out in service of fixing characters so broken they made online ranked modes more grief than they were worth.

No one really expects a 180+ roster to be balanced by traditional fighting game standards, but the game needs to be free of issues egregious enough to cause sentiments that say “it’s not worth checking out” or “you should wait until they change a few important things” if it wants to stand a chance.

Tyrant points out some quality of life changes as he starts at the top of the list, but eventually makes his way to more pressing alterations that should stand to fix some of Sparking Zero’s biggest grievances, such as some of the defensive ways players will soon be able to deal with oppressive ki blast barrages.

The most potent change, of course, has to be the simple but important use of ki gauge by Android 19 and Dr. Gero. Check out the full video below and let us know how you’re feeling about these Sparking Zero changes in the comments.

November online character usage stats for ranked games of Street Fighter 6 just dropped from Capcom headquarters, and while we are interested to see how newest character Terry Bogard is faring here in his second full month, we’d also like to talk about the fact that one of the game’s 24 characters is getting more than 12.5% of the attention across all users.

You may already have an idea of who this particular fighter is, but you’ll have to continue beyond the jump to see for sure. We will say that, while they are easily the most prominent among all online players, the Modern Controls corner of Street Fighter 6 is a substantially different experience.

Since he released back in May of 2024, Akuma has been the most popular pick in Street Fighter 6. This surprises very few, as the beloved Street Fighter icon has long been preferred by many due to his recognizable appearance, adherence to the basic Street Fighter fighting style (he’s relatively similar to Ryu), and because he’s so strong so often.

Impressively, Akuma took the top spot in his limited first month run (he was only around for the final week in May and he still overtook Ken by over 4%) and has not yielded it since. Both M. Bison and Terry Bogard (the two DLC additions since Akuma) got close to dethroning the demon king, but neither were successful.

Terry came extremely close last month (October) as he was runner up by a mere 0.3%, but Mr. Bogard’s drastic 5.4% fall to ninth place in November suggests he’s past his popularity peak. Outside of newcomer anomalies, Akuma has been steadily gaining ground in his first place standing as the November numbers have him over second place Ken by more than 3%.

That disparity grows to 6.152% when you click over to the “Classic” filter to show preferences of players who use the traditional Street Fighter button layout, as Akuma boasts 14.942% of the attention amongst all Classic users.

Akuma is the consistent top dog across the three top online ranks (Platinum, Diamond, and Master) as well as the “All” category. When it comes to Classic Controls, he boasts these same positions plus he picks up Bronze, Silver, and Gold, leaving only the Rookie and Iron categories to be conquered (he’s top 5 in both).

It’s in Modern Controls, SF6’s simplified control scheme for accessibility purposes, that things take a drastic change. Not only is Akuma not the most popular character in any of the Modern Control ranks, he doesn’t crack top five in any of them.

While it’s surely true that some characters can take more effective advantage of Modern’s simplified controls, Akuma clearly does not resonate with this player group. Thanks to this truth, the Street Fighter 6 experience is obviously quite different, at least on paper, when it comes to the online ventures.

You can view the top 10 placings for each of the nine online SF6 categories via the gallery below. These numbers incorporate all control types, but you can explore the stats in even greater detail by heading over to Buckler’s Bootcamp.

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Updated: An extended gameplay trailer for Clive in Tekken 8 has been added to this story.

Earlier: Bandai Namco has just made their latest big reveal at The Game Awards. As promised, the final character of Tekken 8’s first wave of DLC here in Season 1 has finally been revealed.

Final Fantasy XVI’s Clive Rosfield is set to join the game’s roster as a playable combatant in the latest installment of the long-running fighting game franchise.

Bandai Namco revealed the new combatant with a full trailer showing Clive taking on classic Tekken series mainstay, Jin Kazama.

Throughout the trailer, we see Clive utilize several different techniques in combat. He fights using a sword, can sprout wings and attack with swooping aerial attacks, and we also seem him summon Ifrit in what appears to be his Rage Art.

In addition to the newest combatant, Bandai Namco also showed what appears to be a brand new stage for Tekken 8. From the looks of it, this stage is Final Fantasy-themed and will likely be launched at the same time as the new DLC character.

Speaking of which, Bandai Namco did not just reveal the final DLC character for Tekken 8 during The Game Awards. They also shared his release date, and in a surprise twist, will be coming as soon as next week.

Clive Rosfield will be joining Tekken 8 via 72-hour early access on December 16, 2024 (PST). Playable Character Year 1 Pass holders will be able to get that early access to Clive, and he will release fully for everyone else on December 19.

Clive Rosfield is the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI. He is exceptionally skilled with his sword, excels at close-quarters combat, and utilizes a part of the Phoenix’s flames for unique abilities.

Here on the fighting game community front, CEO tournament organizer Alex Jebailey took to Twitter to note that Clive is set for release one day before CEOtaku — which will have Tekken 8 as one of the games players will be competing in.

As you might expect, Jebailey has stated that Clive will most likely not be playable in tournament at CEOtaku due to being released too close to the event. They will try to have him downloaded for casual stations at the event, however.

You can check out the reveal trailer below.

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Earlier today during The Game Awards 2024, Sega announced a brand new entry in the Virtua Fighter franchise. A live stream to showcase more of the new title is taking place at 9 p.m. Pacific / Midnight Eastern tonight.

The development team at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is expected to show off more of the gameplay and details about the game. You can find the streams below.

During The Game Awards live stream it was revealed that Virtua Fighter will receive a new title in the legendary franchise from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

A Virtua Fighter Direct is scheduled for later today, in about three hours, which is sure to have more details on this new development.

The trailer below is pre-alpha footage, so the game is likely in the very early stages of development. It features series mainstay Sarah Bryant facing off against a currently unknown opponent, although it’s possible this a highly familiar face to fans of the franchise.

Her opponent wears a fedora and a coat, with his face heavily obscured making it difficult to figure out who this combatant’s identity is, although his moveset resembles Akira, the main character of the Virtua Fighter franchise.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is best known for the Yakuza: Like a Dragon series, and it will be very compelling to see what they come up with for the latest entry in the Virtua Fighter franchise.

The Direct is set to take place here in a few hours at 9 p.m. Pacific / midnight Eastern. We’ll have full coverage of this showcase as it happens tonight.

This announcement calls back to October of this year, where Sega teased that Virtua Fighter 6 may be in development, which was followed by Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. being announced. However, now we have word that an official new entry will be coming in the future.

Here are some screen shots from the new Virtua Fighter teaser trailer.

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The original Virtua Fighter was released in arcades clear back in 1993, and has become a mainstay in the Fighting Game Community over the years, even though it has been a long time since we saw a brand new entry in the franchise.

The game is known to be exceptional at the highest levels of competition in our scene, and the announcement of a brand new entry is sure to stir up all new interest, along with bringing back the hype of players from previous generations.

With it’s three button layout: Punch, Kick, Block and an absolutely staggering amount of moves, this franchise is known for its incredible depth and execution. It’s going to be very exciting to see how Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio brings this franchise back to life for the modern era.

Updated: The stream is now live.

The Game Awards returns for the 10th installment in the yearly video game showcase, and with it will come a slew of exciting announcements, reveals, gameplay, and more that will have people talking for weeks to come.

Taking place in Los Angeles, California, The Game Awards is set to air around the world via live stream, and the show will be officially kicking off this afternoon. We have the live feed here for you to watch along with us as we await the biggest and latest fighting game announcements.

We can expect to see this massive showcase begin at 4:30 p.m. PT with its pre-show, which is scheduled to run for 30 minutes. After that, the main event will begin and in previous years we’ve seen it run for upwards of three hours, so you’re going to want to grab a snack and strap in for this one.

There will undoubtedly be a ton of announcements being made by developers big and small tonight, and every year there tends to be at least a little something for the fighting game fans.

This year, we don’t have to sit and hope so much as Bandai Namco has already stated that they will be revealing the final DLC character in Tekken 8’s Season 1 at The Game Awards.

While hints at Anna have already been dropped and point to her being a part of Season 2, many believe that the character being shown tonight to close out the first season will be an outside guest character for maximum hype while Bandai Namco has the attention of the large audience that The Game Awards brings.

Outside of that, we don’t have too many other confirmations of fighting game reveals ahead of time, but there are several other potential reveals we could be seeing tonight.

Capcom just released a teaser trailer for Mai Shiranui in Street Fighter 6 last week, so it’s possible that they follow up tonight with a full blown gameplay showcase — though based on past patterns they might be waiting a bit longer before that big unveiling.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is also set for release soon and just yesterday it appears the existence of an upcoming open beta was leaked. It’s possible that we see an official announcement for that (and potentially more) during The Game Awards.

If you’d like to check out a full breakdown of potential fighting game announcements that could happen at The Game Awards, be sure to read our previous story. You can catch the show’s live stream below.

In terms of of being funny and clever at least

Social media has opened the doors for fans and strangers to reach out to their favorite creators, celebrities, athletes, etc., which often isn’t the best idea for a multitude of reasons.

But sometimes you get unique and bizarre interactions like this that just make you sit back and laugh at what’s possible in our connected world.

Longtime Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada is well known for responding to fan questions and posts on X / Twitter that can lead to some interesting behind the scenes information on game design and marketing… but other times can go a different direction.

Earlier this week, a fan asked Harada if Tekken figurines like Kotobukiya’s sexy Jun Kazama would ever come back to which he gave a bit of an explanation as to how they came to be though avoided saying if they would ever make more.

This quickly led to someone else asking the way more brazen question of who Harada’s “favorite Tekken Milf” is, and if you don’t already know what that word means, we’re not going to help you here.

So let’s just stick with mothers to keep it simple and clean.

Harada san, who’s your favorite Tekken milf? Kasumi is gorgeous but has the demon gene while Jun is kind and strong and full of light.

You maybe like Nina?

— Dai Nobu || Comms Closed || (@DaiNobu01) December 10, 2024

Compared to pretty much every other fighting game series, Tekken actually has a surprisingly large amount of characters who are mothers that have appeared on the rosters over the years (and a handful more on the background).

There is of course the originals of Michelle Chang, Nina Williams and Jun Kazama, who helped usher in the second generation of fighters starting in Tekken 3.

And we’ve even received some more recent examples of Heihachi’s wife Kazumi Mishima and the new Kunimitsu being the daughter of the original in Tekken 7.

But Harada went with none of them with his perfect and funny response.

https://t.co/bUq4vtId9s

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) December 10, 2024

Instead, the Director simply shared a link to the Tekken wiki for the page of Roger’s Wife a.k.a. Mama Roger.

Yes, the kangaroo.

The extended Roger family was introduced in Tekken 5 when Roger Jr. and Mama entered the King of Iron Fist Tournament to try and find the “kidnapped” father.

Unfortunately, they discovered Roger had been living a life of luxury and lazing around without a care, so Jr. uppercuts his dad through the roof.

In Tekken 6, we see the family try and reconcile until Mama discovers a photo of Roger with a bunch of other lady kangaroos in a scene straight out of a weird sitcom.

She too uppercuts Roger through the roof before presumably divorcing him… if kangaroo divorce is indeed a thing in the world of Tekken.

Sadly, the Roger family has been absent from Tekken 7 and Tekken 8 thus far, but they did show up in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 with an ending that revealed Mama started dating Alex, the boxing raptor, though that may not be canon.

That pick though of a kangaroo as Harada’s favorite “mother” definitely raised some eyebrows in the comments, but if you try messing with the Director, be prepared for him to mess around with you back.

And also objectively speaking, Mama Roger does provide probably the most “normal” household and family dynamic outside of maybe Michelle and Julia.

She diligently raises and fights alongside her son and even tried giving Roger a second chance before he proved again that he wasn’t the best husband or father.

As for the other parts of the aforementioned acronym, we obviously presume Harada was joking and wanted to see the funny reactions of fans — and for that he seems to have accomplished his mission.

Although they aren’t the most popular characters, there are certainly still fans who want to see the Roger family back in Tekken 8 and where the story takes them next even if it’s harder to justify dedicating DLC to now.

If you’re looking for more serious and insightful development stories from Harada, he’s also recently talked about Fahkumram’s messed up release in Tekken 7, a last minute design regret for Josie, Tekken Tag Tournament 3 and why Eliza is difficult to bring back again.

Not only is he one of the fastest-growing streamers in the fighting game community today, but Broski has also been climbing the ranks of Street Fighter 6 competition, notably qualifying for Capcom Cup 11 in late November.

The capybara-loving Englishman faced a unique challenge this week when he promised his stream chat that he’d rage quit if a certain amount of contributions were to be made to his charity of choice. Shortly after making this promise, Broski, a man of his word, ran into reigning Street Fighter Evo champion, FLY|Punk.

Though Broski runs into world class players from time to time, the fact that he’s in the United Kingdom while Punk plays primarily from the United States means the two virtually never meet online. Punk happens to be in the UK this week, however, for this weekend’s Kings of the World major tournament in London.

Shortly after establishing the rage quit deal with his faithful followers, Broski’s screen lit up with a new Kimberly challenge card. This wound up to be Punk (whose CFN gamertag is “CFN Good”) trying out the new and improved Kimberly following her significant buffs from the recent Street Fighter 6 balance patch.

An excited Broski seemed to momentarily forget the deal he had just made, locking in at the chance to possibly win against arguably the best player on the planet right now. His chat, however, instantly started donating more money and quickly met the predetermined goal.

Having won the first round, Broski faithfully keeps his promise and hits Alt+F4 to effectively shut down the game and prematurely end the bout.

That’s not where the story ends, though, as Punk follows up and more shenanigans ensue. See how it all went down in the full video below, and be sure to check back here on EventHubs for Kings of the World results this weekend.