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.