After months of speculation – and a bit of teasing from producer Katsuhiro Harada – Bandai Namco has finally shown off the next character coming to Tekken 8.
As announced at The Game Awards, Tekken’s next playable fighter is Clive Rosfield, who you might know as the protagonist of Final Fantasy 16, the latest main series game in the Final Fantasy series. Clive will be added to the game on December 16, and will be available as part of the game’s season pass, which also included fighters Eddy Gordo, Lidia Sobieska, and Heihachi Mishima.
Square Enix
Harada had previously mentioned ahead of Tekken 8’s launch that the team hadn’t considered adding any guest characters at the time, but in recent months has acknowledged the massive fan demand for particular characters. Those characters were mostly Final Fantasy 7’s Tifa and Like a Dragon’s Kiryu, but hey, Clive is almost like one of those, being from Final Fantasy.
Tekken 8 first launched in January 2024 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and sold over 2 million copies in the first month of sales. It was also very well received, with a score of 91/100 on review score aggregator Metacritic.
The game came under fire from fans following the release of its third DLC fighter after the update introducing the character also added a new paid stage, which was not included in the game’s season pass, much to the frustration of season pass purchasers. Harada released a statement following the uproar apologizing for the situation, saying that he had “failed to create an organizational structure that would allow [him] to see things beyond [his] own position.”
