Clive Tekken 8
Image: Push Square

Clive Rosfield, of Final Fantasy 16 fame, is the first guest character in Tekken 8 — and the final part of the game's first season pass.

Armed with his trusty blade and a slew of Eikon-based superpowers, Clive would feel far more at home in SoulCalibur than Tekken. But much like Noctis in Tekken 7 — also a DLC addition — Clive has been superbly recreated in Bandai Namco's current-gen fighter.

Seriously, the amount of effort that's been poured into this character is astounding. From his animations, to his moveset, to the sound effects that accompany his attacks — the Tekken team have gone above and beyond. Even his unique intros and win quotes are a perfect reflection of the Clive that fans of Final Fantasy 16 will be so familiar with.

Doing any guest character justice in a modern fighting game is going to be difficult, but Clive's arsenal must have made for an especially tricky adaptation. After all, Final Fantasy 16 is essentially an action title, with Clive unlocking all kinds of magical abilities as the story progresses.

By the end of his adventure, Clive is a one-man army — a demigod capable of switching between devastating elemental attacks at will. But somehow, Tekken 8 manages to take those abilities and weave them into a cohesive — and more importantly, coherent — set of moves. It really is one hell of an achievement from a design perspective.

Needless to say, Clive is a lot of fun to actually play as. He's easy to use on a basic level, featuring a selection of simplistic combo strings to get you started, but as is the case with just about every character in Tekken 8, there's clear depth to his aggression.

For starters, you can utilise his Phoenix Shift to close the distance and apply instant pressure through a number of high, mid, and low attacks that basically put your opponent in the blender. What's more, he's got an airborne Bahamut stance, which seems great for situations where your opponent is on the ground, and they're being forced to get up in specific ways.

He's also got a handful of fast, long-reaching sword slashes that help you control space; another win for less experienced players who may not be too familiar with Tekken 8's movement mechanics.

And in Heat, Clive literally heats up by embracing his inner Ifrit. Being in Heat gives him a number of additional attacks, and you can even start chaining certain moves together with the help of Torgal — Clive's loyal wolf-like companion. Again, all of this stuff is brilliantly animated.

Then there's his Rage Art, which is the icing on the cake. Following a series of dramatic sword slices, Clive transforms into Ifrit, grabs his opponent in midair, and slams them into the ground with a massive explosion.

It's easily one of the most cinematic Rage Arts in Tekken 8, but the best thing about it, by far, is that if you happen to close a match with this thing, you get a special win pose where the victory music from Final Fantasy 16 plays. It's absolutely glorious.

We're big fans of Clive in Tekken 8, then, but we should also mention his stage, which is a separate download but is included with Clive himself. It's Phoenix Gate from the opening of Final Fantasy 16, and features Ifrit and Phoenix battling it out in the background. It's very nicely recreated, and provides a fairly large arena surrounded by flames.

When the match reaches its potential final round, you get a cinematic sequence where Ifrit catches Phoenix out of the air, and then punches the giant bird right in its chest. This results in a stage transition, whisking combatants away to the fiery depths of Clive's mind, where the two Ifrits duke it out.

You can practically see the budget pouring out of the screen, all while 'Find the Flame' from Final Fantasy 16's soundtrack injects the necessary hype. In fact, our only criticism of the DLC is that the Tekken sound team didn't (or couldn't get permission to) remix the borrowed music tracks.

The Final Fantasy 15 track that was remixed for Noctis' inclusion in Tekken 7 was an absolute banger — but at the same time, you could argue that Final Fantasy 16's themes are simply too good to tweak in the first place.

So, in summary, Tekken 8's first season of DLC comes to a rather epic conclusion. On paper, Clive may not be the best fit for the franchise in terms of fighting style, but Bandai Namco has done a ridiculously impressive job of adapting Ifrit's Dominant.


Have you played as Clive in Tekken 8? Find your own flames in the comments section below.