Tekken 8's next fighter is Clive, actually

Earlier this week we heard rumblings of a new character announcement for Tekken 8, and at the same time a trailer dropped a big unmistakable hint for red-dressed rabble rouser Anna Williams. Turns out that unmistakable hint was mistakable. My mistake. At last night's Game Awards we learned that the next fighter to come to the game will be... Clive? From Final Fantasy XVI? Sure. Why not.

Ah yes, lots of swooshy fire and ice effects alongside those jabs and slices, as befits the magic man. This is the second Final Fantasy character to guest star in the fighter in recent times, as Noctis from Final Fantasy XV also found his fishy way into the Iron Fist Tournament back in 2018. Some of Clive's warpy movement is reminiscent of the road tripping prince (one air-blipping combo in particular) but most of the moveset looks to be his own angry bashing. At one point he slashes Zantetsuken-style in the manner of Odin, long-standing summon of the RPG series, and for the finale he conjures Ifrit into being for what looks to be the character's Rage art.

He's the fourth and final character for anyone who bought the season 1 DLC pass, standing alongside the already-released Eddy, Lidia, and Heihachi. His fiery Phoenix Gate stage also comes included. There will be some disappointment, I'm sure, given how some fans have been clamouring for years to see Tifa - another Final Fantasy character - included as a guest (or Kiryu from the Yakuza series). Once again they haven't seen their prayers answered, but perhaps the sting will fade when they inspect Clive's moveset. Some of his attacks look frighteningly fast. He's getting added to the game next week, December 16th.

As for my earlier reporting that the new character would likely be the bifferess in red, well, I got confused. Those hints were intended for the next season of the fighting game, suggesting that Anna is coming next year (Anna has been a mainstay in all Tekken games, apart from Tekken 4 for some reason). It serves me right for getting caught up in the prevailing winds of streamer opinion and the YouTube commentariat, instead of trusting my newsboi gut and simply saying in a boring voice: "we don't know who this will be yet." To be honest, I'm just upset we haven't yet seen any sign of drunken master Lei or irritable matador Miguel. Although, now that I look at Clive's hair, there is something distinctly Miguelish about him. Maybe I can dress him up?