During the 10th anniversary of The Game Awards, there were many crowd-pleasing announcements. One of the biggest was Final Fantasy XVI’s main protagonist, Clive Rosfield, who will appear in Bandai Namco’s Tekken 8. While this is likely exciting for fans of both franchises, the two have a long history together. Both franchises have dominated the fighting and JRPG genres for nearly two decades and have shared creators. Here is a breakdown of how this history led to Clive’s appearance in Tekken 8.
Tekken 8’s Crossover
According to IGN, Tekken 8’s latest crossover fighter will be Final Fantasy XVI’s Clive Rosfield. While these fantasy sagas have many epic heroes, Clive is one of their strongest as a noble knight cursed with dark powers on a quest to save his dynasty. Given the size and history of both franchises, there are probably many celebrating, and indeed, many did during the initial announcement during the Game Awards.
The producer of the Tekken franchise, Katsuhiro Harada, sat down with IGN to discuss these plans. He said that halfway through Final Fantasy XVI’s development, he and Tekken 8’s director, Kouhei Ikeda, visited Square to see an early build. There, they realized that a crossover was inevitable. They realized Clive’s more action-oriented character would fit perfectly into Tekken’s martial setting.
While they brought his magical abilities, “Eikons,” into the game, they had to adjust his design to fit better with the game’s style. Fortunately, Harada also confirmed the crossover would open the door for more Final Fantasy heroes, such as Cloud, to enter the game. Finally, both Harada and Ikeda stated Final Fantasy 4 was their favorite game in the series.
PlayStation History
As it turns out, both games have been in the PlayStation console’s history long before the Tekken 8 crossover. Since Final Fantasy VII became one of the first groundbreaking games and the first Tekken became a fighting classic, they have made dozens of classics on the console. Furthermore, this is a great way to celebrate, as Tekken 8 won Best Fighting Game of the Year at the same ceremony where the crossover was announced.
Both franchises have evolved alongside one another. Tekken 8 now has jaw-dropping graphics, high-precision physics, and dozens of fighters. Additionally, Final Fantasy went from an 8-bit version of Dungeons and Dragons to a sprawling epic spanning entire continents. During the interview, Harada discussed how several 3D artists for Tekken 3 lent their talents to Square’s revolutionary VII, released a year later.
Connecting Massive Franchises
Much like Nintendo, PlayStation enjoys creating crossovers between its massive IPs. One example was Astro Bot, a love letter to PlayStation’s history featuring dozens of cameos. It was so successful that it won Game of the Year last week. Bandai Namco and Square Enix have made many other hits for the console beyond these two. Sony has also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the original PlayStation in many ways.
Franchise crossovers have always been a central feature of fighting games, even from different genres. The biggest examples would be the entirety of the Smash Bros. and Marvel Vs. Capcom series. Furthermore, Tekken 7 featured Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis Lucis Caelum as a guest fighter. Therefore, a big matchup shows how powerful the Tekken series became during its history.
Conclusion
Even though these two series seem to have little in common, they have an alliance dating back to PlayStation’s early days. These two games have long since shared fans and team members across games. Therefore, Clive’s cameo in Tekken 8 was a great way to celebrate this collaboration. While many people probably imagine big developers as “rivals,” it’s nice to see them get along and collaborate to connect their fanbases. Hopefully, this will even allow JRPG and fighting game fans to try out one another’s games.
