Before I get to a new couple I'm starting to like, let me tell you a bit of a story that involves this character being a guest star to a popular fighting game franchise that many people did NOT expect. And that franchise is: Tekken.
Beginning of the month was the Game Awards and Bandai Namco announced that they will be announcing the final DLC character of Season 1 on the Awards show instead of in the finals of Tekken World Tour and it would be a guest character (once more, as the prequel, Tekken 7 had not only the villain of SNK titles Fatal Fury/Garou Densetsu and King of Fighters, Geese Howard, not to mention Akuma from Street Fighter as part of the Tekken lore, but also Noctis from Final Fantasy XV, with many believed that he fit more in to Soul Calibur series and out of the blue choices: Negan from The Walking Dead). Many people were assuming that Tifa Lockhart will be the guest because of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is currently out and also her being a brawler-type work perfectly in Tekken gameplay. If not, a possible Virtua Fighter character or Yakuza/Like A Dragon character such as Kazuma Kiryu or Goro Majima could work since SEGA was coming back. But then came the announcement:
Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI. Many people was either the following: Who? Or, not another FF character?! While some fans hyped, many saw it as a lackluster.
I was actually on both sides of the coin of the who and not another FF sword-based character. I also knew that Tifa wasn't coming, due to the following clues: 1) the character was associated with orange and 2) leakers saw that the DLC characters was associated with animals and Clive's codename was "Hamster" which many saw the connection with the children's series, Clive's Hamster. Later on, in a gregarious interview, the Tekken team revealed that they instantly want Clive in Tekken 8 the moment they saw the FFXVI announcement trailer. Mind you, that's a HUGE risk because despite the game is actually good and Clive is an interesting protagonist, what if FFXVI and even Clive's characterization didn't work well and click with audiences? Luckily it worked on their favor but that would've messed up chances if the game wasn't successful (and despite the praises, the game didn't sell well). After testing out Clive in 8, as OP he can get, I then decided to buy FFXVI for Christmas to see what's the plot about.
Well then, I can see why this game got praised and many people liken Clive, especially after the second time skip. And then, the love interest: Jill Warrick. So far, their relationship is very realistic and organic. Both are Dominants and childhood friends who had experienced A LOT of trauma when they reached adulthood, it was so compelling to learn about them. Plus, the fire and ice dynamic: Clive is the Dominant of Ifrit and Jill's Shiva, both summons that are very popular (one of the FF games had them as a couple that fall out, can't remembered which one). I'm currently want to see more of their relationship and their dynamic.