Playstation Icons: Tifa Lockhart

Being one of the most iconic women in gaming has certainly helped young Tifa make herself known to the masses. She’s become the alternative face of the Final Fantasy VII saga, the yin to Cloud’s yang. Not only is she hauntingly beautiful but she too has a deep and tragic backstory which rivals that of Cloud. We don’t need an excuse to reacquaint ourselves with Tifa Lockhart, so let’s dive into her history.

Conception

Tifa was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, and was not actually present in the earliest versions of Final Fantasy VII. Initially, the game was only planned to have three playable characters; the protagonist Cloud Strife, Aeris Gainsborough and Barret Wallace. However, during a phone call to project director Yoshinori Kitase, it was suggested that at some point in the game, one of the main characters would leave the party. Nomura later joked that this was his idea, granting him the opportunity to introduce Tifa into the game.

The notion of having two concurrent heroines and having the hero waver between them was something Kitase liked, describing it as something new for the Final Fantasy series. Tifa was designed to use the ‘monk’ character class that appeared in the previous games in the series, and many aspects of her personality were actually taken from those originally planned for Aeris.

In a change from previous entries in the Final Fantasy series, the development team worked off of Nomura’s character designs, while series artist Yoshitaka Amano contributed his own artwork, wanting to depict the characters in modern clothing as opposed to high-fantasy or historic outfits. Tifa has long, black hair in a style resembling a dolphin’s tail at the tip, styled in a way to help set her apart from Aeris, but also because the longer fixed hairstyle was easier to animate.

Unlike most other characters in Final Fantasy VII, Nomura wrote down her bust/waist/hip measurements in his concept art for her, defined as 36-24-35″ (92-60-88 cm). Nomura wanted each character to have one striking feature, and in Tifa’s case it was her large breasts. Internally, the development team jokingly referred to her as “Boing-chan”, an allusion to her bust. Nomura was also keen to apply diversity in the three female party members in the game, with each having a noticeably different chest size to the others.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Jugemu, they discussed her character design, with composer Nobuo Uematsu commenting that her breasts were “a bit…overly ample.” Cutscene director Motonari Sakakibara countered that the rest of the team insisted he not reduce their size. Nomura himself added “at the end of the day, we all like them. […] If I made them smaller, everyone would get angry at me.”

Initially, Nomura had difficulty deciding whether to go with a miniskirt or long pants for Tifa. Seeking input, he passed his sketches around Square’s offices and the majority of the staff members approved of the miniskirt design. This additionally served as a contrast to Aeris, whose long skirt was her ‘trademark’. The attire was explained as giving her freedom of movement, due to her hand-to-hand combat specialty and the skirt, referred to as “quite short […] giving a considerable degree of exposure”, was kept as a staple of her alternate costumes. The development team later clarified in an issue of V-Jump that the miniskirt was more akin to a one-piece ‘skort’, rather than tastelessly exposing her underwear during combat.

English voice actress Rachael Leigh Cook stated in an interview for Kingdom Hearts II that she enjoys playing Tifa and described her as “very strong physically and emotionally, but also very sensitive” and “very multi-dimensional”. In voicing the character, Cook listened to Ayumi Ito’s recording as a guide to how the character sounds. Following Advent Children, Cook thanked Nomura for the film he created as she enjoyed it. Britt Baron voiced Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, while Tifa as a child is voiced by Glory Curda.

Story: Lover and a Fighter

Warning: The following section contains spoilers from Tifa’s past and backstory. You may want to skip this part if you’d rather figure it out yourself.

Tifa was born in the town of Nibelheim to Brian and Thea Lockhart. As a child, she was outgoing, and played with three friends in a group affectionately named the “Four Fiends”, though this group did not include Tifa’s next-door neighbour, a boy one year Tifa’s senior named Cloud Strife, though the two did occasionally socialise together, however after Thea’s death, the two began drifting apart.

Thea died when Tifa was eight years old, leaving Tifa upset and confused, and causing her to grow apart from her friends. Coping with her trauma, Tifa came to believe that her mother had gone to Mt. Nibel, and that she could meet her again if she crossed the mountain. Tifa headed off to Mt. Nibel with the Four Fiends, and Cloud followed to protect her. Instead, Tifa’s friends abandoned her, and Tifa took a misstep on a rickety bridge; Cloud tried to catch her, but they both fell. Her father found her severely injured, in a coma for seven days, and blamed Cloud. Tifa’s memory of the event is hazy.

Pitying the motherless Tifa, the women of the village helped teach Tifa skills that Brian could not, such as how to cook and sew. In Tifa’s adolescence, she quickly blossomed into a beautiful young lady and her male friends began to see her as a future romantic partner, although she would respond with vague silence to their advances, pretending not to catch them, to avoid hurting feelings as she wasn’t interested in dating yet.

Tifa instead grew a connection to a white cat she owned named Fluffy, gifted to her on her twelfth birthday. After spraining her ankle when Fluffy leapt from her arms, the village chased after her cat to no avail. Later, Claudia Strife brought the cat to Tifa’s house, as Cloud had found it in the mountains, but was too embarrassed to bring it back to Tifa himself. At social gatherings, Tifa’s friends mentioned their desire to leave the sleepy town of Nibelheim for a better life in Midgar, leading Tifa to feel like she was competing for their attention.

Five years after Thea’s death, Cloud decided to join SOLDIER like his idol Sephiroth, in part to impress Tifa whom he liked but had trouble talking to. After readying himself for a powerful send-off, he called Tifa out to the water tower to tell her of his plans, which Tifa found reminiscent of the others’ desires to leave. Tifa made Cloud promise to protect her if she was ever in trouble. Tifa actually liked Cloud too, albeit from afar as she was regularly pre-occupied with her social group, studies and helping her father with work. After that night, Tifa’s admiration for Cloud evolved a little.

When Cloud left to join Shinra the following spring, Tifa kept checking the newspapers looking for some mention of him, and asking Shinra personnel in Nibelheim if they knew him. Sometime after, Zangan arrived to Nibelheim and met Tifa by the Gunnthra River. Impressed by how she came to offer assistance, and by her physique, Zangan believed she possessed the aptitude and the quality of mind to be a great martial artist. Zangan was sent away by the village elder, believing he was a Shinra spy, but before he left, he offered to train Tifa as his disciple, giving her exercise booklets.

After some contemplation, Tifa eventually took on Zangan’s training, and in his absence, even taught exercise classes in the Calisthenics Club. As she progressed further, Zangan requested Brian make combat gear for Tifa, which he reluctantly agreed to do. Zangan would eventually earn the trust of the Nibelheim residents and be able to give Tifa more advanced training. At the age of fifteen, the pair began working on a unique combat style for her and Tifa ultimately became Zangan’s most prized student.

Later that year, Tifa was hired by Shinra to act as a guide for a military expedition to investigate a faulty mako reactor that was seemingly responsible for a rise in monster attacks. The expedition included Sephiroth and a SOLDIER named Zack Fair. During their stay, she dropped hints to Zack of dreaming of a blond-haired SOLDIER protecting her.

Unbeknown to her, Cloud was one of the two Shinra guards accompanying Zack and Sephiroth, but concealed his identity due to his shame of failing to enter SOLDIER. He prevented her entry to the reactor, and unsuccessfully attempted to protect her from a monster attack shortly after, trying to anonymously keep his earlier promise. She protected him instead, and helped him down the mountain. Afterward, Tifa messaged Zack, expressing her worry for the soldier who helped her.

Later, Sephiroth went berserk when he learned of his origins and who “his mother” is, and set Nibelheim ablaze before setting off to the reactor. Brian Lockhart and others followed, but Sephiroth slew them. Tifa found her father dead at the Nibel Reactor with Sephiroth’s sword. Declaring her hatred of Sephiroth and Shinra, she attacked him, but Sephiroth disarmed her and cut her down. Tifa fell down the steps and slumped to the ground. She suffered a severe laceration from Sephiroth’s sword, leaving a large wound across her chest. The wound reached bone and shattered a portion of her sternum, but did not damage any internal organs.

Zack found Tifa injured but chose to engage Sephiroth instead, only to be defeated. Cloud arrived and carried Tifa aside before confronting Sephiroth himself, believing Tifa’s wounds were fatal. Zangan arrived and found Tifa, managing to take only her to safety with help from some Shinra members while Zack and Cloud were left behind. He cast a curative spell on her and was barely able to keep her alive.

Zangan took Tifa away for medical treatment. He took her first to Dr. Sheiran in Corel, who performed surgery and recommended she be transferred to a bigger facility in Junon or Midgar with better treatment access. Though a bed was offered to her in the Shinra Building’s Research and Development Division, Zangan refused and instead took her to a doctor in the Sector 8 slums, Dr. Dhamini Oranye. The surgery reinforced the damaged portion of Tifa’s spine with artificial bone and a short piece of metal wire, and after the skin grafts healed, she was told she would be able to recover and resume a normal life.

After Tifa recovered successfully, she was discharged from the hospital, but greatly in debt to Dr. Oranye. She took a job working for Mr. “Pops” Manson, for his business, the Sector 8 Steamed Buns. Manson hired Tifa because of her appearance, believing her looks would bring in customers. Tifa was slow at first, but began to improve her performance with Manson’s advice. Tifa managed her money carefully to pay rent and quickly clear her debt. While running the stall, Tifa also met Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie Rasberry, and the group became friends.

Tifa’s landlady, Marle, introduced Tifa to Seventh Heaven and to its owner, Monty, whose business was struggling at the time after a bartender quit. Tifa took a job there, allowing the bar to reopen on evenings. Business turned around until Monty fell ill and two new customers, Barret and Marlene Wallace, became regulars and Barret scared away customers. After Tifa scolded Barret for rough sleeping with Marlene, Marle arranged for Monty to allow Barret to sleep in the basement, and had him working for the bar. Following Monty’s passing, Tifa inherited the Seventh Heaven bar.

One day, Barret protected Tifa and Jessie from a Shinra raid, resulting in Jessie introducing Barret to Biggs and Wedge, and with Tifa, the group collectively made Barret their leader due to their own indecisiveness. The group would form a splinter cell of the anti-Shinra terrorism group, Avalanche, and Seventh Heaven became their headquarters. Tifa handled the group’s finances, and helped look after Marlene while Barret was away. Eventually, Barret’s group cut ties from the main branch of Avalanche after a series of disagreements.

Soon after, Cloud returned to Midgar, now working as a mercenary when he was met by Tifa. Unaware Cloud was in Nibelheim during its destruction, but suspecting something was off about his behavior, Tifa recruited him to work for Barret to study him further. Realising Cloud knew several things he should not and had forgotten things he should know, and also initially doubting her own recollections when faced with Cloud’s, Tifa concealed this information while trying to figure out the reason behind Cloud’s different character and inconsistent memories.

Realising Cloud may be the key to figuring out what really happened on the day of the Nibelheim massacre and also keen to keep a fellow survivor from her past around, Tifa would charm both Cloud and Barret in order to keep Cloud around, even by integrating him into Avalanche if necessary. Her plan was initially unsuccessful, as she and Cloud were separated after Avalanche attempted to bomb Shinra’s Mako Reactor 5, however Cloud would come to Tifa’s rescue soon after when she infiltrated the mansion of notorious slum-lord Don Corneo, where Tifa would meet Aeris for the first time, putting the building blocks in place for a newer, stronger Avalanche.

Relationships

Cloud’s reciprocated romantic interests in both Tifa and Aeris (nowadays known as Aerith, which is the name that will be used in this piece) have resulted in this relationship scenario being described as a ‘love triangle’, a term used all the way back in 1997 with the original game’s release. However, the term has since been reinterpreted as ‘polyamorous’ by modern audiences and implies that while both Tifa and Aerith have romantic feelings for Cloud, they also share similar feelings for each other. Explorations of this scenario have labelled their relationship as “Claerifa”, a fusion of the three characters’ names.

Deeper dives into a potential polyamorous relationship suggest that this scenario, while amicable at first glance, is actually somewhat self-destructive in nature, and is ultimately responsible for the relationship breakdown throughout the Final Fantasy VII series, with neither Tifa nor Aerith able to maintain a romantic relationship with Cloud. This has been attributed to several underlying factors, including the possibility of Cloud being asexual due to his declining mental state, and Tifa and Aerith’s growing feelings for each other.

Assuming the truth of both the above-mentioned scenarios would explain the comparatively rapid growth in the relationship between Tifa and Aerith, with the two displaying one of the strongest friendships in the games, growing quickly even after their first meeting. A romantic angle to this friendship has resulted in a relationship arc known by fans as “Aerti”, though actual intimacy in this dynamic has been limited to fan fiction only. However, Square Enix has yet to neither confirm nor deny the rumour.

Aerith – “How ’bout this, then? Think of something fun. After saving Sector 7, you’re gonna…?”
Tifa – “I’m gonna… Go shopping—topside! I’ll buy… Stuff for the bar! Decorations, coasters…”
Aerith – “Can I come?”
Tifa – “You’d better!”
Aerith – “Then it’s a date!”

Alternatively, a simpler explanation of Tifa and Cloud’s relationship has been presented, with Aerith being attracted to Cloud only because of the characteristics he shares with Zack Fair, who is generally considered her one true love, a relationship branded as “Zerith”. This means that Tifa becomes Cloud’s primary love interest by a simple process of elimination, however their love has not had chance to properly manifest due to the events of Final Fantasy VII and sequel movie Advent Children. Their future relationship has also become a major topic of speculation and fan fiction, branded this time as “Cloti”.

Legacy

Since her introduction, critics and fans have reacted immensely positively to Tifa, with her often appearing near the top of fan polls. Tifa has been named the pin-up girl of the “cyber generation” by The New York Times, and has been compared to Lara Croft as an example of a strong, independent and attractive female character in gaming. The media has repeatedly praised her strength and appearance and described her as one of the best female characters in gaming. The heavy emphasis on sex appeal in her reception has also seen frequent discussion, though it has also received some criticism for overshadowing other aspects of her character.

Den of Geek’s Matthew Byrd cited her popularity a result of her character’s warmth, strength, and her ability to act both supportively and as a leader depending on when the situation called for it in Final Fantasy VII’s storyline, but also noted her vulnerability and how it made her a well-rounded character “who is more than worthy of her fan-favourite status”. Jenni Lada of Siliconera called her an iconic heroine, echoing the sentiments of the other critiques, while praising how future installments built upon her character.

The character has also been a frequent subject of fan-made pornography, cited in particular as a frequent search topic on Pornhub. In January 2022, a Zoom video-conference meeting done in the Italian Senate was interrupted by a user displaying 3D rendered pornography featuring Tifa engaging in sex. The user was quickly removed, but due to the conference being televised, knowledge of the event went viral. While Tifa’s use in it was coincidental, it led to a new surge in the character’s popularity. Jade King of TheGamer noted the enduring nature of Tifa by featuring in the incident, highlighting an “aspect of Tifa’s character that will now be ingrained into her history, and there’s something brilliant about that”.

Outside of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Tifa is a frequent guest character who has appeared in the following games throughout the Final Fantasy series: