Tifa Lockhart

Lore & Background

Tifa is the childhood friend of Cloud Strife, the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. She is the owner of the 7th Heaven bar in the slums of Midgar and a member of the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE. She convinces Cloud to join the group to keep him close and safe, and later assists in saving the Planet from the game's villain, Sephiroth. Titles in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII later expanded upon her character, such as in Advent Children, where she attempts to convince Cloud to let go of his self-imposed guilt and move on with his life after Sephiroth's defeat.

Reader's Guide

Tifa stands 167 centimetres (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in) tall. Her outfit consists of a white crop top and a black miniskirt held up by a pair of narrow black suspenders. She wears red boots and gloves, with black sleeves extending from wrist to elbow; a metal guard covers her left elbow. The attire was described as giving her freedom of movement, due to her hand-to-hand combat specialty.

Her hair is long and dark brown in a style that resembles a dolphin's tail. This longer fixed hairstyle helped to differentiate her visually from Aerith and was also easier to animate. Nomura wrote down her bust/waist/hip measurements in his concept art for her, defined as 92-60-88 cm (36-24-35 in). Nomura wanted each character to have one striking feature, in Tifa's case her large breasts.

During development, the team jokingly referred to her as "Boing-chan", an allusion to her bust. Her miniskirt serves as a contrast to Aerith, whose trademark was her "long skirt", and it was kept in her alternate costumes. The development team later clarified that the miniskirt was more akin to a skort instead of bare underwear, to keep her from being exposed during combat.

Origins and Developmental Context

Tifa was designed by Tetsuya Nomura. She was not present in early versions of Final Fantasy VII, as the game was to have only three playable characters: the protagonist Cloud Strife, Aerith Gainsborough, and Barret Wallace. However, it was suggested during a phone call to project director Yoshinori Kitase that one of the main characters should die at some point in the game. After much discussion as to whether it should be Barret or Aerith, the producers chose Aerith.

Nomura later joked that this was his idea, so as to enable him 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 in the Final Fantasy series. She was designed to use the "monk" character class that appeared in previous games in the series, and many aspects of her personality were taken from Aerith's initial design.

Cultural Impact and Critical Reception

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. Critics have repeatedly praised her strength and appearance and described her as one of the best female characters in video games. Her design's sex appeal has received some criticism for overshadowing other aspects of her character.