Tifa Lockhart is one of the playable characters of Final Fantasy VII. A lot of her journey throughout the story of Final Fantasy VII was tied to her relationship with Cloud Strife, as she held a secret romantic interest in him, which was made more complicated by the arrival and inevitable demise of Aerith Gainsborough.
The cast of Final Fantasy VII all became beloved icons in the world of gaming and Tifa was no exception. Tifa was regarded by many as one of the first cyber pin-up girls and a Google image search for "Tifa Cosplay" will show you just how popular she is as a choice for cosplayers all across the world.
There is more to Tifa Lockhart than her lack of clothes, as she is one of the most formidable fighters in the world of Final Fantasy VII. Tifa became strong enough to take on the Weapon monsters through sheer training alone and doesn't require the aid of Mako or materia to help her punch her enemies into oblivion.
Tifa was also the leader of AVALANCHE in Cloud's absence and became the heart of the group following Aerith's demise. The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII also has a soft spot for Tifa and many of the spin-off games have included her and shown her in as positive a light as possible.
We are here today to learn the secrets of the true leading lady of Final Fantasy VII - from the sickness that can make her stronger to the attempt at copying her style that led to a lawsuit.
Here are the 20 Strange Details About Tifa Lockhart’s Anatomy!
You Can Make Her Stronger By Inflicting Status Effects On Her
The summon monster sequences in Final Fantasy VII were groundbreaking for their time and gamers loved to watch them play out. Gamers today are less impressed by the blocky 3D models, so they will often stick to regular attacks when playing through Final Fantasy VII on a modern machine. There is a way to increase Tifa's attacking power with the use of the Master Fist weapon, which you find in the Shinra Headquarters on disc two.
The Master Fist increases Tifa's attack if she is affected by a status effect, which stacks if she is affected by several at once. You can give Tifa the Poison, Sadness, Silence, and Slow-numb status effects (so long as you use something to counter petrification for the last one) and her power will be boosted beyond what she can achieve with her best weapon.
She Is The Best User Of The D.Blow Materia
Tifa uses knuckles in combat, which are reinforced gloves that she wears in battle. She can use a wide range of ridiculous looking knuckles throughout the game, though cosplayers will often stick with the red and black ones she wears in her official artwork. If you defeat the Carry Armor boss, then you can acquire Tifa's God's Hand weapon, which is made of gold. This weapon has maximum accuracy, which is ripe for exploitation if you combine it with a certain materia.
You can use a command called D. blow in Final Fantasy VII if you find the right materia, which is an attack that always results in a critical hit, but cuts your accuracy down to a third. If you combine God's Hand with D. blow, then the benefit of the former will outweigh the hindrance of the latter, meaning that you will almost always be performing critical hits.
Romancing Her Will Give You A Different Cutscene In Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII has dating mechanics, where you can earn points with four different characters (Aerith, Barret, Tifa, and Yuffie) in order to see some unique scenes with them. There is a unique scene that will take place near the end of disc two that will only happen if you earned a lot of affection points with Tifa. The scene happens during the time when all of the party members go their own ways and decide if they want to continue the battle against Sephiroth. Cloud and Tifa remain on the Highwind, as they have nowhere else to go.
If you have high affection with Tifa, the dialogue between the two characters is more affectionate and she becomes embarrassed at the thought of the other party members watching their conversation (implying more had happened), while the low affection version has less intimate dialogue and ends with Tifa being annoyed instead of embarrassed.
You Can Use Her As A Monster In Puzzle & Dragons
Cloud Strife has made a number of appearances outside of Final Fantasy VII, including in games like Ehrgeiz and Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U, but Tifa isn't far off in terms of appearances within the Final Fantasy series as a whole. Tifa was a collectible character in Puzzle & Dragons, which is one of the most popular cellphone games in the world. Puzzle & Dragons has collaborated with some of the biggest media franchises on the planet and Final Fantasy is no exception.
There are three different versions of Tifa available in Puzzle & Dragons - the first has her standing in her standard pose from her official Final Fantasy VII artwork, the second has her performing her Meteor Strike Limit Break, and the last is Tifa in her Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children outfit.
Dissidia 012 Wouldn't Have Existed Without Her Inclusion
Dissidia Final Fantasy mainly used a hero and villain from each Final Fantasy game, which meant that the roster was easy to predict. The sequel was allowed to open up the roster and allow less conventional choices, with the first two characters revealed being Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII and Kain from Final Fantasy IV.
The director of Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy revealed in an interview that the next character to be unveiled was one that was so important to him that he outright refused to make the game unless he could include them. The next character revealed for Dissidia 012 was Tifa Lockhart, who was a major character in the game's story mode. If Tifa hadn't been made a playable character in Dissidia 012, then the game likely wouldn't have been made.
She Is Ambidextrous
Tifa has appeared in several different Final Fantasy games, as well as a few other titles, like Kingdom Hearts II. Tifa is often shown fighting in her appearances, as she is meant to be a highly-skilled martial artist. If you look closely at Tifa's fighting style throughout her many appearances, you will notice that she often switches her fighting stance between orthodox and southpaw, which relates to the position of the feet and the dominant hand used in combat.
This can be most clearly seen in Dissidia 012, which makes sense considering that it's a fighting game that had to give her a fleshed-out set of moves. These changes suggest that Tifa is ambidextrous, which is a useful trait for a hand-to-hand combatant to possess.
Her Entire Character Was Created As A Reaction To The Demise Of Aerith
Final Fantasy VII went through several different concepts before the creators settled on the one that was finally used. There was originally only three playable characters planned for the game - Aerith Gainsborough, Barret Wallace, and Cloud Strife. The decision was made for at least one of the characters to meet their unfortunate end during the story. When the decision was made to off Aerith, a new character had to be created to act as another love interest for Cloud, which led to the development of Tifa.
The entire concept of Tifa was to act as the third member of a love triangle, which means that her entire existence was always tied to Aerith. Tifa was always meant to be a beautiful woman who was similar, yet different from Aerith, with the audience left to decide who was a better fit for Cloud, or if they deserved other lovers.
She Was Given Short Hair In Advent Children In Order To Make Her Easier To Animate
The hairstyle of each character in Final Fantasy VII was determined by the technology of the original PlayStation. Cloud was originally meant to have gelled-back black hair, but the developers realized that this wouldn't look good in the primitive 3D they had available to them, so they gave the haircut to Zack instead. Tifa had long dark hair that reached her thighs when she stood straight and ended with a split, which was likely a pain for the creators of the game to animate in cutscenes.
When Tifa's design was being updated for Advent Children, her hair was made a lot shorter, so that it only reached her back. This change was a deliberate choice on the part of the animators, who were worried that her original hairstyle would be too difficult to animate.
A Character In Xenogears Somehow Managed To Acquire A Poster Of Her
Xenogears had the potential to be one of the best Squaresoft games of the '90s, but it was let down by being unfinished, as most of the remaining story was reduced to cutscenes, due to the production running out of money and the game being shoved out the door in an incomplete state. There are several connections between Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears, with Cloud directly referencing the game when he returns from the Lifestream.
The most direct connection to Final Fantasy VII in Xenogears can be found in Solaris, where a resident somehow managed to get their hands on a poster of Tifa. There were plenty of Tifa posters to be found in the bedrooms of teenagers in the '90s, but it made no sense for one to show up in a fantasy setting, as it's never explained how someone would own one in the world of Xenogears.
Her Name Is A Reference To Her Beauty
Tifa is one of many Final Fantasy characters with a strange name, though some fans believed that her name was a shortened version of Tiffany, despite a total lack of evidence that her name was shortened in any way. Tifa's name is actually one of many references to the Tree of Life from Kabbalah, which is referenced many times in Final Fantasy VII, especially in regards to the names of the characters.
Tifa's name comes from Tiferet, which is the sixth Sefirot of the Tree of Life and the part which sits in the center to which all other Sefirots are connected. Tiferet is associated with aspects of beauty, compassion, and spirituality, all of which are traits that can be attributed to Tifa.
Her Hair Is A Reference To Her Limit Break
The Limit Breaks used in Final Fantasy VII don't always follow the internal logic of the series, as it makes no sense for Aerith to summon literal angels with the power of her Great Gospel ability, or for the Highwind to be able to fire a bunch of missiles at Cid's location when he is underground.
Tifa learns Dolphin Blow as the first of her third-level Limit Breaks, which allows her to summon a spout of water and a dolphin during one of her attacks. Tifa's dolphin-summoning ability is actually referenced in her hairstyle, as the tip of her hair is split into a style resembling a dolphin's tail.
She Can Use The Power Of Odin To Become Even Stronger
One of the status effects in Final Fantasy VII is the Doom status, which starts a sixty-second timer that will drop the character to zero hit points if it isn't countered in time. Tifa can find a weapon called the Powersoul, which will quadruple her attack power if she is affected by the Doom status. This boost is counteracted by the fact that she only has sixty seconds in which to use the boost before her life is taken.
It's possible to protect yourself from being offed by Doom if Tifa also has the Added Effect materia connected to Odin, which means that she can boost herself with Doom without fear of being struck down by the negative effects of the condition.
Her Piano Playing Ability Is One Of The Most Obscure Secrets In Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII was a game that led to the creation of numerous urban legends during the early days of the Internet, especially in regards to preventing the demise of Aerith. There are a few obscure secrets in Final Fantasy VII that most fans would never have found without the aid of a strategy guide.
If you return to Nibelheim during the portion of the game, where Tifa is the leader of the party and play the Final Fantasy VII theme on the piano, then you will be given an Elemental materia. You can only acquire this materia if Cloud played on Tifa's piano during the Kalm flashback sequence. You can return to the piano at a later point in the story in order to acquire Tifa's final Limit Break.
She Was Incredibly Powerful In The 2nd Final Fantasy VII Demo
There were two demos released for the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VII, both of which followed AVALANCHE during the bombing mission at the start of the game. The difference between each demo is that you have a third party member that isn't present in the first game - Aerith in the first one and Tifa in the second one.
The Tifa demo gives the party a lot of powerful abilities and spells to use, which are meant to show off the amazing graphics of the game. The version of Tifa that appears in the demo is far stronger than how she is at the start of Final Fantasy VII, due to the fact that she comes equipped with the Neo Bahamut materia, which will decimate everything you encounter in the demo.
Cloud's Use Of CPR Was Meant To Be Taught To Her
One of the weirdest minigames in Final Fantasy VII involves Cloud saving a little girl using CPR. This minigame is little more than a waste of time, as it's very slow to complete and is impossible to lose. The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega guide revealed that there was originally going to be a reason why the CPR scene was included, as Tifa was meant to have learned the technique from Cloud during the scene where he saved the little girl so that she could use it to save him later in the game.
When Cloud and Tifa finally emerged from the Lifestream, they were going to wash up on the shores of Mideel. Tifa was originally meant to use CPR to save Cloud's life, but the scene was cut for unknown reasons, even though the original CPR scene remained in the game.
Her Life Was Saved By A Mysterious Cat
The vast majority of Final Fantasy VII fans haven't played through all of the games in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, as one of them was a Japan-exclusive game for smartphones. Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- followed a group of Turks as they completed sketchy missions for the Shinra Corporation. The Turks would secretly be involved with the Nibelheim Incident, which is where they encountered Tifa... and her cat.
Tifa has a white cat in Before Crisis that is never mentioned in any other piece of Final Fantasy VII media. This cat was integral to saving Tifa's life, as it led Zangan to her position after she had been wounded by Sephiroth, allowing him to escape with her before the Shinra troops arrived.
Her Slap Fight Was Censored
One of the most baffling scenes in Final Fantasy VII involves Tifa getting into a slap fight with Scarlet on top of Sister Ray. Tifa has the power to destroy giant monsters with a single punch, yet she struggles against a businesswoman with no combat experience.
The PC version of Final Fantasy VII actually censored Tifa's dialogue during this scene, as Tifa originally called Scarlet a "wench" during their slap fight. This word was changed so that most of the letters were changed into symbols. Wench generally isn't considered to be a curse word that needs censoring, though it's possible that the developers were worried that it may seem offensive in the context in which it was used.
She Uses One Of Sabin's Moves As A Limit Break
Tifa's abilities are similar to the monk job from previous Final Fantasy titles, as she specializes in hand-to-hand combat and only uses glove-like weapons. The representative of the monk job in Final Fantasy VI was Sabin, whose gimmick was using the Blitz command, which involved typing in button combinations to use his moves, in a similar manner to a fighting game character.
Sabin's most famous Blitz is Meteor Strike, which was originally known as Suplex, as it was possible for Sabin to suplex the Phantom Train. Tifa's second third-level Limit Break is called Meteor Strike and it involves her performing the same move as Sabin's version of Meteor Strike, as she picks up the enemy, jumps into the air, and sends them crashing down into the ground.
Her Eyes Have Changed Color Several Times
Tifa's outfit was originally meant to be plain, as her physical beauty was such that you weren't supposed to care that she was dressed like an evil henchman from an '80s action movie. One of the most striking aspects of Tifa's design is her red eyes, which is a trait that she shares with Vincent Valentine.
The problem with Tifa's eyes is that their color hasn't been consistent in her appearances, as they have sometimes been depicted as being brown, most notably in Advent Children. It's possible that she was given red eyes due to the limited hardware of the time in order to make her design more colorful and that the people at Square Enix changed their minds over time.
A Music Video Was Banned Because It Stole Her Fight Choreography
In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Tifa has to face off against Loz in a fistfight that takes place in a church. It seems that Tifa's fight scene was an inspiration for a pop singer from Korea named Ivy, as the video for her song "Temptation of Sonata" involves an almost direct copy of Tifa's battle with Loz, right down to the costumes, location, and fight choreography.
Square Enix wasn't pleased with this homage to their work, as their permission hadn't been granted,. This led to them pursuing legal action to prevent the music video from being shown on TV. The Seoul Central District Court ruled in Square Enix's favor and the video was banned from being shown on television.
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Are there any other interesting fact about Tifa's body in Final Fantasy? Sound off in the comments!