Tifa Lockhart has always been a popular mainstay in the Final Fantasy franchise. A childhood friend of Cloud Strife, the young Nibelheim woman quickly becomes an integral part of Final Fantasy VII's narrative when players start the game in Midgar. As the game progresses, Tifa and Cloud slowly uncover their shared feelings and past trauma with each other.
Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Remake suffers a similar set of problems to Cloud's character arc. While many of her profound connections to the protagonist aren't explored until after the point Remake ends at, the Avalanche member nevertheless provides an evident foil to the game's illustrious cast as a nuanced, actualized character.
10 Worse: Tifa Sends Aerith To Rescue Marlene During The Sector 7 Collapse
A surprising course of action that Tifa takes in both the original game and Remake continuity is the decision to send Aerith after Marlene while Sector 7 is being attacked by Shinra. Due to Tifa's inherently compassionate nature, it would make sense for her to oversee the safety of Barret's daughter before rushing to the aid of her Avalanche comrades.
Remake exacerbates this decision by establishing the importance of Tifa and Marlene's relationship in the preceding chapter. During this chapter, Tifa sees a visage of Marlene crying alone in the warehouse where the party fights Ghoul, and stresses to Cloud and Aerith the importance of getting back to Seventh Heaven as soon as possible.
9 Better: Tifa Is The Queen Of Pressuring And Staggering In Battle
Like her fellow party members, Tifa brings a unique approach to the hybridized combat of Remake. Capitalizing on Tifa's strength in speed, the developers designed Tifa's ability kit to maximize her potency to rapidly increase pressure gauges and build stagger percentages during battle with moves like Focused Strike and Divekick.
Not only is pressuring and staggering a key part of combat in Remake, but sometimes they are often essential in securing victory against tough opponents and bosses, especially on harder difficulties. This makes Tifa the most ideal candidate to fight superbosses like Bahamut and Weiss the Immaculate.
8 Worse: Tifa Can Sometimes Come Across As A Defeatist
Given her inherently timid and shy nature in Final Fantasy VII's expanded universe, it's not a stretch to say Tifa seems like a defeatist when it comes to certain situations. However, Tifa's mental approach certainly makes sense given her history—tragic circumstances still befall her character despite training to prepare for the worst.
Remake's in-depth approach to the overarching narrative of the original game gives players time to interrogate the more nuanced details about the franchise's established characters, including Tifa's moments of defeatism. After the collapse of the Sector 7 plate, Tifa readily accepts blame for the catastrophe on the behalf of Avalanche. Fortunately, Barret puts a quick stop to her self-defeatism, reminding her that Shinra were the ones that ultimately pulled the trigger.
7 Better: Tifa Winds Up Saving Cloud From Himself...More Than Once
Like her other female counterparts in the Final Fantasy VII universe, Tifa is more than capable of handling herself in dangerous situations. Remake, then, makes a smart move in emphasizing her ability to be self-sufficient by inverting the classic and frankly ubiquitous "damsel in distress" trope.
On more than one occasion, players witness Tifa getting the protagonist, Cloud, out of sticky situations. She and Aerith save him from Corneo's clutches in Wall Market; she diverts Reno and Rude's attention to her at the Sector 7 Pillar; and, she grabs Cloud as he's falling off the Shinra Building after Rufus escapes. As Tifa quotes: If Cloud wants to be the hero, he's going to have to do a whole lot better.
6 Worse: Tifa Stalls On Rejecting Johnny As A Suitor
Johnny numbers among the most annoying and dense characters in Midgar. Unfortunately, players have to tolerate his tiresome antics across multiple chapters in Remake. During these encounters, Johnny often self-aggrandizes his infatuation for Tifa, believing himself to be the one who needs to "save her."
While it would seem Johnny's character was designed as comic relief, players are likely to sympathize with Cloud's irritation of him. Johnny continues to unload his woes onto Cloud and company as the game progresses, which eventually leads to an optional encounter where Tifa is forced to reject Johnny's advances after recovering his wallet from Kyrie. If only Tifa had let Cloud finish off the troublemaker in Chapter 3.
5 Worse: Tifa's Universal Compassion Can Get In The Way Of The Mission
Tifa's abundance of compassion is easily both her best quality and worst quality. It allows her to care about the denizens of Sector 7 and employees of Shinra alike, a quality that separates her from her Avalanche counterparts, but it also prevents her from standing up for herself to reject advances from individuals like Johnny.
However, perhaps what is most egregious about Tifa's compassion is that it can sometimes interfere with the missions the party is trying to accomplish. When Cloud, Barret, and Tifa make their approach to Mako Reactor 5 via the plate's underbelly, Tifa expresses reluctance to shutting off the sun lamps that light the slums below. Cloud and Barret are quick to point out that they cannot reach their target if the lamps remain on.
4 Better: Tifa's Reservations Act As A Foil To Barret's Radicalism
Because the protagonists of Final Fantasy VII are all part of Avalanche, the eco-terrorist group is often portrayed in a positive light to most players, However, Remake not only takes the opportunity to explore the organization but also uses Tifa as a proxy to question the decisive actions the splinter cell is taking.
Barret, the strong-willed leader of Tifa's Avalanche cell, is insistent that taking out the Mako Reactors across Midgar is the only way to send a message to Shinra that they are abusing the Planet's lifestream. However, Tifa maintains a healthy skepticism of the team's motives, often questioning who they're really hurting in the process and leading players to ask if this eco-terrorist cell is really taking the right approach.
3 Better: Tifa's Athleticism Is Spotlighted Beyond Just Her Looks
Tifa's athletic prowess gets spotlighted in a meaningful way that extends beyond her iconic sporty look in Remake. In fact, the scenarios where players are given control over Tifa tend to highlight her athleticism, whether it be the pull-up competition against Andrea Rhodea or swinging across the trellises in the lobby of the Shinra Building.
However, the best display of Tifa's athletic ability comes during the stairwell sequence when Cloud and company need to reach the top of the Shinra Building. Here, players are tasked with climbing 60 flights of stairs. Although the party starts out running up the first several flights, Cloud and Barret quickly slow to a walking pace while Tifa continues her sprint to the top, only being slightly winded after reaching her destination.
2 Better: A Strong Bond Is Formed Between Tifa And Aerith
Tifa and Aerith form one of the most surprising and profound friendships in Remake. They immediately hit it off as friends when they began mounting their rescue of Cloud in Corneo's Mansion and continue to organically build their rapport during the party's stroll in the Sewer 6 Sewers. This leads to Tifa's decision to entrust Marlene's safety to Aerith during the Sector 7 crisis.
The climax of their friendship in Remake comes after the party rescues Aerith from Hojo's clutches. Aerith is suddenly ensnared by Whispers, explaining to the party that she is trapped in a maze with no way out. As the Whispers close in, Tifa leaps into the whorl to protect Aerith, saying that they'll find a way out together.
1 Worse: Tifa's Presence In Midgar Doesn't Contribute To The Main Narrative
Because of the episodic nature of Remake, much of the original game remains unexplored by the time the credits roll. Likewise, much of the critical development for characters like Tifa and Cloud that are central to the game's main narrative remains unresolved as well.
Consequently, Remake feels like it has little or no narrative purpose for Tifa during the events of Midgar. Tifa certainly remains pertinent and relevant in certain character interactions, but it ultimately feels like she has of "lesser" a stage presence when compared to her protagonist counterparts.
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